Life of Wry

I know, I know.  I’ve written so much about baseball.  I apologize.

The thing is, it’s a big deal in our house.  Since he was 5, Peter’s played Little League.   He started as a T-baller on the Diamond Backs in the Spring of 2004 and in the seven years since–more than half his life–he’s played on 17 teams (counting the District 64 team he’ll play on this summer).

That’s a lot of teams, a lot of coaches, a lot of uniforms.  And a whole lot of baseball games!

It was a steady progression from T-ball (1 year) to Farm (1 year) to AA (1 year) to AAA (2 years) and finally to Majors (3 years).  Some years he also played the Fall Ball season.  In his first year in AAA, he played on the year-end All-star team and every year since has been selected to play on the District 64 team, representing Davis in the regional year-end tournament.

It was the kids on his first District team, the 9-10’s, that went on to form a travel team, Davis Crush, which started in the Summer of 2008 and continues today (in fact, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, they’ll play a tournament in Woodland).  But Crush is a whole nuther story…a great one for another time.

So, yeah… Little League…

It’s not like Little League is completely over.  Not quite.  Peter will likely continue to play next year with Juniors, an extension of Little League–a program that is now in its third season.  But they play on a full sized field: 90′ base paths and a 60′ pitcher’s mound, just like the pros.  His days on the quaint, teeny Davis Little League fields are now, as of tonight at about 10:00pm, over.

He could have opted out this year and focused exclusively on his travel team.  But he was adamant that he be allowed to play his final year in Majors.  After forever playing up, always being the youngest and littlest guy on his team, this was going to be his year to be a top dog, one of the old guys.  He really wanted that opportunity. The season completely met his expectations.  His team didn’t win the City Championship, but he can feel really good about his contribution.  He was their top pitcher and pitched well all season.  When he wasn’t pitching, he  got to play most games at short stop and many games at catcher.  He loved that!  He also hit over .600 (29 hits in 48 at bats) for the season, hitting in all but two games.  He finally got his first home run this season, too, and went on to hit a total of 5.  He was really pleased with all of that.  He may not ever get a season like that again.

So, his last game?  It was against the Padres.  He’d limited out in his previous game and couldn’t pitch, so he played three innings each at catcher and short.  Not much action.  He hit 2 doubles–his team’s only hits–and drove in the Giants’ only run.  They lost 6-1.  And that was that.

I was surprised to see him break down in the car.  He’s not a kid who cries much and he rarely shows his sentimental side.  But he was truly sad that the moment had come and that he’d played his last game here.

As we were leaving, he yelled sort of desperately for Jim to stop the car so he could go hit “one more ball” on the field, but that wasn’t going to work because they were shutting things down.   It turned into an emotional, quiet ride home.

But, heck, it’s not like baseball is over.  He’ll continue to play on Crush until 9th grade baseball starts, and then, provided he’s still got the talent and interest, he’ll play through high school.  Big boy baseball, the real deal.

So.. there’s a ton more baseball to be played… just not within the sweet, nurturing community at F Street and Covell.  And no question, we are as sad about that as he is.

Sniff.