Saturday was one of those days in the Chicago Park District. The wind was gusting, the sand was blowing… it was the dust bowl out there. I remember those days fondly.
Growing up playing all my baseball at Harrison Park, there were many days when the dust was a blowing. This wasn’t Wrigley we were playing at. These fields weren’t watered down. If there was any sort of dry spell in the summer, and if on that day it was abnormally windy, you better be ready. Be ready for a mouthful of dust. Be ready for dirt in your shoes, discolored socks, and pretty much having to shake out your whole uniform before heading back inside after the game. It was unavoidable. I didn’t mind it back then; I didn’t mind it on Saturday either.
It did make it tough on these 4-6 year olds. They have hard enough time focusing out in the field as it is without throwing in the fact that they were constantly turning their heads to avoid the sand storm. They were troopers though. I think they actually love getting dirty.
My son was covered with dust from head to toe, and honestly, he was worse the night before after practice. I guess that’s what rolling around in the dirt will get you. On Saturday, I saw the best yet. I had to chuckle before I yelled out to one of our kids to get off the ground. He was just laying down in the dirt… full body, laying on his stomach, right between 1st and 2nd base; it was classic. Or maybe it was the kid doing sand angels. You know, like snow angels in the snow, yeah, he was doing sand angels in the sand. Or how about the kid that built a mountain of sand where he was playing catch during practice on Friday; I almost tripped over it. I love these kids.
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Maybe it’s remembering part of my youth that I loved so much. All those summers where I spent the majority of my time in the park playing baseball without a care in the world. I just wanted to hit a few more… catch a few more grounders… I wanted to stay in the park until I couldn’t see the ball any more. That’s the type of stuff I want to instill in these kids; I don’t think it will be that hard. I think that’s just part of being a kid.
Back to the game… and yeah, we weren’t officially keeping score, but I went back to my scoring system. We actually got a bunch of outs on defense in this one; I’d have to say about 5-6 outs. They got a few on us too… maybe 3. So in my book, that equals another win. I have to tell the kids something when they ask me. Maybe we’ll start doing something more official as the league rolls on. Maybe it really doesn’t matter at this point.
Until then, I’m looking forward to the next Dust Bowl. I’m looking forward to getting covered with sand again; looking forward to that sand sandwich. Looking forward to seeing the kids love it, and remembering when I was that kid. I’m only two weeks in, and I’m already loving this coaching stuff. I guess it’s easy when having fun is the number one objective.
MK
I do not miss the dust bowls and am not looking forward to them in the future. Since I have been wearing contacts since 4th grade, getting dust or dirt blown in your eyes while trying to play baseball was never a good thing. I never minded getting dirty, diving, or sliding, but just stay out of my eyes, please.
Congrats on the week 2 W! Pretty soon, double digit outs…hahaha!