Familiar Territory

 

Unity Park in Trumbull

It had almost been a month since I had called a game.

It had been even longer since I called baseball.

Both were taken care of today. I did 21 innings over three games with countless errors, walks, hit batters, and so on. It's 13-year-old baseball so that's bound to be the case.

By the time it was over, Stamford, Trumbull, and Easton had beaten Wolcott, Nonnewaug, and Waterford.

It started with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. As I drove, it seemed apparent we'd have a delay. And, yet, the delay wasn't very long. We called all three games and were done by 8 p.m.

I battled traffic and came home.

I've mentioned that I'm familiar with this rhythm. Call game, fight hunger, exhaustion, and thirst. Monitor energy and the need to stand up. Make it all happen.

A tradition unlike any other indeed.

Did I think we were great? Shawn Sailer was. I felt rusty or still a little bothered by the stink of the lacrosse experience in New Jersey in my last outing. But that's OK. Those kinds of challenges keep me humble. They allow me to take the praise with a grain of salt and not turn into some kind of social media manifesto.

Oh, there was praise. I heard it. Some of it wasn't even said directly to me. Some of it was.

The first day of a tournament is always a challenge as rosters and pronunciations are all new to us. So we're getting acquainted with each team and their fans. But, the audience numbers were good so we're ready for the next day. Plus you don't know where you're welcome to be and how many side eyes you get from people who don't understand what you do and who you are. 

However, I'm fortunate to have friends in Trumbull and we're welcome there.

In any event, I think we'll be better tomorrow.

With that, I think I'll call it a night.

"Meet the Beatles" should be lined up and ready to go tomorrow at 9 a.m. Tune into our game broadcasts after that is over.