Softball

In January, Morganne and I went down to the local elementary school to sign her up for girls' softball. She's been waiting to play softball since approximately the day she was born. (Her older half-brother is very involved in sports.) On the way to the signups, she was singing:

"Riddle-diddle, I'm not a little kid anymore!
 Riddle-diddle, I get to play softball!"

which made her mother a tad misty-eyed, looking at my long-legged lass.

We'd chosen girls' softball because Garry has coached Little League and didn't like some of the coaching practices. We also didn't like the way girls were treated by coaches and players in Little League. We'd observed some girls' softball games and noticed that the girls' coaches focused more on teamwork and were more encouraging and less macho than the Little League coaches.

Practices started two weeks ago. So far, the coaches and the skill level of the other girls impress us. Coaching 6 and 7 year olds is a bit like herding cats.

Playing softball is a triumph for Morganne in a very personal way. She has a hereditary vision problem that causes very poor depth perception. Both of her grandmothers have the same problem. Morganne started wearing glasses and an eyepatch at age 4 and her depth perception has improved to the point where she can hit a pitched baseball.

Morganne's goal is to be the next Desiree Knipfer, a local high school softball player who set the all-time national strikeout record last year with 521 for the season. She threw 14 shutouts.