Maybe it is the hope we will never get old or die. But for some reason parents go into this regression back to when they were twelve. It happens when their kids play sports. Suddenly the cares of the day which centered around making a buck take a back seat to winning a game nobody cared about before. Suddenly a baseball game played by twelve year olds in some dusty field in the middle of nowhere has the import of a life or death struggle for the parents.
And then parents go back to being twelve. They scream. They yell. They argue. The son or daughter now has an advocate they never wanted. They will see imaginary sleights and grand conspiracies directed against their progeny. They see scholarships and pro careers in the offing as a travel league uniform and a self important coach are the signal flares that something beyond league ball beckons and this moment could be the bellwether between obscurity and fame.
I kid you not. Listen to any parent who has a son who is about ten years old and have demonstrated some talent. There is no longer any humor in their voice as they discuss the league choices and the coaches who "want" their son. It is hilarious when you are on the other side because you have been there. You rode the train of this could really lead to something right up to the day high school ball implodes and your son says he doesn't want to play anymore.
And the parent sports end right there. No longer. No more games. All that sublimated rage goes back to the gym or overeating or the good old standby of drinking like a fish. And the worst thing is the parents realize they are no longer twelve. They are old and their sports progeny is now in college and they wonder distantly what all that was about.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
And then parents go back to being twelve. They scream. They yell. They argue. The son or daughter now has an advocate they never wanted. They will see imaginary sleights and grand conspiracies directed against their progeny. They see scholarships and pro careers in the offing as a travel league uniform and a self important coach are the signal flares that something beyond league ball beckons and this moment could be the bellwether between obscurity and fame.
I kid you not. Listen to any parent who has a son who is about ten years old and have demonstrated some talent. There is no longer any humor in their voice as they discuss the league choices and the coaches who "want" their son. It is hilarious when you are on the other side because you have been there. You rode the train of this could really lead to something right up to the day high school ball implodes and your son says he doesn't want to play anymore.
And the parent sports end right there. No longer. No more games. All that sublimated rage goes back to the gym or overeating or the good old standby of drinking like a fish. And the worst thing is the parents realize they are no longer twelve. They are old and their sports progeny is now in college and they wonder distantly what all that was about.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
