5 Year Old Gannon Plays In A Baseball League

Today, Anne and I went to see our 5 year old grandson Gannon play baseball. He was in a Dodger blue uniform, with his name "Kazan," on the back of the jersey. He wore tiny white pants and little cleats, and his socks were blue, as was his cap.

Gannon's team includes three little girls and everyone is 4 or 5 years old. They played the Angels, a team dressed in red and as small as they were. No score was kept, no outs were counted and every child got to bat once each inning, hitting off a tee. It was adorable.

But perhaps the funniest moment of the game came when Gannon was on second base and the batter hit an infield ground ball. At first Gannon didn't move although a runner on first base was running to second base.

Then as the coaches were calling out to Gannon to run to third base, he began to playfully skip all the way to third base, flitting back and forth the way a butterfly flies, as people laughed and cheered. He was Mr. Personality, a bundle of playfulness.

However, in that game and in each game, what pleases me is Kevin, as he always does, was one of the fathers on the field coaching, and Melody, as she always does, was cheering for the children by name, and applauding both teams. This is wonderful parental support.

But for me it was particularly a special day because I played extensively with 7 year old Brody. It was in a children's play-yard, a play-yard adjoining the baseball field, filled with brightly colored red, yellow and blue climbing apparatus, monkey bars and slides, all on a burgundy and black rubber type safety flooring.

Brody had fun as he showed me his many moves on that equipment and I made him the center of attention, as the cheering for the baseball game echoed in the background.

Around us were other children Brody's age and from 1 to 3 years younger. Looking at the younger ones, I could see how much Brody had changed in that brief time period since he was their age, and it was a reminder of how quickly time passes and how fleeting and precious childhood is.

But what made our time together really special was when Brody told me about his favorite game, Halo, which he plays on X-Box. He said Keoni, Anne's and my 12 year old grandson, is an outstanding Halo player and plays at an advanced level.

Brody got so excited in describing how he, Brody plays Halo, with all of his moves and strategy, that he began enthusiastically acting it out with laughter in his little voice and joyfulness in his body language.

This time between us was priceless and I shared in his happiness, happiness so joyful, it touched my heart and I believe his little heart as well. I will recall this time with Brody for the rest of my life.

Dick