Backyard Pepper Game*

Eddie called about 5 PM and left this message: “Papa, can you come over and play baseball with me, bye.” All in one breath. Then he hung up.

I drove over when I returned home. We set up the bases, home plate and the backstop, located the balls and two bats. I pitched to Ed. He hit good, much improved over last year. I chased the ball down and tried to tag him, always managing to just miss, causing him to giggle uncontrollably as he dashed around the bases.

Backyard ball field - Spring 2012

Johnny came out and picked up the bat and Ed tried to pry it from him. Failing that, he offered him the other bat. Johnny would have none of it.

“Johnny’s turn,” I said and he stood on home plate, the bat on his shoulder. I pitched, trying to hit his bat. He swung and to my surprise hit it, or rather, I hit the bat. “Run Johnny,” everyone yelled and Johnny ran, but carried the bat in his hand (he's 4). On the way to first he noticed his John Deere go-cart car sitting idle in foul territory and he re-routed himself. He climbed into the front seat.

Short attention span was my take.

Soon Emma appeared. She too was an able slugger, hitting my pitches and adjusting her swing, low or high. Everyone had several turns and with each hit I scurried after the ball and pretended to try to tag the runners. There was much laughter and high pitched squeals and it reminded me of the days in the backyard with my dad, never wanting the game to end even as dusk turned to night. It baffled me that my dad, having so much fun, and always enthusiastic and happy throughout, was actually willing to eventually call it a night.

Another aspect of the game today was that Ashley watched the action from the deck just as my mom used to watch dad with John and me from the back porch steps. Ash had a smile on her face, which pleased me. After about twenty minutes she stood up and said, “Let’s go children.”

“Where to?” I said.

“The neighbors,” she said, “for a barbeque.”

I thought about the children. Were they thinking, “Poor papa, had to stop the game. He must be sad.”

I was OK with it. Eddie probably wondered why I didn’t protest more.

*pepper (from MLB.com) -- Pepper is a common pre-game exercise where one player bunts brisk grounders and line drives to a group of fielders who are standing about 20 feet away. The fielders try to throw it back as quickly as possible. The batter hits the return throw. (Pepper games are not prevalent today as they once were. In the 1950s, and before, pepper games were the requisite pre-game ritual in all parks, every game ).