Spring is in the air, and a middle-aged dad’s mind turns to…
Posted on Apr 25 2007 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Softball??? Yup. Gotta keep these young city girls busy.
Thanks to the local youth sports organization, London Sports, we ex-pat dads can live out our weekend warrior fantasies, vicariously, through our children. in addition to seasonal soccer and basketball, London Sports sponsors weekend softball and little league for kids, age 6-13, in the balmy spring months. This season started with a pair of clinics–one for parent coaches and one for the kids–run by former major leaguers, Denny Doyle and Paul Hatzell, in conjunction with the Major League Baseball Alumni Association. A great opportunity to learn skills from the pros(a kid benefit) and hear inside tips and tales of the game(a parent treat). Now everyone take a knee!
(That’s Erin, back row on the left, in blue)
Home field for all activities is the Wormwood Scrubs Nature Reserve, a large open space in the Hammersmith Borough of West London. In the shadow of notorious Wormwood Scrubs Prison, it’s a bit hard and a bit dirty. The athletic fields, such as they are, have been designed as football pitches and our kids share the rugged facilities of the adjacent Linford Christie Track Stadium with crowds of burly, testosterone fueled weekend footballers. But London Sports has done an admirable job of acquiring and organizing time, space and equipment for several hundred boys and girls in six leagues to get a dose of the American national pastime on foreign soil.
Erin and I will see you at The Scrubs!
on 25 Apr 2007 at 11:57 am 1 judy zickler said …
Sounds like you’re back in Berkeley! Is that Erin in the red baseball cap on the right? Hope you guys have a fun season!
on 30 Apr 2007 at 3:04 am 2 Franny, softballmom said …
(I stumbled on to this via your message to Simon…hope you don’t mind)
Over here, the grass is still lushly green with fat clover tops and the Canadian geese take their risks, grazing in the Fielding Field outfield. You can hear the bats “ping” and the cries of “Good swing!” Bat-a-que’s around the corner. “Tis another season, indeed …”
You all are missed.