Clare and I were
supposed to go hitting Thursday, but the “bees” were out, especially with the
temperature hovering around 10 degrees.
When it gets that cold, the inside at Stella’s is what you might call
moderate meat-locker; wrists sting with every ball hit. But, hey, today's temperature reached the mid-20s, so
hitting it was.
The first thing
I noticed was the focus—you could tell the season has started. Clare had one swinging strike in 120 pitches
and maybe 12-14 fouls. Everything else
was scalded. Dad likes it when the
other guys watch this girl hit. Let me
just add here that Clare hit while standing on a floor mat because the
right-handed batter’s box had a puddle from melted snow brought in on shoes and
pants.
As we were
driving over the tundra (most Chicago suburbs are dangerously close to running
out of road salt), Clare mentioned that Oklahoma, last year’s NCAA Division I
champs, was already playing. Sunbelt and
West Coast teams have all the breaks, or at least the weather. They can practice outdoors and start their
seasons early, which is why Division I plays 25-plus more games than Division
III. What they don’t do is suffer
through the cold batting cages or shag fly balls outside at the end of February
while dodging piles of snow or play conference games in 40 degrees, with a
stiff breeze off Lake Michigan. We’re
not talking bees, but sharks.
So, Sooners, play a
couple of games around here or Minnesota or Maine, and we’ll see how tough you
guys are.
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