Being a Baseball Mom
Newsletter #110
My Former Life Revisited
In early March after Daylight Savings, teams of players and parents rejoice as late afternoon practice times can be held longer rather than squinting to see balls in the dim twilight. For the next several months minivans fill with gear and absorb the smell of dirt and grass. And for me, I crave hot dogs and nachos for dinner.
The cravings catch me by surprise, my body accustomed to snack shack dinners in the springtime. Like clockwork, I’ve been conditioned, even almost a decade after my son played his last game. My soul knows it’s baseball season.
A couple weeks ago, Little League Opening Day marked a fresh new season with brand new caps and still-snow-white baseball pants. (Not sure who chooses white pants for little kids sliding in dirt, but thank you OxiClean Max Force Stain Remover spray!) And over the weekend I got to return to our home Little League field to watch a game.
Memories flooded back:
freezing cold, windy April evenings
blazing hot 100+ degrees summer tournaments
chatting with baseball moms as we cheered for our kids
knitting or grading papers in the stands
supplying my daughter with a few dollars for treats
all the coaches, teams, championships, and losing seasons over the years
the disappointment of rainouts
the stress of watching your kid get pulled into a game as a closing pitcher when his team has gotten into a bases loaded, 2-out situation
the drama of playoff season
and of course the snack shack food (our league was known for linguica sausages)
Spending time outdoors for hours, multiple times a week, for several months of the year surrounded by kids and community and so many human interactions both on and off the field—baseball season represents to me a nostalgic, simpler time. Despite the non-stop coming and going to practices and games, multiple washes a week of uniforms, prepping both at-home and on-the-go dinners, and very, very long games with no boundaries of time like other sport have, there’s such a value in the way a baseball game seems to slow time and slow down life. And these days, who doesn’t need more of that?
If you want to hear more about how much I value sports, check out this previous newsletter post called Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Sports.
Book Report: You Can’t Tame a Tiger
Written by Stephanie Ellen Sy
Illustrated by Julien Chung
If you had a pet tiger who didn’t look like a tiger, should you try to change its fur by painting stripes? Should you give it grass to eat because you thought he looked like a zebra? In this book, a boy tries to make his pet tiger Imran fit into people’s notion of what a tiger ought to look like on the outside. But Imran insists that, “You can’t tame a tiger.” The boy persists. Eventually, Imran makes the point that he certainly is a tiger with an enormous, “ROAR!” Only then does the child recognize and accept Imran’s identity as a tiger. With simple graphic images and a limited yet bold color palette, the illustrator Julien’s striking artwork with incredible expression through line work is visually impactful. In this story, the author Stephanie chooses an unconventional pet tiger to remind us that everyone deserves to be authentically themselves without conforming to expectations. This text emphasizes the importance of accepting personal self-expression.
Themes: love and acceptance, respect, individuality, identity
Discussion Ideas:
What does Imran mean when he says over and over, “You can’t tame a tiger”?
What’s the author’s message in this story and how can you apply that lesson to your own life?
Mentor Text For:
types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative
ending punctuation: periods, exclamation points, question marks
transitional phrases of time
Link to Teacher Resources: Classroom Discussion and Activity Guide
Buy this book!
Disclosure: Thanks for your support when purchasing any books from my affiliate page on Bookshop.org.
Weekly Progress Report
This is a section for “stuff I did” that relates to my writing career. I believe in celebrating all wins, big and small alike.
revised and sent a manuscript to my agent
wrote a cover letter and sent it with a manuscript for an editor critique for a conference
worked on a market analysis
contacted a few local authors about planning a future event
prepared more conference reminder emails
shared a meal with author friends
Susan Cabael, Margaret Chiu Greanias, Kerry Aradhya, Kristi Wright, Traci Huahn, Darshana Khiani
Sending you courage and grace in all you choose to do,
Susan