Childhood baseball stories
John- that is a wonderful story, we need more of that in these sections. Here's mine...
This story is about my son Gabe. I helped coach his rec team when Gabe was 6-8 years old. Gabe was a reluctant player, didn't much care for "all the standing around" on defense. He also wasn't physically powerful, but he practiced and didn't give up.
Late in the season when he was 7, he was batting and hit a solid grounder past the pitcher and over second base. He could run, so he ran down the line and rounded first as the ball went between the center fielder's legs. The 3rd base coach waved him around 2nd frantically as the center fielder ran for the ball, and Gabe reached home on the youth league version of a home run. I had given up the coaching hat by that time and was wildly cheering as he crossed the plate.
As we were driving home later, Gabe innocently asked the coolest question, as he had seen me watch MLB on television. He asked, "Will my home run be on TV, daddy"? I smiled at him and said, "If it was up to me, it would be". That was a GREAT moment.
Trent King
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