To Every Season

As any parent will tell you, the spring baseball season is a long, busy, dusty, windy, weather-beaten time of year. Nathan's spring Pinto season on the Chicago White Sox began with practices in January and just ended last weekend with the wrap party. Nathan had the good fortune (due to a little behind-the-scenes organizing) of having some of his best buddies on his team, not to mention Brendan as assistant coach, me as team mom, and Evan as head cheerleader.

The step up from Shetland to Pinto was a big one. The games had kids pitching, scorekeepers, and umpires. We saw Nathan make great strides throughout the season, learning an effective batting stance, becoming aware of the plays on the field, and being an often-utilized catcher for the team. But more than anything else, we're proud of his attitude and sportsmanship, which was always stellar.

I'm not going to lie. The games were tough, and the White Sox came close to winning many times. Alas, they only had one actual win, but it was a biggie, winning 7-1 against the Pirates in the middle of the season. But we celebrated like we had won the playoffs, going out for Habit Burgers after the game.

The best part of the season was, of course, being with friends like Abe and Cole...

...and family...

So as the sun sets on another season, we leave with fond memories of batting cages, Sunday practices in the park, wind storms, game balls, the White Sox Shuttle (our mini van), the crazy dugout, dust, Gatorade, sun in our eyes, and of never giving up--no matter what the scoreboard says.