Colorado Baseball Moms

Most people that know me know that I’m a pretty laid back individual.  I don’t generally complain too much about things and I don’t let many things bother me (although my husband and kids might disagree with this).  This past baseball season my youngest son’s team decided to get new uniforms.  When we went for the “fitting” we all discovered that the pants were WHITE.  Now, anyone that has had any kids that play sports and has ever had to wash white pants and get them clean understands where I am going with this.  Even the coach’s wife said “don’t look at me, I didn’t pick the color”.  My question is this…who on earth ever looked at a baseball player and said “hmmm…I think that since these boys are going to be playing on a field made of brown (or worse RED) dirt and green grass they should have uniform pants that are pristine WHITE”?  Obviously they don’t do the laundry!  It was a discussion amongst all the moms on the team at various times through the season.  “What kind of detergent do you use?” one person would ask.  Then it would go from there.  Tide, Gain, Surf? Bleach or no bleach? Oxyclean, stain stick, or spray and wash?  Soak them overnight. There never seemed to be a truly good answer.  I heard all kinds of interesting other ideas like adding a bit of ”Cascade” to the wash.  I would sometimes wash them 2-3 times just to try and get them back to “pristine white”. Nothing really seemed to work.  Finally I just gave up and decided they would only be as clean as they would get in one wash cycle.  I thought I might be past it and then I went to my oldest son’s uniform “fitting” a few days ago.  Of course, it was mostly moms taking their sons to the fitting.  I walked into a room full of people trying to pick out their sons sizes.  I look at the pants for my son and of course….they are white.  Funny thing was….another mom took one look at them and said “white pants? what were they thinking?”.  And so the laundry saga goes on…..any suggestions?

We all know there are undeniable differences between boys and girls, men and women. However, I have found one that is an amazing phenomenon to me. How is it that my 13 year old can forget what happened at school today, what he had for lunch today and even if he has homework TODAY, but he can recite all of the stats for a baseball player on the Rockies for the entire last season.  He can tell me the names of most of the major league players and who they play for and what great play they made recently, batting and pitching stats.  It is so amazing to me! Now, I get it…he is 13 and it is all about priorities in his young life, but I don’t think I have ever met a woman who can quote these kind of stats for ANY sport. The even scarier thing is I see it starting to happen in my 10 year old as well. Now, if only I could get them to remember to clean their rooms.

I’m not sure exactly when it happened. It could have been the day I married my husband, Jim. Or possibly the day my first son was born. It really doesn’t matter, my life was irrevocably changed the day I became a “baseball” mom. I should have known..I always loved sports growing up. I would sit and cheer on the Broncos with my dad and I played basketball from early in my childhood through high school. But somehow none of that prepared me for the life of being a mom to two boys that both play competitive, tournament only baseball! The running from one field to another to get each of them to practice on time. The schlepping of a portable chair, cooler, bag of essential items up hill, in the 100 degree heat, through the gravel, over the river and through the woods. (Oh right, I sound like one of my grandparents exaggerating but you get the point!) Who knew 10 years ago that I would need to have a bag of essential items for a day of baseball games that would include any, and usually all of the following items: sunflower seeds, snacks (for me AND my son, husband, and half the team) sunscreen, umbrella, blanket, gloves, hat, coat, ear muffs.  All of which would be used in ONE day of Colorado baseball (especially in April), but I’m not complaining because I love being a Colorado baseball mom.