I just Googled “baseball phrases.”  Wow. There are multitudes of baseball related phrases and cliches we Americans use!  I guess it truly is, or at least was, America’s pastime.  I know it’s partly how my friends and I passed the time when we were young kids, and we had all kinds of alternative rules for our games due to being in someone’s backyard and near house windows. An assortment of bases, too, of course ~ mainly tossed shoes and frisbees, I think.

Seems like there’s no time TO pass these days, though. It’s all hurry and scurry and deadline and multi-tasking.  No seventh inning stretch in today’s fast-paced culture. Maybe that’s why I enjoy baseball so much?  It’s an excuse to sit and enjoy the springtime surroundings, observe people in the stands, chat with friends, and watch the mental strength, amazing reflexes, and physical abilities of the players.  You have to be smart and strong to play baseball.  The rules are intricate, and so is the strategy. I’m still learning the ins and outs of the game.  Why did the catcher tag the batter?  Why did that guy get to take an extra base? What in the world is a balk?  How come the runner ran back to base before running home?  Why didn’t that run count? He’s required to slide?  Why?

Kory’s team plays in the Western Massachusetts Semi-Finals tonight, which is SO exciting. It also presents a bit of a dilemma, though.  The dilemma is that Kory and I have plane reservations to fly to Texas on Monday. I was gambling on them being all done with the season AND the playoffs by this weekend.  I even searched the date of last year’s state championship finals and they were on June 10, 2012.  This year’s June 10 is on Monday, and it is the latest day we can fly out to meet all of the obligations we’re hoping to.

Kory’s orientation at Baylor is on the 13th and 14th next week, and I have a training for Classical Conversations in Austin on the 11th, 12th, and 13th.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to go to Texas together.  I could check in on my dad, see my sisters, get in my required training hours AND drive Kory to his orientation and participate in a couple of parent meetings, etc.

If Kory’s team wins tonight, then the next game will probably be this weekend or early next week, and my baseball-loving-varsity-playing senior son has informed me with great clarity that he will NOT be missing any games.  Not that I would want him to, but it does make my plans for next week still sort of hit or miss right now.

When he played tee-ball, I couldn’t have cared less if they made the playoffs or not, but high school is a whole different ball game. They have been up against the team they play tonight two other times and lost both times, AND they will have to use pitcher #2 tonight, as the #1 pitcher is resting up after Monday night’s win.

Definitely down to the last out tonight, and I honestly do want them to win, even if it fouls up my plans for next week a bit.  I certainly don’t want Kory to miss a playoff game and he won’t, but he’ll strike out on next week’s orientation and hopefully be up to bat at orientation the following week, but I, myself, don’t really want to miss any future playoff games either, and I HAVE to be in Austin next week.

Doesn’t Baylor know that New England schools are in session until the end of June?  The only orientations they offer are IN June.  I’m thinking they don’t get a lot of Yankees in Waco.  We’re throwing them a curveball by sending a Massachusetts kid to campus, it seems.

Here’s hoping Kory’s team will  knock it out of the park tonight, and then Monday morning, right off the bat, we’ll still be able to travel to Texas for a whole new ballgame = college freshman orientation!