LITTLE LEAGUE LEGENDS

I came home from running errands and Steven met me at the door. “Everything okay?” he asked. “You've been gone a long time.”

“I got side-tracked.” I admitted as I draped the dry cleaning bags over a dining room chair. “I was going by the community center and there was a baseball game on the field Alex always played on.” I looked at Steven and smiled. “I had to stop for old times sake.”

Steven nodded his head and smiled. “Those were the best years, weren't they?”

“I have to say today's game was pretty disappointing.” I shook my head. “They were really awful!”

“Oh, come on!” Steven said. “They're little kids!”

“Well, I just remember Alex's teams being a lot better, at that age.” I went into the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of water. “You want one?” I asked as I held mine up.

“Sure.” I grabbed another one, handed it to him, then leaned against the counter and took a sip. “There was one kid in the outfield who couldn't catch anything! The ball was dropping in front of him, behind him, it didn't matter. He never moved!”

It was then that Alex walked into the kitchen. “Hey, what are you guys up to?” he reached into the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of water for himself.

“Your Mom stopped to watch a little league game and now she's making fun of the kids who were playing.” Steven answered.

“Hey!” I cried. “I'm wasn't making fun of them!” I looked over at Alex. “I just remember your teams being so much better!”

Alex laughed. “I guess we had a few good teams.” He admitted. “But we also had a couple of years where the only thing we were good at was beating the winning team to the pizzeria!”

“Oh...” Steven started to laugh. “Those years were great too!”

“Okay, maybe I forgot about those years.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I just remember how much fun we had sitting on the bleachers cheering you guys on!” I looked over at Steven. “Don't you remember how some of the parents were even talking about college scholarships?”

“Scholarships!” Alex laughed as he leaned against the counter and looked over at me. “You know we were probably ten years old when that happened! We were just hanging out with friends and having fun.” he shrugged his shoulders. “It was no big deal.”

“Well, some of the Mom's on those bleachers would disagree with you.”

Alex laughed as he headed back to his room. “You're suppose to say that. You're Mom's.”

“I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true!” I called after him. I looked back at Steven. “I wouldn't.”

“Yes you would. That's what Mom's do.” Steven said as he shrugged his shoulders. “But you're right, they were pretty good players.”

“See!” I pointed my water bottle in his direction. “I told you!”

“But...” Steven added. “I'm pretty sure every parent at the game you stopped by to watch feels the same way about their kids, too.” He grabbed the dry cleaning from the back of the chair and headed for the bedroom to hang it up.

“Well, they'd be wrong.” I called after him then finished the last of my water and tossed the bottle in the recycling bin.