Day CCCXXV

Volunteers

     When you sign your kid up for Little League, you are volunteered to cut the grass, paint dugouts, the kiosk, and pick up garbage. Everyone helps out, no exceptions, moms work the kiosk, and serve the crowd. I remember a time I got wieners for my kids…
 
     “Two bucks!” She smiled.                                                        

     “Hey ya gots any Grey poupon?” I jokingly asked.

     “Yea kahmmea, I gots ya gay poo poo!” She came back to the roar of the crowd…

     “Haw haw haw.”

     As all of that was going on, we were all puffing away, and hacking amongst the kids. It was a lot of fun, and the time seems to have zipped away so freaking fast. My guys also played YMCA, and CYO ball, a Catholic youth league. They were pretty much the same, but the latter played on city fields which were more like sand lots. There was no infield grass, and more often than not, none in the outfield either. At one field in Flushing Park next to a pond, the grass was so high, it looked like a swamp, and believe me the only thing missing were a few crocs. There was even an abandoned car in the middle of that pond. At CYO games parents were more civil, behaved appropriately, and we had less profanities. We did boo umpire calls, had a lot of Bronx cheers, but everyone was mellow. Perhaps that was because a lot of the times, we had a priest sitting amongst us. Behavior at YMCA games, where Tommy umpired, was the same as at little league, where the big difference was the manicured fields. Truly, they look like miniature major league diamonds. At that time I was always trying to quit smoking, and it bothered me that people smoked so much amongst their kids, and no one even gave it a second thought. Perhaps, things have changed…I sure hope so.