BASEBALL TIME

 I’m back in the baseball watching business again. Yes, just a few weeks ago I said that I was stepping away from sports for a while. However, that was before UT’s team began its season and put on several exciting exhibitions of grit, determination, and talent. Things also have changed since my brother’s grandson Caden Rector began his senior season at Bearden.  

I have to admit that something inside of me changes when baseball starts each year. Maybe the return of warm weather makes being outside at the ballpark exciting. I do know that the abilities of individual players to throw a baseball at 90-plus miles per hour seem almost superhuman. Even more unbelievable is that players use a slender piece of wood, see with Superman eyes, and smack that streaking objects 400-plus feet. Defensive players can move with grace and agility to stop ground balls or snatch them from the air.  

For the past couple of years, it’s been fun to watch Tennessee play ball. As much as anything, each year’s team makes significant improvements, and that gives hope to Vol fans that before long they will be able to book tickets to the SEC tournament and possibly see the orange and white in regional games.  

I love to watch Caden play ball. For one thing, he reminds me of his dad when he was playing. Both love the game and have inherited skills from their mother’s/grandmother’s side of the family to be good ball players. I remember Caden being unsteady on his feet as a toddler, but he swung a plastic bat at balls his dad or Papaw threw. He fell into deep concentration as he swung, but a smile streamed across his face when he made contact with that ball.  

I plan to watch more games this year during Caden’s senior season simply because he will be the last male in our family who is playing ball. He’s not my immediate family, but just the same, any ball game is better when there is a connection with one of the players. My hope is that Caden has a fantastic year, one that he can remember for the rest of his life. That would be a good way to end his high school years.