Diamonds ARE this girl's best friend...

I see great things in baseball. It's our game — the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ~Walt Whitman

I have been so blessed by baseball. I love sports. If you know me…this is NOT a news flash. My insane love for sports (normal, popular sports like baseball and football) is one of the only things that my awesome cousin and I do not share. Now, the uncommon ones…curling, biathlon, etc…we DO share a love of those ;) But there is just something about baseball…

I may have met my love, my better half, the amazing man who is my rock…at a bowling alley, but I fell in love with him on the baseball diamond. When I met him he was coaching a Little League team of 11/12 year olds, 5^th and 6^th graders…the EXACT level/age that Justice is now. He was blessed to coach those boys on that team, and then coach many of them again on a high school football team. I fell in love with who he was as a coach, how he coached and how he cared…was just different. I have been around coaches, been the Coach’s wife for a LONG time and he is unique. There are few coaches or people even, which see what he sees…understand what he understands. I can think of one, maybe two others. And he has this ability on a football field, a softball field, anywhere he goes…but no place quite like he does on the baseball diamond, or in the backyard…because he has created two amazing little players for Team Norton. 

Justice has played a few years, not many really. His social skills and ability to interact with teammates has always been a struggle, so for team sports we have always focused on basketball through Upward Sports. He is actually only in his 3rd season of baseball. He is becoming more and more comfortable in a variety of positions…and I think the WEB GEM catch he made tonight will definitely boost his confidence in the outfield.

Our Peanut is quite the ball player as well. In only her 2^nd season playing (she played when she was 4) she is already very comfortable at shortstop AND her latest position…catcher.  She even talked the coach into letting her catch the entire game, on only her second day ever catching. She’s got a swing that is ridiculously similar to Evan Gattis, and has NO FEAR behind the plate.

I have been continuously blessed by baseball. I fell in love with their daddy on that diamond. We celebrated our marriage with a honeymoon in Atlanta…watching our Braves. Justice was at the ballpark when he was 2 weeks old to watch his daddy umpire, and Savannah has literally grown up in a softball dugout. Back in the mountains, we had our Asheville Tourists…and because of them have met some great players like Corey Dickerson of the Colorado Rockies (he and Justice actually share a birthday.) And another one…Russell Wilson, who is an even better person and Christian than he is a ballplayer…baseball OR football.

Baseball continues to bless me. There is just something about that diamond, the grass, and my coach. He is ‘retired’ now, but will always be a coach in my eyes.  That diamond makes me fall in love with him all over again. Every.dang.time.