Cheers
How
does a softball dugout differ from its baseball counterpart? To this observer, it’s not the swearing—ballplayers
are, after all, ballplayers—but the cheering.
Boys don’t do what girls do so well.
Back
when Clare was in eighth grade, I admit this bothered me. I assumed that cheering was one stepped
removed from cheerleading, but I was wrong.
The softball cheer is nothing short of first-rate performance art done
on the fly: One/one/one you’re the
one. I just would’ve thought no. 11 was
batting.
Feel
a shot comin’ on, shot comin’ on. Four,
four (repeated in the seagull voice proclaiming “Mine” from Finding Nemo). And names twisted and teased to fit the
moment and the voices available: Clare-Bear!
Clare-Bear! Boo-kow-ski!
This
may all sound pretty tame, but trust me, there’s at least one cheer with an
undertone so intense I can’t help but wonder if it’s about softball or
something a wee bit more primal, and remember that everything is performed at a
decibel level high enough to impress the most rabid Seattle Seahawk fans. I have no particular love for softball because
young women are entirely capable of playing baseball, and should be. But a baseball dugout is all testosterone and
whatnot. I’ve really come to appreciate
the softball alternative.
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