birds and baseball

you know what i love most about little league baseball? perspective on little league baseball. and here is what i mean. my son is seven. he loves birds - all kinds of birds - wrens, sparrows, owls, sea gulls, pelicans, sandpipers - he knows them all and loves to identify them. but when it comes to baseball - well, he likes it okay. and so we go to games about four days a week (and don't forget the practices). his team, the tigers, got off to a promising start, they won their first game. little did we know at the time, it would be their only win (to date). during the second game, the tigers were down by 17 or so points and mac started crying. and not just sniffling or some kind of muffled embarrassed crying but full on bawling. i go to the dugout and he turns around and looks at me with hugely swollen eyes and a tear-streaked face and says "this is a nightmare." a little dramatic, i know. but finally, after some kind of mercy-ruling, the game is called and it's over. until the next saturday when the tigers were due for their next beating. this time, the opposing team happens to be the team that includes mac's two best friends - matthew and tanner. by the second inning, matthew and tanner's team is spanking the tigers and mac is again crying uncontrollably in the dugout - so much so that the coach has asked me to come over and console him. i reach him and all he can say is that he wants to be on matthew and tanner's team. i could hardly blame him, looking at the scoreboard, but it was still extremely embarrassing and not to mention, a complete downer for mac's teammates who were still out playing ball and actually trying, against all odds, to win the game. fortunately, around that time, mac was distracted by, of all things, an osprey. he recognized the bird by its wingspan and its tendency to nest in tall man-made structures like the giant lights that light up ball-fields. and soon, once again, the game was called (again, a mercy ruling) and we were out of there. steve and i, taking with us, our budding ornithologist and our comfort that we were exposing our son to team sports no matter how miserable it might be for us, the team and the teammates' parents. but a day or so after the game, i told the story to a friend on the beach, who happens to be close to 60 and he laughed at my son's lack of interest in baseball and was impressed by his interest in birds and by his ability to recognize and remember characteristics of them. it occurs to me that when you tell this story to someone that is, i am guessing, over about 50, they seem to have better perspective. they don't express concern or sympathy that your son might not be having a positive little league experience. they laugh because it's funny and because they know that in the big scheme of life and things, it doesn't really matter.