May 10

My sweet Brady is sad tonight, and I can't fix it.

We were out in full Wight force tonight for his last regular season game with the Pirates; the definitive game that would decide who finished in first place. Even Abby made the trek over to the Sports Park to support her youngest brother.

They played well (which hasn't always been the case of late) and things were going in their favor until the last few minutes of the game, when all h-e-double hockey sticks broke loose. After one batter got aboard and another was (suspiciously, if you ask me) beaned, the opposing team intentionally walked one of our guys to load the bases. Brady was the next kiddo in the batting order, but the I-walk confused everyone and his teammate took his spot instead. No one on our side noticed, that batter struck out, and then Brady came up to bat. A few pitches in, the other team's scorekeeper interrupted the game to announce that we'd batted out of order. And that was it. Game over. First place lost.

I could tell that a very confused Brady was trying to hold it together as he headed back to the dugout and he emerged from the very brief post-game meeting in tears. Abby surprised and impressed me when, upon seeing his face, she immediately gathered up all of our things (which included two stadium seats, my purse, my crochet bag, and two full-sized blankets) and ushered him toward the car. So although it was a negative situation, I'm grateful for her mature, protective response.

He was upset about losing the game, of course, and he was upset about the out-of-order batting debacle. But he was more upset that the other team intentionally walked someone to get to him. It made my heart hurt to see how much it hurt his feelings. I assured him that he's a good player, but I'm not sure that my words meant much. So tonight, I'll be praying that God will repair his hurt feelings and use them for good down the line. Because sometimes, there's not much else a mom can do.