Nice stories...
When my son was eight I bought him the best Wilson A2000 I could find. $208.00. I snuck it in past his mother and never told him how much it cost ...UNTIL.... He was playing in a fall league in the city park that had one field called Lions Field. Lions field is old with real dugouts. Kind of picturesque from an era when I was a boy. They would play games every night of the week and each team would play two games a week for about a month. He played on Tuesday and Thursday. The games were short (4 innings or so) with a time limit so they could have as many games as possible. One Saturday at our home he wanted to play catch so he went to get his glove from his bag..Not There...Gone...Stolen..Lost. He had left it at Lions Field. I chewed him out and he cried. No wait, I’m the stupid one for spending $208.00 for a glove for an eight year old. “Tell you what son, You know that old black glove you hate, the one from Wal-Mart? You will use THAT glove until you graduate from high school!” I called everyone from the person that flips hamburgers at the concession stand to the director. No one had turned in a glove.
Five days after the game where he and the $208.00 glove parted ways, he’s playing in the third inning at Lions field using his old black Wal-Mart Glove. Suddenly he emerges from the dugout waving a brown Wilson A2000 for me to see. It had fallen behind the bench of the dugout. I can’t read his lips but I know by the smile he’s saying. “I FOUND IT”!
Fungo