When it comes to baseball I'm no expert, but I do pretty well. Especially for a girl. I know what a Fielder's Choice is and I can explain the Dropped Third Strike rule. I'm less a baseball fan than a Rockies Fan, and there's not many places in the world I'd rather be on a cool June night than at Coors Field. I was there tonight with Bridger, Caid and several members of my fam and it got me thinking about how the Rockies have shaped me as a mom and about my Top Five Favorite Baseball Moments of All Time.
The Wildcard Tie-breaker game of 2007 certainly comes to mind. Watching Matt Holiday slide across home and into history. That was one hell of a baseball moment. Thousands of fans screaming, yelling, celebrating. One shining moment of total unity and community as we all let loose our emotion and joined in a collective, “WOO HOO!” I loved watching my son Bridger. Four years old that summer. Able to name every player on the roster including their name, number, and position. He could recognize them all by number and was often our point guy—“Hey Bridger? Who’s number…?” Didn’t matter who it was he could tell you.
The exhaustingly fantastic 21 wins out of 22 at the end of 2007. Sure there were several games, but that was a ‘moment’ in Rockies fan history we’ll never forget.
The Allstar game of 2004. We let Bridger stay up late. The image of his chubby toddler body squatting to be the catcher, winding up as the pitcher, swinging his imaginary bat as the hitter—it’s indelibly printed in my mind. Dressed in pin striped pajamas and sporting his Rockies cap and his glove. He stayed awake until the very end of that game. 10:30pm and he wasn’t even two years old. After we put him to bed, I hopped into the shower where my water broke. Caid was born later that night. Kincaid Joshua Anderberg—named Kincaid after a character in one of my favorite books, The Brothers K. A fantastic baseball book if ever there was one.
A game one night in July 2002. I don’t remember who we played, but I’ll never forget the two cutie pie little Rockies fans I sat next to that game. Aged approximately 3 & 5. Rockies t-shirts and ball caps. I’d just had THE ultrasound that morning. The one where I was told the little newborn sized red gingham dress with the cherries on the front wouldn’t be needed—we were having a boy. WHAT?!?! I wasn’t sure what in the world I would do with a boy. I was shocked—and worried. Over and over again the little boys next to me would yell, “Laaaaaaarrry WALK-ER!” They stayed for the whole game and it wasn’t just for the snacks. They clearly loved baseball. Those boys gave me hope. Maybe being a ‘boy mom’ wouldn’t be so bad after all.
If you had told me then that one of the biggest heart aches for our family in moving to London would be leaving our beloved Rockies, I would not have believed you. I remember the day Bridger asked, "But Mom, why would we move to London when the Rockies play HERE?" I wouldn't have believed it would be their once anti-baseball daddy who would get the projector all rigged up this year and make everyone dress in Rockies duds for the first game of the season watched so many thousands of miles away. How could I have known then how wonderful it would be to snuggle up to my little boys every morning as we check scores and stats and watch highlights on my iPhone from the games the night before. That gingham dresses would pale in comparison to dozens of Rockies tshirts and adorable Rockies uniforms. That the little boy in my womb would cry when his favorite players got traded and check the standings every single day.
I think the 5th ‘Top 5 Moment’ would be tonight. Sitting between my little Rockies fans. Dressed up in their full baseball regalia. “Laaaaaaaaarrry WALK-ER” has been replaced by ‘TU-LO! TU-LO! TU-LO!’ but the sentiment is the same. Two little boys. Two cutie pie brothers. One stoked to learn the difference between a safety squeeze and a suicide squeeze and to see Ubaldo pitch 9 innings. The other with a Rockies flag he’d bought with hard-earned chores money. He turned to me at one point and said, “Isn’t this a GREAT game?!?!” I thought, "Yep!" This is a great game. It might be just a baseball game to everyone else, but to me it’s the thing that brought me together with my boys. The game that made being a ‘boy mom’ one of the “Top 5 Greatest Things of All Time.”
2 comments:
One of my highlights is garlic mash potatoes before the game and handing out with you Scott and Bridger at my first Rockeis game. Boy that seems like ages ago. Miss you lots.
T
Oh Cori....you just made me cry. What a beautiful, beautiful blog. I can see how much my girl loves the game and how she lights up when we tell her we are going to a Rockies game. Granted, right now she loves Dinger and the Lemonade Squishy mostly, but she watches and cheers and yells at Blue when we do. I believe if we were in your shoes, we would be watching the games in the middle of the night too! You touch my heart in so many ways and are such a special part of our lives. Posts like this one make me miss you so much and wish that I had known about the baseball connection much sooner. I think we would have had many good times together with our baseball kids ( Gabe included).
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