sherriknits

Ok, I know I have already been here today, but I just finished watching the Mariners game (woo hoo…go Mariners!!!)…yep, we’re undefeated.  Haha I have to say that because you never know what these guys are gonna do, but I’m not a fair weather fan. 

I was thinking about Mary this afternoon because I knew she got to go to the Yankees game today….but boo hoo, they got rained out.  I was sad for Mary.

We didn’t get rained out, but we did get snow, rain, hail and then sunshine.  Crazy.  They closed the roof, though, so only the people in the bleacher section got snowed, rained, hailed on.

A few years ago, the little imp was asked to throw the first pitch at the Tacoma Rainier game.  They are the farm team for the Mariners.  It happened to be J.J. Putz day and when I saw him closing the game today, I thought about that day and wanted to share an imp story. J.J. was called up to the Mariners a few days after our big game.

The little imp got therapy at no charge in our home from the Elks Club for 11 1/2 years.  We loved our therapist, she was like one of the family (well, still is).  She asked us if we thought he would like to do it.  He actually has a pretty good throwing arm and we had a friend of ours “coach” him.  He called her Coach for a long time afterwards.  So, therapy days were all about baseball and so was almost every day for maybe 2 months. 

On the big day, some friends of ours offered to drive their RV and a bunch of us piled in it to go to Big Game.  We also had family come from all over…we had 32 people in the stands to root for him. 

Unfortunately, all of my very poor quality digital pictures are on floppy disks and I don’t even have a computer with a floppy drive here at home so I can’t get them off, but I did take a picture of the little one I have hanging on my wall.

A few days before the game, Coach and I drove up to Cheney Stadium to see about getting him a jersey to wear for the game.  The lady who ran the gift shop told us that they were trying to get kids jerseys made but were having trouble with them.  We decided to buy him a t-shirt on game day if they didn’t get the jerseys done.  She said he’d get a free cap and some other fun things the day of the game too.  Turned out they had all kinds of trouble with the jerseys and they *gave* him the prototype jersey for free!

You wouldn’t believe all the rules we were given before walking out onto the field.  The big one: DON’T STEP ON THE GRASS!  The grandpa of the other little girl from the Elks Therapy program did and wow, did he get told!

When they called us all out there, (and yes, we did walk on the grass to get out to homeplate…go figure), they explained about the program.  When they introduced the little imp….it sounded just like they do when the major league players.  His name rang through the stadium and our friends were cheering…and that little baseball star stepped forward with both hands raised in fists and turned this way and that.  His big moment!  It was the sweetest thing ever.

Then he threw that ball and yes, it actually made it to homeplate! (well, it rolled the last little bit of the way) All that practicing paid off in a big way. 

Of course, he actually thought he was pitching for the whole game and his therapist had to snare him up and run off the field with him. 

When we got back to our seats, I can’t tell you the tears flowing up there because everyone was so proud of him.   What a day and what an experience.

So, if you are a baseball fan and you see J.J. Putz closing for the Mariners , you think of our little imp.

Technorati Tags: Event, Imp

Tags: event, imp

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