One of My Life's Little Pleasures as a Dad...

Baseball season is starting and I bought new gloves for my boys and I to break in this year. I forgot the feel of a new glove, the smell of glove oil, and the joy of breaking it in and hearing the ball hitting the pocket. Although I have two gloves I love from my younger days (old Rawlings Heart of the Hide inf. gloves) that I still love, the new glove is fun.

The real pleasure is throwing the ball and playing catch in the backyard with them. Pop ups, grounders. The quiet banter with the sun out. I swear I used to dream about doing just that with my imaginary boys even when I was in my 20s and single. Weird.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

Good for you qt. No doubt your boys will always remember and cherish that time with you as I'm sure you will with them.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

May you always keep this joy, and may you never send them to a batting-stance coach who browbeats them when they are 9 years old and dare to take an unbalanced swing.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

One of my few regrets in life is losing my childhood mitt. I first learned on my dad's mitt, then got a new one and lost it about five years later. The one I replaced it with is now about 12-15 years old and it's not my favorite, but I'm not willing to start all over again.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

Seeing only the thread title, I thought Poin was branching out

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

Son, let's have a catch.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

My little one is too small to understand yet what baseball is. But I bought him a couple of balls at Target one day this winter, and I swear the last couple days he's been picking them up and shot putting them around the house, right on cue. There's this look on his face like, "I know this ball is different than my other ones. I know this one is special."

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

Awesome. Have fun when you start throwing it around with him.

Kids are funny. There was a time when I thought my oldest was not going to enjoy baseball (he was about 4-6). Now 11, its his favorite sport and its the only one where I do not have to prod him into playing.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

From another vantage point:

Polished the plate shoes this past weekend nice and shiny. First tournament is this weekend. Can't wait to get behind the plate.

There I just something about baseball. I was never any good at it. But I'm a pretty darn good umpire. And it's going to be in the 70s this weekend. Glorious.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

Good luck in the opening season tournament!

I teach at an Umpire Camp this weekend and then my season starts the following weekend. In southern Illinois. On Turf. Please be above 40!
I don't have a weekend off until after Mother's Day. And I can't wait.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

My little man turns 1 this weekend, and I absolutely cannot wait until I can do this with him.

 

Re: One Dad's Little Pleasure...

I thought the same. Might not be a bad idea to change title to remove connotation.