Little League Families

Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted!

I am sorry; now that my son is playing Junior Baseball of Oregon (high school rules) with other 13-14 year olds, I haven't been around the LL field as much as I would like. But summer-time brings barbeques and barbeques bring LL families, no matter where everyone has scattered off to...

Just finished another backyard dinner party with former teammates. What a treat to have these boys and their families still in our lives. The best by-product of the driving to practices and games, lugging equipment in the car for five months, and the sitting through rain/heat is the bonds that develop. And, quite often, these families become friends during the off-season as well.

I recently read "Hi, I'm Tommy's Mom -- A Sweet Simple Book about Life and Little League Baseball" by Ohio teacher and author Rae Showen. I was thinking about this as we finished up our barbeque/card game tonight and that the seed for this friendship was planted on a Little League field in suburban Portland, Oregon, and began by the uttering of a few simple words: "Hi, I'm Jack's mom." The little book is a collection of short entries ordered 1st-9th Innings (wait, LL games only last 6 innings ;) and sweet sentiments about the kids playing baseball.

All over the world, kids are playing basketball, soccer and football together, so what makes LL so special?

Dunno...what do you think?

As Tournament Team season begins, I hope you'll remember that the families sitting on the other baseline could have been lifelong friends had it not been for geography. It is very likely they love LL as much as you and love their kids even more, and you might have been teammates, hanging out together in the rain/heat, driving back and forth to practices and games, and possibly barbequing and playing cards together on Saturday nights.

Good luck to you all, and I will be keeping everyone posted as Little League tournaments play out all over the world!