May 2

The experience of being a baseball mom probably isn't a unique one, but it's definitely distinctive since baseball is a sport that's marked by more failure than success. And that's why it's vitally important to have mom friends with you in the trenches as the season wears on.

We're bleacher warriors. We cheer the successes and lament the difficulties not as single people, but as a unit. We're perpetually hopeful for the best, but also keenly aware that anything can happen during the course of a seven inning game so we're always ready to shout out the good plays while simultaneously addressing and then putting to bed the ones that don't shine.

We notice more than you think we do. In fact, we know far more than you'd guess about the sport and about which kid on the roster is the best choice to pinch hit and which has a wicked, Varsity-worthy curve. We know, and we sometimes share those nuggets with one another, but for the most part, we keep those thoughts to ourselves.

And we do that because at the end of the day, we're just there to support our boys; to celebrate wins and to offer listening ears after losses. So today, I'm grateful to God for the community that I've found this year in my fellow baseball moms, like Shelley and Brooke. Without them, watching games would be a lot less fun.