Baseball is definitely my favorite sport. I love football and I like basketball a lot, especially if my kids are playing. My Dad coached basketball and I played and all my kids have played. However, I LOVE baseball. I keep a scorebook for each of my boys mainly because it keeps me calm and focused. I tend to be highly emotional at games and that helps me keep my head which is the problem with basketball, it is so fast paced that my emotions at times run ahead of my brain and that's never a good thing. The last thing I want to do is lose my witness at a sporting event.
I've always thought of baseball as a classy sport. I like the short hair (so obviously Manny Ramirez isn't my fave player but for reasons other than his hair). I like the discipline it takes to play. I like the focus it requires. I like that it's a team sport and teaches that you have to work together to accomplish your goal and trust your teammates (although I do know that some have the attitude that it's all about them...the diva mentality). I appreciate walking with confidence but there is such a thing as confident humility and we don't allow strutting around our house.
We have been blessed that our boys have had great coaches who at least seem to care about life issues and them being good people as well as being great ballplayers. They have been coached well in every area of the game: fundamentals, how to carry yourself on and off the field, the itty bitty details of their position to make them better. I like that they are not allowed to give less than their best or make excuses or blame others. I like that the bar is set high!! My boys are as competitive as they come. It's in their blood, we love to win and hate to lose, so we battle with perspective at times and reminding ourselves that it is a game, a great game, but a game.
So what's the ugly? The ugly usually comes in the form of the way others behave. It seems like this year I've noticed it a lot more than years past, who knows why. We have played some teams that have made me EXTREMELY grateful that my boys play for who they play for. There's so many teams with such a lack of discipline and respect for the sport or themselves. They show up their teammates. The language is horrible on the field from players and coaches. Things start going bad and it's written all over them. And the parents??? Parents call out kids other than their own. They yell horrible things at kids on other teams. They cuss and rant and rave like we're in the World Series and their life rests on that game. THEN, unbelievable, they go home and get on line and start writing back and forth calling out kids, hello KIDS, about their errors and who's better than whom. Yeah everybody thinks their kid is the superstar. THESE ARE ADULTS, at least in numerical terms. I sit there and think this must be all they are living for. No, our team parents, players, and coaches aren't perfect. We yell at times and we all HATE to lose. We have the talent this year to be state champs and noone wants that more than the Leopard household BUT if we don't accomplish that, life will go on.
I have learned that we can learn just as much from ugly stuff as good stuff and we've learned a lot watching and reading some others this year. I've learned I don't want to act like a raging lunatic no matter what happens and I know my family will escort me out if I do. I've learned that I'm glad my boys are my boys and not some other boys. I'm glad we have the coaches that we have who have not only knowledge but class. And I'm glad that even though my husband may throw his hat, I don't have to worry about what comes out of his mouth. I also know and my boys know that if they act like some, they will be taken out of the game for good and I won't be waiting for the coach to do that.
Baseball, gotta love it at least most of it and I DO!!
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