More from Tulsa Little League…(continued)

First of all, you have to understand…the ball park sits just
across the street from St. Francis Hospital.
Almost every night is the same…you hear the distant sound of the helicopter
headed our way. And the game stops while the boys all look skyward to watch the
helicopter come or go.

The other night our starting shortstop was Steven…a
different boy than the one that had the cup problem alluded to below. There
wasn’t quite enough action in the game to keep Steven’s attention and he was
enjoying looking at the clouds or the helicopter or the birds or whatever was
in the sky above his head.

Well…the bill of his cap was keeping him from having a good
view so he took off his cap and held it in his non-glove hand (his right). So you’ve
got a little guy playing shortstop with his eyes to the sky, his ball glove on
one hand, his cap in the other hand. Plus, he likes spinning around. I guess
that makes the view upward just that much more interesting.

Of course everything is fine…until the batter hits a little
loopy fly ball…to the shortstop. The ball is going to Steven’s right side and
he sees the ball; because he’s looking up and he doesn’t have the bill of that
cap bothering him. Now most shortstops are trained to run to their right and
extend their glove hand toward the ball in order to make the backhand catch.
This is logical. I mean…you don’t have a glove on your right hand. But what if
you are holding your cap in your right hand? You guessed it! Steven ran for the
ball with his right hand holding out his cap in order to catch the ball.

Now the perfect story would be if he had caught the ball
with his cap. But, alas, this isn’t a perfect world and that wasn’t the case.
The ball dropped harmlessly to the ground in short left field and Steven
dropped his cap to pick up the ball and throw it to second base. Steven resumed
his position…still without his cap on his head but in his hand.

So now we have “Cap Boy” and “Cup Boy” on the team. Who
knows what the Cup Boy would’ve done if a fly ball was hit to him while he had
his cup in his hand?

I’m reminded that the game is just the sideshow.