With the arrival of baseball season, dads all over the world are foaming at the mouth. Baseball season signals lazy summer days at the ballpark, ice-cold overpriced beer, loaded hotdogs, and nachos and cheese. For many of us baseball season also brings back memories of childhood. A first hit. A stolen base. The smell of rain chasing away the ballpark dust.
When you have children baseball season signals exciting new memories to come. Your child’s first catch, first scape, first autograph, first hand-made banner.
If you are a fan like me, anything your child does remotely related to baseball excites you. He picks up a ball with his right hand. Exciting! He picks up a ball with his left. Even better! He picks up a branch. I better save it for when he’s in the hall of fame! He throws a ball. Unbelievable! He throws a roll of string… okay… let’s go with it.
My son really likes to throw rolls of string. It’s a fact. He goes into the kitchen, opens the drawer, and proceeds as follows:
- Throw green stress ball. 100% acceptable. Well done, son.
- Throw ball of elastics. 95% acceptable. It’s round. It bounces. Basically it’s a ball. Nice work.
3. Throw roll of string. Acceptable, because I love you, but it’s not a ball.
If you look closely in the above picture, you’ll notice a small navy blue slipper in the top left-hand corner. That’s because I can’t even take a picture of this roll of string without my son hovering all over it. He loves it. It’s the best ball in the house. He winds up and… thud. It hits the ground and unravels a little. His excitement is paramount.
Baseball season is here. What are some of your childhood memories? Do you have an autograft story? How does your child show you he or she is interested in the game? Does your child have a makeshift ball or bat?
Game on!
ModernHouseDad.com 
I had only been to 2 baseball games in my youth. One was because my (then) step-dad’s relatives from Ireland were in town and they wanted to see this American game. The other was because the Beach Boys were playing afterwards.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I actually made it to a game. The following year a few more. Last year several games and became a full-on fan. We’ve gotten a few autographed balls – Hisashi Iwakuma is a favorite, but Tom Wilhelmsen is the top. Here’s the story behind that one http://www.postpostmoderndad.com/2012/08/28/2012-with-the-aquasox/
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Awesome. Thanks for the comment. It CAN become quite addicting once you start going. How did your relatives from Ireland enjoy it? I brought a relative from Israel and the game ended up going 14 innings. She found it excruciating.
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14 innings is a bit much. I just remember them not understanding the game at all. And the Kingdome was LOUD.
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This post makes me laugh even more because I know how much it annoys you when he throws the string.
My favourite memory is running through the streets banging pots and pans after the Blue Jays won the World Series.
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It’s just such a waste of a good arm to be throwing string around…
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