You may think I am exaggerating (like I would ever do such a thing!) and maybe it was because it was MY girl who was playing but I think I was more nervous last night than I was when we were at Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.
As I said yesterday it was all or nothing last night. It came down to the bottom of the last inning with our girls having last bats. It was 9 - 8, we were down. We were at the very bottom of our line-up. 1st (#7) batter gets to 1st, 2nd (*8) batter hits a pop fly and is out. 1st batter manages to steal her way to 3rd. (Stealing is extremely easy in our league). Batter #9 comes up. God Bless her but she is built like a Weeble and is not mentally all there. You could have heard a pin drop where we were standing. We just hoped that she didn’t swing her bat and would get walked. Indeed! 4 balls and off she trotted to 1st. Back to the top of the line-up, Batter #1 comes up, NAILS the ball to outfield, batter on 3 rd comes home WE ARE TIED! Right then time seemed to stop and resume in slow motion. Remember in Forrest Gump when Jenny and Forrest are walking after getting off the bus and the boys on the bikes start chasing him and Jenny starts yelling “RUN FORREST RUN”, it was JUST.LIKE.THAT! The parents were screaming and yelling and jumping up and down. RUN A RUN! The girl who no one wanted on their team, the girl, who in all honesty should not be playing the level she is SCORED THE WINNING RUN! Sadly, she had no idea what she had done. Not only did she have no idea, her parents were no where around to see what she had accomplished. I went over to the dugout and A was coming out. I offered her all the praise in the world and she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me like she had never been hugged before. It took my breath away and then and there I realized that it wasn’t the winning the game that mattered. What mattered was that she for the first time in a very long time was important and she was the girl that someone wanted.
* A great big shout out to my bloggy BFF Vixen for fixing my 2nd attempt at the team photo. I am at work so can’t post it from here but take my word for it - C.U.T.E. Thanks Vix!
1 Comment
July 3, 2008 at 5:30 pm
That is an amazing story. Good for you for hugging her and I bet the entire thing is a serious highlight in her life.
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