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Engelhardt |
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(without really trying)
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Why the stricken look when he opened his gift?
of TheColumnists.com
It wasn’t intentional. At the time I didn’t even know I was doing it. Nevertheless, a few years ago I inadvertently created a monster. A baseball monster.
Oh, sure, it started out innocently enough. Husband Ray was about to have one of those ‘special’ birthdays, so I wanted to give him something he’d remember for a long time. Always a sports nut (mostly baseball and football), I figured he’d go bonkers if I sent him to one of those week-long fantasy camps that big-league teams put on. Well, at his age it sure as heck wasn’t going to be football, so I researched baseball fantasy camps in general and the San Francisco Giants Fantasy Camp in particular.
For a really obscene amount of money, I could send him away for a week in Scottsdale, AZ to play with other gee-whiz baseball wannabes and learn the “how tos” from former Giants players and coaches. It sounded perfect! In fact, he’d actually be celebrating his birthday while at the camp (held every year the last week in January).
Because it meant I had to pony up beau-coup bucks, I decided to make it a combination Christmas/birthday gift. Besides, I wanted to give it to him in early December so he’d have a chance to play some practice games with other out-of-shape guys who would be going to camp.
Since the first game was to be played in Sacramento on a Saturday in December, I told him to be prepared for a day-long trip. I snuck his glove and tennies into the trunk of my car, and away we went that day. About halfway there (I was shaking with excitement at what I was about to spring on him), I suggested we stop for some breakfast. As we ate I handed over an envelope with a mushy little note from me and the info I had printed off the Giants Web site about the upcoming Fantasy Camp.
He looked at it with probably the strangest expression I’ve ever seen on him. It was a curious mixture of surprise, amazement….and FEAR! When I told him we were headed for the Sacramento Rivercats Stadium where he would be playing a practice game with other baseball wannabes, he began mumbling something that sounded a lot like “No, no, no.”
This wasn’t exactly what I had expected. I mean, how often do you give a person a really creative (not to mention pricey) gift and they say “no?”
At first I attributed it to shock, but eventually it sunk in that maybe what I had just spent thousands of dollars for wasn’t such a great idea.
In retrospect, I’m glad he couldn’t get out of it even though he was scared speechless (I thought of another word to use here but decided against it because this is a family Web site!). As he slowly regained his equilibrium, I tried to encourage him by reminding him that he had played baseball in school and in city teams, etc., so he’d do just fine.
“I haven’t played since high school,” he said to me stone-faced. “That was a very long time ago.”
“But….didn’t you play softball or something with other guys later?”
“No,” he said. “I kept score while other guys played.”
“But--you LOVE baseball. You’re always watching it on TV and we go to games, and….”
“There’s a big difference between watching it and PLAYING it,” he moaned.
Ray reluctantly played in the game that day. I sat and watched, filled with anxiety that he was probably going to hurt himself and wouldn’t even be able to go to Fantasy Camp. He admits he didn’t have a good time at that first outing - he was out of shape, hadn’t thrown a ball in years, could hardly run after a ball hit his way, and he was afraid all the other players were a lot better than he was.
But he’s a gamer, he is. Once the enormity of what I had given him sunk in, he started going to a batting cage to practice hitting near our home, and he went to a couple more practice games before camp started. And--he began a stretching and exercise regimen!
That was nearly four years ago, and you know what? Ray has gone to Giants Fantasy Camp every year since then. Two years ago he took one of his sons with him. And he plans to be there again next January.
In the meantime, we now have more baseball memorabilia in our home than I could ever have dreamed. Baseballs signed by all the coaches (Jim Davenport, Bobby Bonds, Vida Blue, Mike McCormick and more…oh, my!). Photos of Ray with Vida, Ray with Bobby, Ray with his team and coaches, Ray in the outfield, Ray on second base, Ray hitting, Ray running. Well….you get the idea. And….and this is very special: He is probably most proud of not one, but two, star-shaped acrylic trophies given him as the Fantasy Camp’s “Mr. Nice Guy” in both 2003 and 2004.
Now, of course, we attend a lot more Giants baseball games….and listen to them, and watch them, and talk about baseball a whole lot more. Heck, this year we went on a ‘seven-ballparks-in-eight-days’ trip with a lot of other baseball fanatics. (But that’s a whole other story--coming soon!)
So now do you see what I mean when I say I created a monster? A Mr. Nice Guy baseball monster, to be sure, but a monster nonetheless.
©2004 by Joanne Engelhardt. The photo is the property of the author. All rights reserved.
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