It’s the calls of “good eye”, “good swing buddy” interspersed with
shouts of “Tag him; TAG HIM”. It’s scents of newly mown grass that
suddenly steal up your nose as you set your canvas chair down. It’s
the sight of the little players carefully hanging their bags up like
seasoned professionals. It’s when you have to do laundry every night
as the uniform is needed every other day. Welcome to little league
baseball season.
Even before you say “But Quidditch wasn’t even remotely inspired by
baseball,” let me hasten to explain.
For the last three summers we have been regularly taking the little
tyke to baseball practice and the house league games. Therein we came
across “Malfoy” a name I assign to a arrogant parent. Cold and aloof
he seems barely acknowledges any of the other parents and yes he seems
to be sufficiently rich too! And he does have whitish blond hair and
the kid is a kind of a bully. Now you know where the Weasely comes
from – a nice set of warm and friendly parents except they don’t have
red hair.
When we first came to this country we were absolutely clueless about
baseball. We thought we would be able get the game since we come from
a cricket crazy country – but that didn’t quite pan out! In fact when
I took the tyke to a game at the stadium – he was most excitedly
watching what I term “non-action” below – while I happily had a good
snooze - that I was suddenly snapped out of when someone hit a
home-run and the stadium erupted into wild cheers. I suspect I must
have given some die-hard baseball fans quite a complex that afternoon!
The tyke of course can reel off all the rules in his sleep. He went to
a game last weekend in a picturesque little town surrounded by
beautiful farmland. We had delicious home-made ice-cream from one of
the shops on the quaint street and the next day while waiting for the
game to start, spent the morning keeping warm and cozy in a little
coffee shop as the inclement weather outside was, brrrrrishly cold
and inhospitable. Tyke’s team won the tournament in a set of
well-played matches as all teams were equally good.
Tonight will be a flood-lit match and Tyke’s casting anxious glances
at the grey sky praying there’ll be no lightening! (For the
uninitiated coz of the metal bats and the metal protective fences
around the baseball pitch – no-one plays baseball in a thunderstorm
except of course the infamous Vampires from Twilight!)
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