Right Field

From "Right Field" by Peter Paul and Mary
(Italicized comments are mine. All mine.)



Off in the distance, the game's dragging on,
Because in this league, the pitcher just keeps on going until the batter manages to hit the ball.

There's strikes on the batter, some runners are on,
No strikes allowed in this league, but yes, runner's have managed to get on base.

I don't know the inning, I've forgotten the score.
Third inning. There are only three. No score-keeping. But . . . we are crushing them.

The whole team is yelling and I don't know what for,
Harper is too busy playing "Opposite Day" with Lucy and telling her that she smells, which isn't true, but rather the opposite of the truth, as it is Opposite Day. Get it? So she can't even hear the yelling from the stands.

Suddenly everyone's looking at me,
Yep.

My mind has been wandering, what could it be?
Well, considering that Harper's focus med's wore off about 2 hours ago, it's no wonder that she's out there dancing and groovin' in right field.

They point to the sky and I look up above,
In this case, we point to the ground, and she squats down.

And the baseball falls into my glove!
Harper shuffles a bit to land the ball in her glove!

And there you have it. The one, true, error-free play of the Orange Tiger's season. Made by Harper.

And while it wasn't a pop fly to Right Field, it did indeed make a course straight for Harper, and she responded by fielding it with ease. Crouched low, she caught the grounder, and then hurled it to First. Batter was out at First.

The crowd went wild.

Basically, because up until yesterday, we'd yet to see a "play" of any kind.

This was quite a different game than Harper's last when upon missing a few catches at Third Base she stormed off the field refusing to return.

After a long talk about sportsmanship, teamwork, and not abandoning one's teammates, we told Harper that she was not allowed to just pick and choose which portions of the game she would play, and thus, if she abandoned her team again in a fit of frustration, she would sit out the batting order.

Or, she could play the entire game and we would celebrate with Steak and Shake.

Guess which choice won.

And may I also add, that upon getting out a First, (deja vu from two games ago when Harper was tagged out 3 times in a row due to batting line drives directly to First Base . . . and consequently losing it after each one), Harper left the field without incident, glancing over at us to make sure we were watching her cool as a cucumber reaction as she returned the dugout.

Awesome game.

Awesome growth.

Awesome girl.