He Told Me Not To

A coach once told me that if a doctor ever tells you that you have only 3 hours left to live you should go to a mosquito (little league) baseball game. It’ll be the longest three hours of your life.

We were losing the whole game. We were always close, but always losing. After the 5th inning we were down 16-15. The 6th inning would be our last chance. The sun was on the horizon and once it dipped below it would get dark fast. I knew there was a chance we wouldn’t be able to finish. You can imagine my dismay when I saw their pitcher warming up. He was throwing with heat. Gordon Ramsey in Hell’s Kitchen kind of heat. Fastballs that I feared my mosquitoes wouldn’t be able to hit and we would be 3 up, 3 down and game over.

You can imagine my surprise when he loaded the bases with walks.

You can imagine my surprise again when we had suddenly scored 5 runs and found ourselves up by 4. I was watching the darkness creep up on us and knew we had to get the 6th inning over if were to win. You see, if a game is called on account of darkness the score reverts back to last inning that was finished. We were losing in that inning. We had 1 out against us and I quietly told my next batter to strike out so we could get this inning over. Unfortunately, she was hit. A bean ball that scored us a 6th run and put us up by 5. I told my next batter the same thing. He struck out, though not on purpose. 

2 outs and the sun was below the horizon now. We were playing on borrowed time. Twilight time. We had to end the inning pronto. I quietly approached my next batter and explained it to him.

Me: This is going to make no sense right now, but in order for us to win this game I need you to strike out.
Batter: So you want me to swing at everything?
Me: Yes

And he did too. One pitch sailed over his head. He swung, not even attempting to hit the ball. Our coach down at 1st base hollered to him to not swing at pitches over his head. I laughed because coach wasn’t in on our plan. He swung and missed the second pitch, too. He swung at the 3 pitch and connected solid with it. The ball sails like a runaway kite in hurricane out into right field. The batter stands on home plate simply watching it as if he were watching a ball game instead of participating in it.

The first base coach is yelling, “RUN! YOU HIT THE BALL! RUN!”

The batter is standing on homeplate pointing toward me at third and hollering back, “HE TOLD ME NOT TO!”

The right fielder throws the ball to first and the batter is called out. 3 outs. Change sides.

Bottom of the 6th now, we’re up by 5. I’ve got a pitcher throwing who usually throws zero run innings. It’s nearing 8:30 and it would be hard for me to argue to keep playing should the other team decide it’s too dark. I’m no lawyer. I probably couldn’t argue my way out of a wet paper bag. The other team does score one run. But we also make three outs to end the game with a win.

We won because of an almost strike out, because a hitter slugged the ball but stood still,  and because a team made it happen when it counted most.

Now swing on over to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and follow me round the bases…

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Eco Kids

It all starts with you.

Or me.

Or our kids.

Or someone else starts it.

At some point someone will get tired of seeing litter and will decide to do something about it. Someone mentioned that a group should get together to clean up an area. Some else asked, “Why does it have to be a group? Why not just take a garbage bag with you when you take your dog for walk? Why not take a bag with you when you go to the park? Why not?”

It’s the little things that matter the most.

Every spring our town calls for a band of volunteers to help clean up our town. Volunteers register and either pick or get assigned a small area to clean up. Naturally, some areas are worse than others. It just depends on where the winds blow and what’s around to catch the garbage; fences, tall grasses, bushes, buildings, etc… We picked the area in front of the bar/Chinese restaurant.

DW likes Chinese food. The bar is for a significantly younger crowd.

It’s a pretty set up they have. Volunteers spend a couple hours on a Saturday morning picking up garbage and beautifying the town we live in. The town provides gloves, garbage bags and garbage bag pick up. Actually, it was a local car dealership who offered to pick up the full garbage bags. The town also provided t-shirts, BBQ hotdogs, apples, bananas and Timbits afterward.

This event had been planned for weeks so, of course, it rained. It poured. Cats and dogs kind of rain. The kind of rain Fort Mac so desperately needs but isn’t getting. We survived an hour of the rains and made significant headway in our clean up when the kids were done and approaching melt down. It was a bit chilly being so wet. We tried not to get too mad at them, even though there was still more garbage. We cut our loses, decided we had cleaned enough in the rain and the rest would wait for better weather.

Before

After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So perhaps the next time you go for a walk, perhaps with your dog or perhaps your cat or even your lobster if you live in Atlantic Canada, you could take a bag, big or small, with you to pick any litter you might find along the way. Imagine if we all…

If only there was a way to stop it at its source…

This is exactly what we were finding. Sad.