Get the picture? … by Sherry Hopkins

I have two very important men in my life and they both did something extraordinary this past week. I am always proud of my son and my husband, but last Thursday evening I was exceptionally so.

We were at the ball field where my son is coaching his first Little League team. We have had boys involved in Little League since 1998. The game has changed a great deal from the 1960s when I knew boys who played. It has become very serious and at times very stressful. The desire to win at all costs has trumped anybody — and especially the young, impressionable boys — from having a good time.

So enter my son the Coach. While he was pondering taking this volunteer position he kept repeating that he just wanted the kids to have fun and maybe learn a little about baseball and team sports along the way. I laughed in my jaded way and reminded him that it was a great concept but in reality the parents and the kids just want to win.

Thursday night’s game was the first of the season. The teams took the field and the game began. No matter what happened or how the players played, whether they scored or committed an error, my son the Coach shouted warm words of encouragement to each and every boy. At one point when the opposing team’s catcher made a great play and got our player out, my son the Coach yelled to the boy, “ Great play, catcher. Good job.” The startled little boy stood frozen for a moment. I suppose he didn’t recognize the deep voice praising him from the opposing dugout. Before he placed his mask back on and with a shy smile he nodded his acknowledgement to my son the Coach.

Each time a child was at bat or on base or covering his position he heard those same uplifting words. And even though we lost that night the smiles and confidence were contagious. It suddenly didn’t seem to matter about the score. It didn’t matter that Johnny didn’t quite make it to first base or that Billy didn’t catch that fly. They had been lifted up higher than the fly balls they had just missed. They were soaring on the wings of reassurance from a father and a Coach who only wanted to have fun.

There is a lesson to be learned here and it’s not about winning. It’s about caring, teaching, loving and supporting one another. It is not, my friends, whether you win or lose but it is how you play the game. My son the Coach made me so proud, and he did much more than that for his team of players.

The whole time the game was underway there was another story happening before my eyes.

My son’s Dad, my ex-husband, was also at the game. He was there to see his grandson play as well.

Seating space right at the fence is limited so you have to be crafty to get a good spot. As we pushed in for our place Dear Don wound up sitting next to my ex-husband.

For a solid two hours they carried on a lively conversation that took them from the sport of boxing, which they both love, to trips around the world my ex husband has taken for business. They both seemed so engrossed in their discourse that I would interrupt from time to time to let them know what was going on in the field. They would shush me, assure me that they knew exactly what was going on and then return to the matters at hand. It is a testament to two men who might otherwise have been at odds with one another that they were not.  

It is such a beautiful thing when adults behave with civility and courtesy and children are allowed to be children.

If what I witnessed Thursday night is any indication of how the rest of the season will be, I say, “Play Ball”.

You get the picture.
(Contact award-winning columnist Sherry Hopkins at swhcsc@wildblue.net.)