It's Finally Summer (a Boyfriend post)

From February through June, for the most part, my life revolves around baseball. By association so does Riley's. She likes the Red Sox and all, but comes nowhere close to my level of fandom. My excitement kicks in as spring training starts and by the time the regular season opens I can become downright obsessed. I watch every game available, whether or not it's the Twins. Back when I lived away from Minnesota I would purchase mlb.tv so I could watch every Twins game, but would also watch the local game at the same time, if it was on. Once Riley and I were even at a Mets game in Queens, while I was watching the Twins live on my iPhone at the same time. I repeatedly check all the sports sites for updates throughout the day, follow several Twins-centric blogs and have been known to watch Baseball: a film by Ken Burns when I can't get enough. Yeah, all ten dvds worth.

Field of Dreams makes me cry. Yes, that's the one with the talking corn field and Kevin Costner.

It must have been a long spring for Kelly. When you throw in the fact that this is the opening season of Target Field--the new home of the Twins--and the fact that I am living in Minnesota for the first time in almost ten years, you could say I became a little over obsessed this time around. We've watched a lot of baseball and gone to quite a few games. It's been great. But expensive. And it is starting to wear on us, a little.

That's why I'm surprised by a recent turn of events. For as much of a fan as I am I don't play baseball and rarely get a chance to play catch. In fact, I haven't had a glove for years. So, when I get the chance, I usually jump at it. Such was the circumstance the other day--after dinner at my uncle's he and I were tossing the ball around when Riley grabbed an extra glove and joined in. Now I've got to say that this was a little unexpected. I can't recall having Riley show interest in this before. Every once in a while we'll throw a Frisbee around, but I don't think I've ever seen her throw a ball. That's why I was a little surprised when, after she made a nice little grab, she threw a solid strike right into my mitt from at least 70 feet. My glove even made that nice popping sound.

What a pleasant surprise.

Three of played for quite a while, with my aunt joining in even. Just about every single ball Riley threw hit the target. She has an arm ladies and gentlemen! (Would now be an appropriate time to thank you Jack?) We had a lot of fun that evening and we even got to play catch again the very next day while visiting my Mom. On the way home we tossed around the idea of buying gloves and making it a regular thing. And, the next week, we did! We're each the proud new owners of mitts. We even did the whole oil them up, place a ball inside and wait thirty six hours thing to break them in. We haven't had the chance to play catch at home yet though--we've had plenty of rain and spring like cool whether lately in Minnesota. But as I sit here writing this post it is at least 85 degrees with about 85 percent humidity. The sun is still out too, so maybe we'll go play.

It's finally summer!