Baseball in Arizona- It's Spring Training and the Cactus League is in Full Swing!
As the mother of three young baseball fans, ages 7, 10, and 12, the words "Spring Training" have taken on a whole new meaning for me these past few years. March brings sheer excitement to our home. Each morning two of the boys are out of bed bright and early with wide eyes glued to ESPN catching up on the previous day's Cactus League activity. The youngest is just not a morning person, but his brothers quickly update him when he finally stumbles into the family room with one eye open, still in his jammies 15 minutes before he has to leave for school.
For the life of me, I don't know how the boys can memorize all the names of the players, their statistics, keep up with who's being traded where and for how much money, and be able to rattle off all this info to anyone who happens to be in ear shot. Many times I've been passing through the room, trying not to draw attention to myself, when one of the boys will catch a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye and decide I need a run down of yesterday's game. I try to be a good listener, but to be honest, I didn't know what an RBI was until about 6 months ago, and when it comes to this baseball stuff, I'm a bit of a slow learner. But they do their best to get me up to speed, enunciating slowly and quizzing me occasionally to make sure I'm paying attention. I do my best, but when I draw a blank, I just remind them that I sat right behind Tim Salmon in my college English class. That one always gets me extra credit -but I have to change the subject before they ask me what position he plays or how many homeruns he's hit.
We're planning to take the boys to see the Texas Rangers play the San Diego Padres next week at the Peoria Sports Complex. Our son, Austin is the biggest Sammy Sosa fan ever, and that's what he wants to do for his 10th birthday. He reads every book he can find about Sammy, and even dressed up like him for a report he did at school. So, if you ever need to know anything about Sammy, well, you know who to call!