All Ballplayers are Storytellers

It's amazing the effect that baseball has on the boys' imagination. I wonder if this has anything to do with the mythic history of the sport. I imagine it's easier to come up with magical, storybook-type situations for baseball than in football or basketball. Each play has the potential to make any number of players a hero.

"Broken-bat home run in the sky!" Ben just called out as I'm typing this. Amazing. They're constantly telling me to "Watch this!" or, "Did you see that?" They'll even go to the point of reenacting the play for me in slow motion, as seen on the Jumbotron. Usually the play involves them catching a ball as they are dramatically falling, or a ball they just creamed out of the stands.

Sometimes I worry that playing like this constantly will have a negative effect on them when they get out on the field for an actual game. As though they need to fall every time they go to catch a ball because it's just that much more exciting. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a problem with major league players such as Jim Edmonds. He drives me nuts. Every single play he has to do something to make the play seem that much more difficult, making him out to be the hero, rather than just doing his job. I do not want my boys to be a Jim Edmonds. OK, I'll get off my soap box.

Overall, I think it's good. They see themselves in the game. They hit the ball to score a run. They snag a ball that was going over the wall, denying the batter a homerun. They are making up stories and that shows that even if they don't look all that much like me, they do have a few of my genes. Baseball and books, two of my loves :)