Softball is For Girls is THANKFUL

Today is Thanksgiving – and most of us are setting aside our bats and balls, bat bags and cleats to spend some time with family, friends and loved ones.  As the weather gets colder (for many of us), we will soon be suffering from fastpitch withdrawals – eager for the sun to warm the frost of the softball fields so that we can get back to what we do again.

Today however – lets be thankful!  The opportunity to participate in fastpitch blesses us in so many ways. Whether we are a parent, player, umpire, fan, coach, tournament director or run the concession stands at the ball park – softball is a blessing.  Here is what we are thankful for!

We are thankful for the noise at the ballpark (sans the cowbell), the cheering parents, the cheering girls, the roars of passion that come when a good play is made or a home run is hit. We are thankful for the hundreds of girls who sit in loud meditation as they cheer on their peers and teammates, working together and completely focused for a common goal.

We are thankful for the girls who give up parties and skating, and boys and their Iphones, in order to spend their weekends at the ballparks!

We are thankful for the confidence and self-esteem and happy faces, and smiles and laughter that can be seen in nearly every corner of a ballpark. From little children playing in the dirt, to the dugout, to the parents and coaches who beam with pride and love as they watch their players play.

We are thankful for the colors and the camaraderie that comes with wearing the colors of a team. Ball parks are the brightest places on earth, decorated with wild, bizarre, bright and cheerful girls wearing a rainbow of color – all playing for the name on the front of the shirts rather than the name on the back.

We are thankful for the men and women who suit up and umpire the games, through wind and rain and cold and heat, who often share simple words of kindness and gestures of love with the girls on the field.

We are thankful for the men and women who take the time to coach. Say what you want, coaching a girls fastpitch team takes time and money and patience and love for the game. If it wasn’t for these VOLUNTEER coaches – there would be a lot of girls not able to play.

We are thankful that we live in a world that offers softball complexes and batting cages in nearly every town – a world that realizes the importance of sports and supports the life lessons that can only be gained by participating in sports such as fastpitch.

We are thankful for the parents who drive  miles and miles, pack coolers, give up their weekends and their weekdays, who spend endless hours in the yard sitting on buckets, or pitching to their daughters, who budget their household so that their daughters can pursue their dreams of playing.

We are thankful for the girls who play – who give their all, who are so passionate about a game they love that they literally live and breathe the game.

We are thankful that we live in a time, in a society, that allows our young girls to DREAM BIG  and that NEVER EVER sells them short because they are girls. Although we still have a long way to go, we couldn’t be more grateful that our daughters are given the right to play sports competitively and are finally being recognized as serious athletes.

We are thankful for all the people behind the scenes who work extremely hard to coordinate tournaments and events for fastpitch players.

We are thankful for the early mornings that wake us to see the sunlight, and the long evenings that end up under the moonlight.

We are thankful for pickle juice and pixie sticks, bottled water and ball park hotdogs, flat cokes and watered down hot chocolate on cold mornings.

We are thankful for stinky socks and worn out cleats, leather gloves and dinged up bats, brick-dust stained pants that seem to never come clean.

We are thankful for the friendships made along the way, the extended family that we all gain when we are on a team – for the people that we find and the realization that we are all much more alike than different – especially in a world that tends to throw up walls between people. At the ballpark, we are all ONE!

Mostly, we are thankful for each and every one of you. For sharing the passion. For sharing the game. For sharing your daughters and your experiences with us, for being a fan of our page, and for staying involved in the dreams of so many girls across so many states who quite simple love softball.

We are all SO blessed!  May your day, your life, your experiences on the softball field always be viewed with gratitude!