Using Technology to Tell Stories

As my kids get older, the more sports are dominating our lives. So here, I present my Y Movie as a way to look at baseball and my connections to my sons.

Here is the script:

Y is for youth baseball.

My wife and I spend most of our evenings on the ball fields of our small city in Massachusetts. With two boys playing in two different youth baseball leagues, my wife and I are scrambling around, trying to catch a few innings here and there, shouting out encouraging words and support. Our youngest boy, just two and a half, is a wishful thinker of the game, wondering how the ball has suddenly landed in his glove. His diamond is our back yard. Our middle son is in the farm leagues and just learning about staying in tune with the sport. He’s a quick learner, though, and already has the arm of a star pitcher. Sometimes, at home, I watch him from the window as he plays out entire baseball series between the Red Sox and Yankees in his imagination. And our older son has moved up to a more competitive league and everything in his mind right now is baseball, baseball, baseball. He’s emerged as one of the starting pitchers, the first base iron glove, and a lead-off batter. Recently, I came across a couple of photographs that brought the younger me up to the surface. Three of the photos were team pictures from my own little league years and the memories arrived at just the right moment in time, as my older son’s team is struggling mightily to even notch up a win this year. So I told him the story of my own team in the photograph, and how we were winless for so many games, so deep into the season. Somehow, though, we found a way to pull it together and end up in first place. The same box that housed the photographs also held the first place trophy as well. My older boys are in awe of the hunk of fake gold glory, so I gently reminded them that the true essence of baseball is not in the winning (as nice as that feels) but in the moments that accompany the waiting and anticipation, when you are crouched down low in the field or standing at the plate with the bat, ready to spring forward.

Y is for youth baseball.

Reflection:

This is one script that I rewrote a number of times to make it work the way I wanted it to work. One of my problems was trying to balance out the boys in somewhat equal fashion (it must be the thread of fairness that dominates our household sometimes) and then move from their experiences into my own memories. Luckily, we were cleaning out our attic and I found some of my old photos and scanned them into my computer. I like how it came out, as a tribute to them and to my own past. It has been years since I have thought about my own little league teams and what baseball meant to me on those spring and summer nights at the parks. I was hoping to recapture some of that here. (I also loved that I still had that cartoon illustration of me, striking out at bat. My kids love that picture and giggle at it everytime they see it — it’s my desktop picture for now)

– Kevin