Warming Up

 

Spring is in the air.

When it gets cold, like it did this morning, the only other thing that truly warms me up are thoughts of spring.  For me, thoughts of spring begin when pitchers and catchers report to spring training to warm up for the upcoming season.  Spring training means that winter is just about over and grown men have a valid excuse to play catch again.

Several springs ago it dawned on me the value of warm-ups in my own life.  It was during that fateful spring that I was coach of my church softball team.  On one very dubious evening I inadvertently made a scheduling error that caused my team to show up late and subsequently forfeit the game.  Worst yet the whole team showed up and then got back into their cars disgustedly to drive the  forty minutes home.

Feeling humiliated and full of adrenaline I asked my catcher if he would stay to throw a few warm-up pitches with me.  About 30 pitches later I was feeling much better and then something strange happened.   A neighborhood boy about ten, along with his mom, approached me to ask me something.  Inquisitively I said yes.  He then asked what was my favorite thing about the game?  “Warm-ups”, I said after a brief moment of thought. 

In essence, warm-ups are that brief moment of the day no one can get to you.  As a pitcher you can’t walk anyone, the pop in the glove sounds louder and you feel like you could throw the ball through a brick wall.  Then when done we exchange manly handshakes and go about life. 

I have always known this act to have a special quality about it.  Probably, since I was a young boy in the back yard playing catch with my dad or as dad myself playing catch with my son as he grew up, but until that night I never verbalized it.  Warming up or playing catch almost always leaves me feeling better. 

 

Just something about pitchers and catchers reporting early to warm-up that  lets me know that all is well with my world.

 

Swavel