A two-handed catch at 10 p.m. Friday night ended the LEGO designs for a few weeks. Bill broke his right hand and dislocated his ring finger playing softball. Put a baseball glove on a cricket hand and 27 years later… boom. The strange splayed nature of his finger had the whole ER talking. The doctor straightened his finger, put a cast on his hand/wrist, and told him to see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday – just in case. When I met Bill 23 years ago, softball was his summer love. He even convinced me to play – but the first time a grounder hit my glove and flew up into my face, leaving lace marks and blood on my nose… Yeah. Not my sport. A new arrival from England, Bill was eager to try out this version of America’s favorite pastime. While watching a group of co-workers playing softball, he was invited to come in and try his hand at batting. He made contact with a pitch and started running. Then he heard shouts from his teammates-to-be, “Drop the bat! Ya gotta drop the bat! You can’t run with the bat!” Obediently, he dropped it. Then tripped over it, rolled around a little bit in the dirt, and made it to first base – only because the short-stop was laughing so hard he couldn’t make the throw to first. A career batting average of 1,000.
So now as the boys start their Little League season, Dad is on the sidelines. “Can we tell them you were playing lacrosse?” I didn’t want them to see the cast and fear the baseball field. “No, it’s important that we show them how to play the game correctly.”
Baseball: Catch the ball in the glove, not barehanded, then transfer it to the other hand to throw. Drop the bat before running to 1st.
Cricket: Catch the ball bare-handed with two hands. Carry the bat when running.
The two do not combine well.
As Bill points out, married to him, I will never run out of material.
Heading out to play catch.