GooseyGirl the Athlete

My throat is sore and my legs hurt.

Why, you ask? It is from screaming and jumping up and down at the kidlet's baseball game last night. I had to scream so that I could be heard over the roar of all the other team parents. Why were they screaming? Well, we were all hollering for one person, GooseyGirl.

My daughter seems to have inherited my athletic prowess, poor thing. She is the only girl on her team and the only girl on any of the other teams we've played. Plus, she's got a long way to go with her abilities. A really, really long way to go.

Normally she strikes out. We've had the other parents come up to us and say that they hope she gets just one little hit so that she can enjoy some small feeling of success. She is the last to bat and her permanent position is right field.

Well, last night the game was tied, it was the last inning and our team had two outs. GooseyGirl was up to bat and we started out giving our low key encouraging remarks, "You can do it", "Give us a big hit", "Swing hard". Normal stuff that each child hears from the parents when it is their turn.

GooseyGirl let the first two pitches fly by her. Two strikes. At this point we are all reminding her that she has to swing at the next pitch. This is the machine pitch league so every pitch should be a good one. The next two pitches the machine did something weird and both pitches were balls. The next five pitches she managed to hit but each was a foul. Finally the baseball gods smiled on us and she hit the ball solid. The crowd absolutely erupted. Everyone was shouting RUN!! RUN!!! No one wanted her to forget that she had to make it to first base because she was just as stunned as we were that she'd actually hit the ball.

She made it to first and everyone was so happy for her. Just getting to the base safely was a tremendous accomplishment. While the next boy was at bat, she was able to steal second. Then the boy hit a line drive past third base. She took off running and everyone was SCREAMING, "GO!", "Run!", "Hurry!". She past third and kept running. GooseyGirl just barely made it to home before catcher caught the ball.

SHE SCORED A RUN!!!!

I was jumping up and down. All the parents were cheering for her. Her whole team yelped for her. The coach was ecstatic! What a victory! Her run won the game for the team.

After the game parents from both teams came up to congratulate her. I think everyone within two miles of that ballpark now knows her name. She was incredibly proud. This morning GooseyGirl wrote about her winning run. What a night!