I LOVE River Park Youth Baseball's Opening Day! It's such an overly sweet bite of Americana, you can't help but take another bite. I love seeing all the teams in their brand new uniforms piled into trucks, trailers and even limos (don't get me started on that). Each kid has a huge bag of candy to throw to (and sometimes at) the spectators along the parade route. Each face in the parade is a smiling beam of sunshine. Unless, of course, you were pelted with a lollipop. Then you may think otherwise about that smiling face. I always wonder how many blocks they make it before they run out of candy, because they inevitably come back they way went. Only this time they are holding out their hats asking the crowd to throw candy to them.
Once the trucks, trailers and limos are parked, the teams come pouring onto Ciavarella Field for the opening ceremonies: hats off for the national anthem, teams are introduced, thanks are made to the MANY volunteers, special guests are introduced and finally the first pitch is thrown to officially open the season. While all of this is going on, you look around and see this beautiful, well maintained field covered in a rainbow of jerseys and mostly crisp white pants. 350 or so kids who just want to play baseball. Tiny t-ballers all the way up to the majors. It really is an amazing sight. I don't know what it is about the whole experience that makes me feel so nostalgic. There just seems to be something special about this sport and the people in our neighborhood who support it.
No comments:
Post a Comment