Angels at LaGrave Field...

It was a baseball-filled weekend here, that's for sure. THEBOY and I hit a "park" (aka a big field at the edge of our neighborhood) to fly his kite and hit a few balls around this morning. Before noon the temperature was below 80 and it was windy, so I thought we should take advantage of that.

Since we had room to spare I brought real balls and bats. He's got a promotional bat he got at a Rangers game. He struggled to swing it, but he did connect with a few pitches.

Trying to fly his kite was pretty fun too. You think you're in a huge, worry-free place until you launch the kite and see power lines and trees looming. We stayed away from those, somehow.

The first time the kite went up a hawk swooped down from the trees for a closer look. That was impressive.

As we left THEBOY fell in the grass and landed on something that left tiny stickers/splinters in his knee and hand. I felt bad for the guy. I did my best to pluck them out but only got so far before he decided he rather not have me messing with them.

***

After lunch I decided that boy needs to step up baseball-gear-wise. We hit a store and found a nice little aluminum t-ball bat for a good price, and a glove and batting gloves. We then went to a backstop at a local elementary school. A couple of older kids were hanging around and volunteered their services as catcher and outfielder.

On the second pitch THEBOY smacked a worm-burner just inside where the third baseline would have been. Dang that kid can hit.

Playing catch didn't work out as well, but his new glove is stiff. I'll work on it and see if I can make it flexible enough to be useful soon.

***

After we came home I had a moment of panic--my wedding ring was gone. I knew I'd been wearing it, and I realized that taking my own baseball glove off must have pulled it off my finger back at the school. Damn.

But after 10 anxious minutes of poking around in the dirt I found it.

***

The most amazing baseball event from the weekend, though, occurred Friday night. I took THEBOY and his friend Sterling to see the Ft. Worth cats. Sterling's mother, Heather, lost her father last week, and I was glad to pitch in and give her and Nick an evening sans kid. She's certainly been there for us on many occasions.

LaGrave Field isn't exactly a stunning architectural achievement, but the prices are good, the field is in good shape, and that's a pretty hot little team playing over there.

We sat directly behind the home dugout, which proved to the be a problem, as both the boys were too short to actually see OVER it.

Turns out we were seated near a rowdy group of regulars who handed out noisemakers and made friends of newcomers. They ushered us up a row and we could all see just fine. We were in primo foul ball territory, though, so I had to keep an eye on every pitch, which is tough to do with two four-year-olds in tow.

We had some ballpark food, walked around, found a bounce house for the boys to blow off some steam and generally had a fine, casual time. As is tradition at minor league games, fans pitch in a dollar for a player who hits a home run. I happened to have a lot of singles on me, and you know, the score was 15-2; the Cats just about dollared me out.

***

Heather text messaged me to ask how it was going, and I tried to zip through a quick response.

And that's when it happened.

I didn't hear the crack of the bat, but I heard everyone yelling, "Heads up!" I looked up and saw the ball coming down at tremendous speed. I was turned around the wrong way and twisted back to try and get an arm extended. No dice.

Sitting next to me was Sterling, and THEBOY was one seat over. The ball missed Sterling by about two feet, and missed THEBOY'S head by about 10 inches.

It landed in his drink holder.

That is, it went straight into it, busted out the bottom and stopped harmlessly on the ground, where THEBOY'S neighbor, one of the rowdies, picked it up and handed it to Sterling.

***

It scared me to death, let me tell ya.

***

The rest of the game I watched every pitch like a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Couple other foul balls brought me out of my seat, but none landed very close to us after that.

***

It still rattles me to think about it.

***

THEBOY borrowed Caleb's light saber. He was showing us his fighting moves this morning, and each time he swung it he'd bark, "HOO YA!"

It was really cracking us up.

THEBOY asked me, "Do you think it's funny when I say 'hoo ya,' Dad?"

I told him I did, and he said, very seriously, "Well the bad guys don't."

Ha!

***

Well, back to work tomorrow. Ya'll have a good week.