THE GRIND THAT IS PARENTHOOD

Man, my life is nuts.  I look forward to the weekend, but the weekend gets away from me... like... every weekend. 

My oldest son is on a competitive tournament baseball team, plus he plays on a team with a long time friend of mine and he does extra work in our home town.  A few years ago when I said that my life was consumed with baseball... well, it's worse now. 

I'm also a coach, and so, even though I need to pack the truck up with my son's bats and equipment, a case of water, a cooler with fruit and snacks and sandwiches... I'm loading in my bucket of balls, my gloves, my fungo... paperwork for the teams, contact numbers for the umpires, the field contacts... and I need to remember my wallet.  Yup, I forgot it once while I was at a  tournament... and I felt naked all weekend.

So that's every weekend now until the end of October.  My son is finally in a place where he is able to work counts, usually get base hits on 2 strikes, and never fear standing in the batters box.  At 13, and on a 60/90 field, it's crazy to me.  I was never on a 60/90 field at 13. I was 15 and I couldn't believe it then. Now these kids walk on like they've always played there... and it's refreshing and brings a flutter watching my son trying to master it. I'm proud... but there's more to it. It's something I always wanted to see him do... now he's doing it.  He's smooth, he's proved doubting coaches wrong and he's become a master of the game.  In short... I'm his biggest fan.

My other kids play football.  They're young, but it's fun to watch.  There's no hard hits. Usually they fall like dominoes and they're all laughing about it after.  That's 2 times a week... and my wife has to deal with shuttling them over to that and then getting my 2nd born to swim practice 5 times during the week.  To suggest that my wife and I have literally spend 2 hours a weekend with each other is probably even a stretch.  She'll break my balls because I snore at night. Well, I'm exhausted... and by the way, she snores too.  Boom... that just happened.  The truth is though, competitive sports consume us. And no, we don't believe anyone in our family will go pro.  We are not making trophy kids and are not looking for the Yankees or the Bengals to knock on our door.  We are however trying to keep our kids engaged in sports because we believe in the discipline of the game, the practice, the respect between them and their coaches and teammates, and the understanding that working hard will bring you success... with every at bat... with every touch of the wall in the Butterfly event... and with every throw or touchdown made.  You can be great... not just in the sport, but in life, but you need to work at it.  And so... they do.

It's what you do, isn't it? I mean, as parents, we deal with the homework, we try to get our kids ready on time for school and help them with studying, but every once in a while things fall by the waste side because there is so many other things going on... like sports.  For instance, the toilet seat. It's a major problem in my house.  My wife lives with 5 boys... me being one of them. She complains that the seat is always up, or, has pee on it. 

Well, we're men... we shit with the door open, we make our own beef jerky, and we piss on the seat if we're feeling alittle lazy.  That's what we do...and when I say "we", I mean my boys, who know they need to lift the lid, but "forget" or are too lazy to do it.  It's terrible actually, but when we're home and not doing sports, which will be in November... we'll revisit what NOT to do in the house.

So you're saying to me, 'Casey, what do I care about you and your personal life. What's up with the Yankees?'  Well, good question, and I'm going to be honest with you.  I feel kind of bad.  I mean, we just reached our 5th birthday at Bleeding Yankee Blue, and I've been alittle MIA.  Not just me by the way... many of our trusty writers.  As the Chief, my job has always been to send out assignments and ask my writers to put together something magical for all of you. The fact is, I've been swamped... and I am not doing my job. I'm sorry. 

But now you know why.  It's not that I'm bored of BYB.  It's not that I don't care.  It's just that I can't get to my computer every second of the day to give you every story out there.  Now in fairness, we are the exception, meaning, I'm not going to being you every mini-story just to get clicks and reads.  If a story isn't that important, but every blog has it, most likely we won't have it.  But there is plenty out there, and when there are interesting news and nuggets, we will not leave you hanging.  I just wanted you to step inside my world for a minute, and understand what we're dealing with as a family unit.

In the end, you guys are my second family. I appreciate you all dearly, but I just wanted to be straight with you.  You can say I don't owe that to you, but I do. I take this stuff seriously, and I don't want to let you down.

So there you have it, and don't worry; I'll get on the stick right away and get with my writers and get some good stuff up on the pages of BYB quickly.  You deserve the best, and we won't let you down.

Thanks for all the notes and questions. I am perfectly healthy, I'm not in jail and I didn't lose my ability to type.  I'm just swamped with life... and to be honest, I'm loving every minute of it...

Thanks guys.  Thanks for being there. You're all an amazing support system.

 

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