Today I woke up and pleasantly found that the weather outside presented tons of rays of sunshine and temperatures in the 70's. Being that I wanted to enjoy the springtime beauty, I wanted to think of a way to spend my day outside.
Once I woke up and called home to wish my mother a happy Mother's Day, I saw a text message from my girlfriend asking me if I wanted to come over to her house for the afternoon. She works the night shift as a nurse in the Special Care Unit of Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, which is about 20 miles down the road from my school. Since her shift was starting at 7 PM, I thought it'd be nice to make the drive to spend the afternoon with her.
We ate at a restaurant on Main Street in Cooperstown and enjoyed the gorgeous day that was given to us. She convinced me to walk down to the park on Otsego Lake and have a catch with her, which was an interesting experience to say the least. We walked around the town enjoying the ambiance of the tourists and, of course, the baseball-filled presence that defines Cooperstown.
At around 6:40, she headed out for work and left me all alone in the town. I thought about going for a walk around the lake, trying to savor the last hour or so that I had of light before driving back to school. Then I decided to walk in the other direction from her apartment, towards the center of town. I arrived at the entrance to historic Doubleday Field, which, aside from the Hall of Fame itself, is the centerpiece of the town.
I took a seat behind home plate and decided to take in a few innings of a high school baseball game that was taking place on the field. The two teams didn't seem to be rivals, and the level of play wasn't something that was overly impressive to me. Normally, in these cases, I have a bit of trouble finding the game to be exciting and get a tad bored. But for whatever reason, I stuck around.
I was in a little nook in the corner of the bleachers behind home plate, all alone in a section of the stands. The stadium, which has almost 10,000 seats, was pretty much entirely empty save for a few select groups of parents scattered around.
As I was leaving I struck up a very brief conversation with a couple who was watching their son play in the game. The husband asked me if I knew any good places to eat in the area, and I gave them a few recommendations. I mentioned how great the experience must be for their son to be playing on Doubleday Field, and how lucky he got with the beautiful weather. The mother quickly replied, "it is pretty cool. There's nowhere else I'd rather be on Mother's Day than watching him play, especially here."
I departed and drove back to school, smiling. It made me think, ever so briefly, about what makes parents happy and what experiences are everlasting in individuals' minds. Of all the places they could be spending their time on Mother's Day, this couple was in the mecca of baseball watching their son compete on one of the most legendary playing surfaces that exist in the game. And his mother was loving every minute of it.
The beauty of the game, on full display.
