Tales from the Diamond

I can still remember the day in fourth grade when the principle announced over the school intercom that it was time to register for softball. Back in the dark ages when I grew up, you couldn't start playing league sports in town until fourth grade. I had been waiting for years.

I went home and begged my parents to let me sign up. They agreed and that was the start of my passionate love of softball.

There is something about softball that is just Zen to me. The field, the bases, the dirt and the grass. The smell of leather and the fwap sound of the ball hitting your glove. I love how the game is all in your hands when the ball is hit to you or when you are up at bat. But it still takes a team to succeed. No other sport is quite like that. It's all so beautiful.

I never gave it much thought back then, but I guess I was pretty lucky to be playing ball at all. When I was three-years-old I was diagnosed with Legg Calves Perthes disease (LCPD). This is a pretty rare disease that literally makes the ball and socket joint in your hip disappear.

Back in the late seventies, doctors still didn't know much about LCPD. I spent the better part of a year in traction and a couple of years in a leg brace. Back then a long term prognosis was unclear. At the very best, I was told that I may be out of the brace some day, but that I would have debilitating arthritis by my twenties and most likely need a hip replacement by thirty.

Yet I played basketball and softball all though high school and college. In fact, I played softball right up until I was pregnant with my son. The very last softball game I played I was pregnant with him. I hit two home runs in that game.

My father said to me just a couple of years ago that all while he watched me play in college, he was just amazed that I was there. "No matter how you play it just doesn't matter," he said. "There was a time we didn't think you would walk, never mind play college ball.

I was very lucky.

Of course now they know that when LCPD is diagnosed before age six, the prognosis can be quite good. My parents also took an alternate route to my treatment. They used new braces and let me swim and exercise as much as I wanted. It worked better than bed rest and I'm glad my parents made the decisions they did.

Now I'm the parent.

They do think that LCPD may be hereditary, so I was a little worried that my kids would also be diagnosed with it. I didn't think about it too much, but I did always keep my eye out for symptoms. Luckily, it seems like they are both fine.

And it is my daughter's turn to play softball.

At the end of last season, she begged me to coach this year. Last May when it was such a far off thing, I agreed. But when the time came to register the team this year, I got a little nervous. It's not that I didn't want to coach. I've coached with an inner-city program, I was a private pitching coach and I have coached a high school team. But seven and eight year-year-old girls can be scary.

By our first practice, I had practically made myself sick with worry. My friends scoff at me, but I really don't think I'm very good with kids. I was worried that the parents would think I was having too many practices or not enough practices. It's hard...no...impossible to make everyone happy.

We're two weeks into practice and I'm feeling much better now. I still get tense before practice and I still spend quite a bit of time planning drills and lessons. But the girls seem to be having fun.

I have to remind myself of how I felt back in fourth grade. For all I know, one of the girls on my team is right now developing the kind of love of the game that I have in my heart. If I can teach her the very best basic fundamentals, she will have an excellent foundation to take her game wherever she wants to go. It is the best gift I have to give.

And I have to remind myself that I am lucky to be out on the field at all, walking through the drills, teaching them how to run a base. I'll be thirty-five soon, with no hip replacement in sight.

I am so thankful for a chance to pass on my love of softball to a new generation of young girls. Even if they never play another season, I hope I can help them grow just a little bit in confidence and have more than a little bit of fun.

Success can be measured in so many different ways. To me, success on the field is success in my heart. The softball diamond is home to me.