Baseball and more

It is Friday.
Yeah baby.

For me it has been a long week. I have been working hard this week.
Trying to put together a schedule at the beginning of the day wears on you.
It is not like before when you would come to work with a packed schedule and then an emergency would call and you would have to work them in.
Now the schedule is full but it didn't get that way until the day before and you never know who is going to come.
I mean I feel blessed that I am working and it has been pretty good but I am still stressed.

What up.
Gators have a bye week this week.

Nothing going on at home, just getting ready for our trip. 7 days until we leave to Washington D.C. The reason I chose this marathon is that the whole course is weaved around everything Washington. We start at the Pentagon and run through all the monuments and memorials.
We run through Arlington Cemetery and past the Capital building. We finish at the WWII memorial.
I will probably be very emotional when I finish. I don't know if you remember my "Marathon Blues" blog. It is my favorite blog. At my last marathon wanted to hug the woman giving me the medal, I was so emotional.
Imagine what this run is going to be like.
I am pretty patriotic kind of guy and get all vaklemp when I visit these kind of things.
As an aside, I am going to write the names of my patients that are in the military on the back of my shirt.
It is going to be great. I can't wait.

Okay today's topic.
Baseball.
I want to give you a mid season report on my 9 year olds experience (and mine).
Luke got into baseball because of his friend Eric. These two are great friends and Eric's family is a baseball family.
We particularly like baseball as a family because it is fun. Our community have awesome fields with good concessions and a decent playground for the other kids.
This is Lukes second season playing baseball. This season Luke moved up in leagues. So he is only one of two kids that have moved up.
So out of 12 kids on the team he is the second youngest. I would say ability wise he is about the lower middle.
The coaches are three past minor league players that now have kids. Needless to say, these three kids are real good (they are nine years old and they are probably better than me).
But the coaches are real good. They are fundamentally sound and they are fun.
Everyone plays and everyone plays at every position.
And everyone gets to pitch.
So the team thing is great.

But a couple weeks ago my son wanted to quit. He started with, "the coaches don't like me".
Then it was,"all I do is play outfield."
Now I know he loves it and I know he wants to be in it, but he wants to be appreciated. He says, "I work so hard at practice and all I do is play outfield."
As a dad I don't know what to say to him. My job as a dad is to teach him up in the way he should go. What does that mean? Well, it means to teach him how to act when things are not going exactly the way he wants it. I mean he is going to have to deal with this kind of stuff the rest of his life. In sports, in school, and maybe in his employment. This is the real world.
I don't want to baby him and I want to teach him real world experiences but I want to protect him from getting hurt. This is the tough part of being a parent.
First I tell him how much I love him and how I think he is a great baseball player. I love going to his games and watching him play.
I then try to break it down for him...he is smart enough to recognize what I am going to tell him. I say, you are the second youngest on the team. You are not the best player on the team like you were last year.
You have to work harder. When you do get a chance to play the infield, remember you are being watched. When you are playing outfield remember you are being watched. When the coach looks out there and you are throwing your glove up in the air and your back is turned to the field...it doesn't look good.
I told him to stick it out a little more.
The next game he got to play third base for two innings and he got to pitch. He has been riding so high since then. He loves baseball again...
And I didn't even have to get into the life lesson stuff like, "What if your boss doesn't recognize your potential? Are you just going to quit your job?"

Last thing. We are getting to the level of baseball that is passing me by.
You know that I am cheap. My son is wearing all hand me downs. He is using his cousins old cleats. He has had the same glove since T-ball. He uses a bat we borrowed from a friend and he has a used bat bag.
Now apparently others don't prescribe to the Gammichia philosophy on spending money. Did you know that there are baseball bats that cost $175.
We have one kid on our team that has a bat bag that rolls. It is bigger than him. Gloves on both hands, air brushed personalized batting helmet, everything brand new.
I don't get this stuff. It is passing me by.

Okay last last thing. I am sitting and watching the game. The coaches youngest son is hanging out with the mom. The kid is 6 years old and I have yet to see him eat anything other than candy. It is either he is sucking on a ring pop and drinking a Coke or it is a Kit Kat bar and a slushy. The kid is like 2 and a half feet tall and about 20 pounds over weight. The kid was bugging the crap out of his mom for some more candy and she didn't have any money. I gave them a dollar so he would be quiet. Then it was off to the concessions stand for more candy.
These are the people that come to my office and I tell them they have 9 cavities and the parents are so surprised. "I don't know what is going on...he brushes his teeth."
But it is not just this kid. There are numerous kids that are plumpy and have blue crap all over their face from all the candy.

Man am I being mean today or what?
See what happens when I get on my soapbox...my blogs get long.
That is all the complaining I will do today.

Hey, have a great weekend,
See you Monday,
john