Much to his surprise, Richard has turned into a baseball fan. He's hooked on the Tampa Bay Rays. Over the course of the summer he's learned all the players names. Garzo, Peena, Zober,Upter and Longo. For those of you who follow the Rays, you'll know who he's talking about. Mispronouncing words and names is par for the course around here. I'm lucky that after 22 years of marriage he can say 'Linda'. I'm used to doing the translation.
I come from a long line of baseball fans. My grandparents listened to Detroit Tiger games on the radio. My father took us to the ball park no matter what city we were living in at the time. Richard was into swimming as a child and never played baseball. He had a big learning curve. I had to explain the baseball lingo like full count, double play and the seventh inning stretch. Richard is a quick learner however. He talks baseball like a pro now. Now when he's watching a game, I get some quiet time to myself, so I want to encourage his interest in it as much as possible.
There are still some things he can't figure out and I don't know the answer. Like what do those hand signals the catcher gives to the pitcher mean? And why does the camera man have to give us a close up of his crotch while he's doing it?
"Why do they have to spit all the time?" I asked. It was grossing me out so much spitting in between pitches. Home plate must be slippery by the end of the game.
"Do you think they ever forget where they are and spit in the house?" replied Richard.
"Why don't you email that question to 'Ask the Rays' and see what they say?"
I'd love to know. Wouldn't you?
They spit to get rid of all that chewing tobbaco in their mouth. Yuck! A better question to a spitting player is does your wife let you kiss you with all that gross stuff in there?
ReplyDeleteIt's sunflower seeds. The Tampa Bay Rays are a part of Smoke Free Florida. They don't smoke, they don't dip, they don't chew. Double Bubble gets tons of free advertising from the dugout.
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