twotex- I posted the following a while back and to be honest I feel as though it is appropriate to repost because it hits on what you are looking for and I don't think I could write up another post that would display the information in a different/better way:
"My earliest memory of baseball is at about the age of 3. My family lived in an apartment complex outside of New York City and had a playground in the back of the complex, which overlooked the vast parking garage and a golf course in the distant rear. Most of the kids that lived in the apartment building played on the swings or in the jungle gym in the playground with their parents keeping a watchful eye on them (well, sometimes maybe one watchful eye, and the other in a magazine while sitting on the bench). But I kind of got bored of the swings (the back and forth repetition wasn't as exciting for me as most 3 year olds) and the slide was about 8 feet high, which provided for about a second's worth of thrill before I was forced to climb my way back up the stairs just to do it all over again. Because of these things, my favorite thing to do in the playground area was play baseball.
My dad worked later into the evenings in NYC, and my mom was home in the afternoons. At the time, my baseball equipment collection consisted of a whiffle ball and one of those Little Tikes bats, that had a flat part to it. And lo and behold, chances are you could find my mom and I out behind the apartment building in the playground playing whatever baseball game we could think of. We would play home run derby, strike-em-out, and my personal favorite...the game where I hit the ball and Mom had to go chase it and throw it back to the plate before I got there, otherwise it was a home run.
These games stopped after a year or so, after I hit a screamer back to the mound (Mom, underhanding it about 20 feet in front of me) with enough force to crack her sunglasses when it made contact. That's when my parents decided to sign me up for Little League.
Now at the not-as-tender age of 21 I am still playing ball (no longer hitting, but now finding myself on the mound myself) in college. And while Mom doesn't make her way onto the playing field with me anymore, there's always an extreme comfort level that I feel when her and/or my father are in the stands watching me play. After games, wherever they may be, I spend time recapping with Dad. We analyze the pitches I threw and how results could have changed, etc. But when I need an emotional lift, or an ego check, I always turn to Mom. She'll tell it how it is, with respect and love. After all, she's been watching me play longer than anyone else has.
No matter how many thousands of people show up to watch the games I'm playing in, memories of whiffle ball with Mom will be forever. It's difficult many times for kids to take a step back and appreciate all the things done for them, but without motherly support 99 out of 100 successful baseball players wouldn't be where they are today. Whether mothers soft toss to you, bring you Gatorade, or drive you halfway across the country to play in a tournament, they do it simply because it makes them happy to see you happy."