Play Ball!

You all know I grew up in small-town Utah. In the early 80s, our high school had less than four hundred students in a total of 4 grades. That meant lots of things...some good and some bad...but the worst part was that we weren't allowed to have a girls softball team. (They do have one now though and they are awesome!)

I'm on the back row, third from the left. The two men were our coaches.

Softball was huge in Sanpete County! Each town had at least one team in every age group and some towns had more than one. I started playing league softball when I was 8 years old. They actually started a girls' team because I wanted to go out for Little League with my brothers and there were some people in the town who just couldn't stand the idea of a girl playing with the boys. I think maybe I told you that story before...

We played softball all summer. We started in April and our last tournament was on Labor Day weekend. I loved the sport and I was good at it. I didn't love pitching, but I was the second in line when Yvonne got tired. My spot was shortstop and I had a wicked throw with a lot of heat. (Now that I'm old I don't play shortstop any more. I can barely make the throw to first.)

When I was 17, my YW leader was our first baseman. I played several years with that group and they were awesome! In 1982 we took second place in the county-wide tournament. My friends decided to have a huge party. My mom agreed to let me go because she assumed that Bonnie, my YW leader would be there. As it turned out, Bonnie had other things to do that night.

It was the first party I had ever been at with drinking and at 17, I was pretty clueless. But it didn't matter. My friends knew my standards and my parents...even if I had gotten down on my knees and begged, not a single one of them would have let me have a drop.

When I got engaged the next summer, these amazing ladies threw me a bridal shower one night after the game. When I got married and we moved away, these faces were some of the hardest ones to leave. At the time I had no idea that I would have a second chance to play ball...