Number 29

My son David is a people person. He thrives in group situations, enjoyes leading out and certainly enjoys being the center of attention. David recently began playing baseball with the Park and Rec. dept in the Sunset District. His team is the Marlins and his number is 29. He's never really played organized sports before so this has been a high learning curve for him. David is an athletic boy, no question. But he is lacking in the skills to be a great player. As you can imagine he has been a humbler and quiter version of himself in the team context. He's had to deal with the defeats of multiple strikeouts, being tagged out at first base, and dropping balls that was headed for him in left field. The baseball team enviroment has provided many avenues to shape David for life (being part of the team, encouraging others, patiently waiting your turn, dealing with loss, and more). Well last night something remarkable happened. The Marlins were having a terrible game - errors, strikeouts, no runs - and the SoMa team was doing well - hits, steals, scoring. In the second inning at thier time up to bat two Marlins players were called out and three players each got on base. Then, David was up. I could feel the pressure for him. A strikeout would be consistent with sentiment of the Marlins and parents up to then. But that was not to happen tonight. David hit a solid one deep into right field. He made it to second and two players came in. That was the start of the rally for the Marlins. I don't know if they won or lost the game, but in the game of life David had his moment and everyone acknowledged it. As a parent I could not help but be elated for my son. But that was not the remarkable thing. It came after the game as we sat around the dinner table. David exciteldly told me, "Dad I got behind Alex in his moment (as pitcher) and Damien in his (stealing two bases). It's not just about me and my moment." You don't know how powerful THAT moment was for me. Seeing David "get it" that life is not just about "me". Yep, number 29 is doing alright in the game.