TribeFlyer:
Our Little League Opening Day went very well.
In December, a 30+ year volunteer passed away. Al had been President for 10 years. Two years after he retired, I took the office. Anyhow, he lived about a block from the Little League field, so he stopped by a lot and we talked a lot of baseball.
Our Little League field is across the street from a cemetary, behind the backstop. It turns out his family purchased a plot on the closest corner to the ballfield. For Opening Day, his children erected a white cross by the gravestone, and no matter where you stood on the field, you could see it clear as day. There were a lot of moist eyes at the moment of silence, mine included.
On a happier note, we had some terrific ballgames. Opening Day is generally notorious for lots of walks and errors. Instead, we had 4 (of 8) games decided by 1 run, with some scores LOWER than major league baseball (2-1, 2-1, 4-3).
Of course, what would an Opening Day without the first "unbelievable parent story" of the year?
A dad was sitting on the bleachers and wanted to smoke. Apparently he climbed down, walked half-way down the 3rd base foul line and lit up.
A mom (sitting on the bleachers) comes over and demands to know why we permit smoking at the fields?
"Is he on the bleachers?"
"No, he's over there". He was easy to spot, he was the only person within a 30 foot radius.
"Is the smoke bothering you?"
"No. But he shouldn't be smoking."
"I agree he SHOULDN'T be smoking, but he's outside and there is no one within 30 feet of him."
"That's not the point. He shouldn't be smoking near the kids!"
"But the kids at 50 feet away from him."
"That's not the point. They can SEE him."
Now I'm not a smoker, and frankly the smokers who light up in enclosed spaces are sometimes irritating, but when when they can't even smoke outdoors, you've crossed the line between public health issue and witch-hunt.
Following his smoke, dad returned to the bleachers, no further incidents.
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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."