sweet spot

After determined muscle limbering of their legs, torsos and arms, they take their place to begin the warm up together. Just a game of tossing the ball.  The pitcher, approaches the mound, settles his feet into the comfort of his stance, and waits to wind up.  Not with heat.  Not yet.  It begins with a slow melodic tossing to his partner as they find their groove.

The catcher squats down into her position, her right hand inside the supple worn leather glove.  Balanced in the comfort of her body, she lifts her arm straight out to prepare for receiving the pitch. The warm up begins.  Back and forth in a rhythm they have created together.... he pitches, she receives and tosses the ball back to the mound.

throwing and catching

throwing and catching

rhythmic resonance

back and forth

warming up

sometimes in silence

sometimes words of encouragement enlighten

back and forth

throwing and catching.....

sometimes

touching upon the sweet spot of the glove....

every now and then....

until it becomes more frequent

rhythm found within a sense of knowing

their complementary movement.

Again and again, it flows as they communicate with body language... signals, words, advice, compliments.....  Away from the rest, they pick up the speed.  He begins to practise various pitches.  Change up, Slider, Forkball, Knuckleball, are interspersed with his signature Fastball. Sweet spot.

The push and pull of power between the pitcher and the catcher continues until they relent a little. Both have strengths to use in the role they play.  An appreciation of each other's gifts moves the partnership into a different zone.  They know that in order to reach that zone.... where the fluidity of their efforts reach mastery,  they must use their physical and emotional gifts.  Caring focus.  Trust in one another.  It happens when care meshes with effort, when confidence meets up with vulnerability.

throwing and catching

throwing and catching....

care meshing with effort....

trust in one another....

complementing oneness

Confidence in their own skin,  in what they bring to the partnership is crucial. Respect and appreciation for the other's gifts is key in order to reach a place of equality. Taking turns leading while encouraging the other to reveal their best allows for the confidence to push the effort beyond any sense of work into a forum of limbered play.  It's the revealing that leads to stripped down vulnerability, when they show each other the raw rough edges of themselves.... It's never perfect.  If it was perfect, there would be nothing to strive for... nothing to motivate, explore, work/play towards.  

What it is, this game of tossing the ball is a deepening of a partnership with the same goal in mind.  To touch upon the sweet spot with heat.  At the right moment.

Out beyond the bubble of timelessness they have formed, a voice calls out............ Play ball!

It makes every male feel small.....

I don't know what it says about Canadians, but our greatest landmark just happens to be one major phallic symbol. Yes, we are not ones to hide our national family jewels. Standing tall and er, er erect, the CN tower looms largely dominant on the horizon of Hogtown, aka Toronto the good. In fact, wherever you go in the city all you have to do is look UP and there it is, uncovered and kind of boasty.

The above shot I took on the ferry heading to Toronto Island last summer.....To the left of it, the white humpy thing? That's the home of the mighty Toronto Blue Jays......the Skydome. Silly name really given that it looks shrimpy beside the mighty warrior. In actuality, it is quite a large stadium, holding 60,000 people or so (I'm guessing because it rarely sells out these days.)

One of my all time favourite things to do is to attend a baseball game when we're back in the big city. Of all of my accumulated passions, it is the longest running. I was weaned on the game. The first song I learned was "Take me out to the ballgame..." My earliest memories are sitting in the stands with my Mom eating Crackjack and watching my Dad play third base.

For years, I played first base and hit first in the line-up. I can still throw hard, catch about anything and hit it into the outfield. As for my knowledge of the intricasies of the game many call a religion? Try me. It most certainly helps to know a thing or two about knuckleballs, sliders, line drives, golden glovers, pine tar, suicide squeezes and the infield fly rule when you want to have a chat with the boys at work.

It most certainly impressed my husband when we were doing the courting dance.....that and the fact that my Dad had Blue Jays season's tickets! One of the first presents he bought me was a new glove. Honest to God. First were the flowers bloomingly beautiful and delivered after our first date, then a copy of The Idiot by some famous Russian guy (I never managed to get through that one!!) and the third gift.....the one that lasted? A supple leather glove for his little southpaw (me). Ah, love......

Anyways.....the above and below shots of the mighty phallus we lovingly call the CN Tower were taken in between the unfolding action on the field at a Jays game last summer.

As soon as the sun started to head south, the national colours appeared, outlining it's best bits. There's no getting around the intrusive thoughts on what the lovely red glow conjured up. Remnants of from Canada Day of course.

Yes, what more could a gal want.....base running, homeruns, men in uniforms swingin' and a slidin', a view of a perpendicular structure standing tall up into the heavens and the constant cry of "Hot Dogs, popcorn....get your penis here!" I was hearing it right wasn't I? oh.....I've just been informed that it's peanuts.....hmmm....peanuts.

See the red ring? Just above that is the revolving restaurant. I've never had dinner up there, but have travelled up the side in the whooshing elevator several times to the lookout level just below. It's both an amazing experience (albeit really overpriced) and an amazing view of the city and of Lake Ontario. There's nothing like being way UP there looking down at the world in motion. Yeah, it's a bit of a rush....a 'right sexy turn on you could say.

or not....

This week's theme at Carmi's place is UP! Carmi, I couldn't help myself....had to take a Tower swipe at it. Check out other photo themes by heading HERE..........

belonging

There is a difference when you get to play under the lights. It's like the air is electrified with magical faery dust alerting the senses that perhaps something grand is occuring.

Do you remember when your mother told you to come home when the lights went on? In the summer, the lights don't come on until it's really late, and if you pushed that "rule" envelope and stayed out past twilight when the sky is a deep purply blue, it felt like you had entered into a realm usually forbidden to children. There was a lightness in the new freedom of crossing into evening play.

As the sun set on the evening at the ballpark, I watched the kids on the field take on a different intensity in their play..........like they were on their own field of dreams playing like the pros. They loved their time under the lights. Beyond the diamond a group of wee little ones, the brothers and sisters attending? They were swarming and buzzing all over their own play field dancing like little faeries free from the regular rules of bedtime routines. Their own excitement electried the air around them.

Night time can be foreboding if it is enveloped in loneliness and detachment. It can seem like eternity gone sour. So many live under this kind of streetlight in our communities.......no fun there.....no sense of connection to the magic of possibilities. No playful feelings. The focus is solely on survival in the margins. Our human being needs encompass more than survival but when that's what is front and centre, the other needs are left out in right field........ And yet, if somehow the alone person can feel that welcoming sense of belonging to a team, to a family, to a group of friends who can show them that living under the lights doesn't have to be so frightening all alone, then survival becomes manageable.

Attachment to others, on a level playing field, and under the lights? It is what we all yearn for isn't it? We can't play the game without a team, and without knowing you're a part of it.

Batter UP!

Baseball is a big deal in this household, as it was in the home I grew up in. I was weaned on it. The first song I ever learned was take me out to the ballgame........sung loudly on the way to watch my Dad play ball. For years I played the game. My closest friends through my high school years were the infield of my ball team. My Dad coached us for a couple of years and took us from a team of "Bad News Bears" to a well oiled, super sliding, cohesive winning team. My sisters still play in a league. Though I hung up my cleats a while back, I can still throw "like a boy"..........hard and fast........... and make the receiver's glove hand sting when they catch it. Yes, baseball is a sport that filters into our daily routine from April to the end of October. Oh, who am I kidding? We talk baseball in January for goodness sake.

My son (above last year) has caught the baseball bug and he's looking forward to playing again this year. This week, the Major Leagues kickstarted their season. I havent seen Max as excited in a long time.......He's pumped, primed and ready to soak up all the Toronto Blue Jays can muster and so far we have not been disappointed. WHAT a great beginning of the season. Love it! The mighty Jays swept the series against our rivals the Boston Red Sox this weekend. YES! The same team that won the World Series. Today, we watched our slugger Frank Thomas hit a grand slam with his poetic swing and all felt right in the world.

One thing about baseball is the pacing of it............and as much as we want to get all keyed up for a potentially amazing season, we know better (we're Leafs fans too for goodness sake and have been waiting for a miracle since 1968, so we do know better) than to imagine anything beyond the next series of games. Superstition reigns supreme in baseball.........you can't get too cocky. You can't predict wins. You can't because it will jinx the whole season........or so I was told today when I spoke out loud how I felt about the possibility of ending up in first at the end of the season.........so I won't be saying it aloud again. :)

The picture below? I took it at a Jays vs. A's game last summer when my son Max and I travelled up to Ontario for a vacation visit..............just the two of us......to visit family. We were given two tickets along the first baseline, only a couple of rows up from the field. They were amazing seats and the two of us had the best time cheering on our beloved team. Around February of this year, Max made a list of home games in the 2008 schedule and hung it up on the refridgerator....... it looks like our summer vacation will somehow revolve around one or two of those dates as it is imperative that we attend at least one in person.

Yes, we have baseball fever..........let the season unfold as it should.

Fredericton's Matt Stairs and his strange swing. hey, it works.

weary

feeling like a sloth today

a weary old sloth

no sleep for the weary though

i'm head to toe exhausted and yet can't find sleep

head hurts, knees hurt, eyes sting....

dry hacking cough like there's a feather tickling the back of my throat

constricting and coughing.

constant.

grey and weary

chilled even after a hot bath

not a good time to be listening to the blues.

my eyes want to close, but my cough is persistant

dry

it hurts

can't find any colour...........

well except for my red toenails........under my wool socks

oh and the yellow flowers in a vase by my computer

and my blue mug filled with peppermint tea

what else? colour....... lots of WHITE stuff covering the colour

my daffodil plant is in full bloom

lovely......daffs.....

if i could just find sleep

i looked for it ALL NIGHT LONG

where the hell is it hiding????

weary.......

am thinking of the song from Bull Durham......

Nuke Laloosh singing

she gets wholly........!

it makes me laugh. It was such a funny scene.......

try a little tenderness....... :)

screw the tenderness...........i'm off to find better drugs.

i'm not a good sick person........it makes me wholly..... very very wholly.

Oh! Spring training starts today.....now that's a sign of good things to come.

ps. Please! Whoever is in charge of this snowy weather (like I'm believing the whole global warming warning.........Al Gore, be damned!!) can you please find another place to dump it? I am completely over my tolerance limit.

this too shall all pass..........

Little boys of summer....

"Marilla, do you think amethysts are made from the souls of good violets?"

I sat on a hill, my bare feet in a patch of violets and new grass.
It was the first time this season to feel the grass between my toes....to revel in the beauty of the tiny violets sprinkled by last year's breezes. My favourite quote from Anne of Green Gables came to mind.

The sun was quickly losing it's heat as it competed with the brisk spring wind. Summer is not fully here yet. It's taking it's time this year to warm up unlike the last couple of years.

But that's alright.

Everything is green again and the little boys are back playing the game of summer.

50 boys have taken the field, excited and thrilled to be back in play....stretching, running, and learning to throw straight. Familiar sounds of the game.......the ping of the bats, and the thunk of the ball landing into the gloves are interspersed with the rabble of the players. The first practise of the year is always the sweetest because it is the one dreamed about and talked about on those snowy January days.

I was not alone on the hill looking down at the diamond Parents mingled casually as they sipped from their Tim Horton's cups. Some had managed to get home and change into jeans and sweatshirts, while others were dressed in their suits and dresses having rushed to the field from work. Our days were different in many ways, but one thing is certain. We were all juggling, working, living, coping, managing, planning, meeting, compromising, interacting, winning, losing.....grinding through a busy day.

But, for 2 hours our busy worlds stopped.......at the ball field. And it felt good.

The day was over and an evening at the ball park put life into perspective. It never fails, I am always struck by the continuity and comfort I find there as I watch my son take his turn practising his swing. Just like I did. Just like his sister does. Just like his aunts still do. Just like my Dad did. We will be seeing them all this weekend, and more than likely baseball will be a major part of our conversations.

Roger Angell, a columnist for the New Yorker and lover of the game writes, "Since baseball is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly. Keep hitting, keep the rally alive and you have defeated time. You remain forever young."

ON a day when family members are far away planning the celebration of a life well lived, it is good to spend time with my feet in the grass watching life unfold amongst the flurry of little boys playing a game that potentially can continue into eternity.

Like good violets who become amethysts.
forever young

ps.....Dad, if you're reading this.......Roger Clemens is starting against the Jays on Monday........Max wanted me to point this out to you and to let you know he's quite aware that Clemens will most likely make it into the hall of fame and how thrilling it would be to see the Rocket pitch live. see you Saturday. We will be bringing our gloves just in case anyone wants to throw the ball around in the backyard.

a new day, fresh with no mistakes......

Hall of Famer Dave Winfield,
Game 6, bottom of the 11th, against the Atlanta Braves
Game and World Series winning double.
1992
I can still hear the roar.
It was a thing of beauty.

Robert Frost once stated, "I never feel more at home than at a ballgame," and I have to agree.

Whether it's entering a major league shrine like Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium or sitting in the bleachers watching a local little league game, there is comfort in the continuity of a baseball game. It is as familiar to me as my favourite old sweatshirt worn every spring when it's time to clear out the garden. However, baseball has been a part of my life MUCH longer than my favourite sweatshirt.....LONGER than I can remember. In fact, some of my earliest memories contain snippets of sitting with my Mom watching my Dad play 3rd base, eating Cracker Jack and singing "Take me Out to the Ballgame......"

Baseball threads through my life..............from games watched, to games played to games watched again...............and along the way........my learning and enjoyment of taking in 9 innings continues........and begins fresh again today as starting pitcher Doc Halladay and my Toronto Blue Jays begin their 2007 WINNING season on the road in Tiger Stadium. Granted, they start their season up against the World Series Champs of 2006, there is a never say never attitude adopted by every fan, including me. Just ask a Red Sox fan..........

never say never................it's not over 'til it's over...........it may not be the team with the best looking stats going into the season. It may not be the team who triumphs at the end of the season who is picked by the sports journalists. It just may be the team who plays well together, with an extra hunger in the pit of their bellies who will win. AND, it may just be the team from Canada who has a winning starter with a wicked fastball who may pull it out all over again. We'll see..........

no matter what happens during the long season, I'll be watching and listening........and taking part in the score.........

Baseball has it's own musical score composed of echos of past triumphs, perfect games, the thwack of the bat hitting a homerun ball, of crowds standing in a communal cheer of excitement over an amazing catch in left field, or the louding bronx like jeering at a pitcher who's lost his magic spin on the ball.......of the intensity felt during the bottom of the ninth when the game is tied...........of drama unfolding in front of your eyes.

Who will be the homerun king this year? Who will pitch the first no-hitter? Who will make the most diving catches at shortstop? Who will lay the perfect bunt? The most exquisite slide into homeplate? Who will be pulled up from the minors for "the big show" and succeed beyond even his wildest dreams?


I love it all.................let the game continue for eternity.........

And, may the most inspiring team win.........................Go Doc! Go Jays!

"A swing, and a belt! Left field! Way back! Blue Jays win it! The Blue Jays are World Series champions as Joe Carter hits a three-run home run in the ninth inning and the Blue Jays have repeated as World Series Champions! Touch 'em all, Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!"
Tom Cheek, Blue Jays commentator calling the homerun that won the game for the Jays in 1993. GLORIOUS!!