{"id":3267,"date":"2013-04-22T07:26:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T14:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/?p=3267"},"modified":"2013-04-24T09:57:42","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T16:57:42","slug":"3-innings-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/3-innings-in\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Innings In"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Umpirates\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sun is out in full force. It\u2019s 80 degrees outside; the backyard is blizarding with wisteria petals. The neighborhood is perfumed by the scent of gardenias. Baseball is on TV. A rousing amalgamation of t-ball\/basketball\/soccer\/curling is underway just outside the patio doors.<\/p>\n

It’s April. And as spring represents the season of rebirth, the memories fit.<\/p>\n

For the love of the game
\nSometimes, you’ve gotta cry a little
\nFor the love of the game
\nMaybe, even gotta die a little
\nFor the love of the game
\nI made a sacrifice, I never thought, I’d have to make<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

My adventure toward the new normal of prematurity<\/a> began three years ago. I’ve since learned not to let the fear of striking out keep us away from playing the game. Because the only pitch that matters is the one you’re about to hit – not any you’ve previously whiffed.<\/p>\n

Like on Friday. I arrived at preschool for pickup. \u201cThey slept for a combined 15 minutes and had a cookie for snack. Good luck.\u201d The SportsCenter theme song played in my head; highlights were about to get good.<\/p>\n

When we arrived home we headed straight for the backyard. The mission: enjoy the glorious California evening while exhausting the muppets.<\/p>\n

So we dined al fresco (on a picnic table that thankfully did not collapse beneath me<\/a>), experiencing the full body sensation that only PB&J can provide, while I yelled at the dogs to stop eating my landscaping.<\/p>\n

On Saturday we packed up our things and headed to a ballgame. My alma mater was playing locally so I figured it would be the perfect introduction \u2013 take in a few innings, eat a hotdog \u2013 at a stadium without too many people around to annoy.<\/p>\n

(I love you Santa Clara, but you\u2019re not really known for your attendance records. But while we\u2019re chatting \u2013 major props for the high socks with the unis.)<\/p>\n

We found our seats and negotiated with the chairs. Neither muppet is heavy enough to keep the seat down, so they got folded up. But once we were situated Destroy immediately commenced calling the game.<\/p>\n

He has a serious future as a play-by-play announcer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat guy has a new bat now! The other guy throwed the ball at him. He has a hat. He has a different hat. Look! The pants are dirty. They\u2019re running. He has a new bat! That\u2019s the baseball game. He has dirty pants, too! We\u2019re at a baseball game. I need a snack. I\u2019m eating my hotdog. They throw it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly he paused. Focusing on the field, he announced, \u201cWhat\u2019s the black guy doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the umpire sweetie,\u201d I explained. \u201cHe makes sure everyone follows the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUMPIRATE!\u201d squealed Search. Noted. He may be on to something here.<\/p>\n

The stadium was empty enough that the boys were able to fidget and run around the rows a bit without disturbing anyone. After four innings they started to get distracted. As that was the same time they stopped charging for attendance, the stands started to fill up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pooped at the baseball game!\u201d Destroy announced to everyone within earshot. We quickly tipped our hats and headed to our home locker room.<\/p>\n

“You are a stinker,” I laughed, ushering him toward the stadium gates.<\/p>\n

“I NOT a stinker,” he replied indignantly. “I a Destroy.”<\/p>\n

How far we\u2019ve come. It\u2019s not a perfect game, but three years in and we\u2019re still holding the lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun is out in full force. It\u2019s 80 degrees outside; the backyard is blizarding with wisteria petals. The neighborhood is perfumed by the scent of gardenias. Baseball is on TV. A rousing amalgamation of t-ball\/basketball\/soccer\/curling is underway just outside … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[24,394],"tags":[1242,268,56,1243],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Sbzi-QH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4242,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/play-ball-kinda\/","url_meta":{"origin":3267,"position":0},"title":"Play Ball (Kinda)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0","date":"March 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The one constant through all the years, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. 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As a born and bred Bleed Blue Dodger fan, I\u2019m not entirely sure how I feel about such impressionable young minds being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2789,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/this-is-sunday-night-baseball\/","url_meta":{"origin":3267,"position":2},"title":"THIS is Sunday Night Baseball","date":"September 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Way better than Yankees v. Red Sox... \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2384,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/for-love-of-the-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":3267,"position":3},"title":"For Love of the Game","date":"April 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBaseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while.\u201d I thought about that this week. As I sat on the couch, snuggling with the draft picks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baseball.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1540,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/the-tentative-traveler\/","url_meta":{"origin":3267,"position":4},"title":"The Tentative Traveler","date":"July 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Um\u2026I\u2019ve gotta go catch my kid\u2026 We\u2019re walking! (Enter harried mommy, stage left)","rel":"","context":"In "Milestones"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2666,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/mommys-lovie-or-apps-make-the-mom\/","url_meta":{"origin":3267,"position":5},"title":"Mommy\u2019s Lovie (or Apps Make the Mom)","date":"July 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Tuesday! Oh, relax. TechMom Tuesday's will be appearing the first Tuesday of every month. For all of your other technical interests (read - Mac geeky goodness) don't miss the highlights and insight on AlliOSNews. Search has Elle. Elle is a small grey(ish) blankie with an elephant head. Destroy has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TechMomTuesday"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/HomeScreen-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}