2004-05-26 - 5:19 p.m.
If this looks different to you even though the title is the same, do not adjust your computer. I had written this out on a yellow pad and then had to re-write it because the pad disappeared. It turned out Kat took it. I liked the first version better so I have typed up and posted that one instead.
THE �MAGIC�
They are a ragtag bunch out there in the mud. They should be playing on a newly refurbished field but work began and then halted in our wet weather. So, instead of playing on a real softball field with a real backstop, the most they can boast of is real bases, which they remove and store after each game, and a back-up catcher who serves as a backstop and does not count as a player on the field.
Their official name is the Maple Dale Magic but I doubt they know that. Their mascot is a dragon but few of them know that either. They could not tell you what color their uniforms should be. Past teams had names and mascots and uniforms but not them. These things are only three years in the past but it might as well be a lifetime ago. I don�t know where they went. The team doesn�t either. Maybe budget cuts or lack of attention from the PTO or general apathy explains it. No one is quite sure.
But twice a week, weather permitting, they sneak in games between the raindrops and they usually win. They often don�t know exactly where the play is and they have few power hitters but they still win. Three rotating mediocre pitchers apparently are capable of besting one really good pitcher with little back-up as long as at least one of the three keeps plugging away.
But it�s not exactly as if winning seems to matter much. The four or five moms and occasional dad who are their fans tend to cheer for good plays�by either team. The moms rarely know the score without asking. They know which girls hit, which girls made good catches, and which girls crossed the plate�but only on our team.
Even the girls do not seem very focused on winning. They focus on not striking out and on making the catch, or at least I think they do, but the bigger picture involves playing, not winning. Winning is more of a byproduct than a goal. Day, when she boasts at all, boasts that their coach never abuses the umpire ofr the girls. She�s seen enough to know that, unfortunately, that fact is worthy of note.
They have played teams with superior skills. They have played teams with superior accoutrements. They have played teams with both�and they�ve had fun doing it.
Tomorrow, if we stay dry long enough, they play their last game. Most of the team, the eighth graders, will move on to high school where most of them will not be good enough to make the team. But now, right now, they are the �Magic�---whether they know it or not.
The world could use a little more �Magic.�
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
