Well, hello there. It’s
been a while. A long while. So, I thought I’d dust this old thing off and
bring something new for the masses.
It’s summer. And that
means baseball. I was never an athletic
child. I’d rather be in a corner reading
a book. But when The Minion started
playing sports, it made me realize that while I have no desire to play sports
myself, I am fiercely competitive and want my kid to CRUSH the opposition. Fairly.
And with class. But still. DECIMATE.
So. That leads us to today’s tale
from the ballpark.
First, let me give some backstory on the other mom I will
talk about. She’s a foo foo fancy
mom. Her kid went to preschool with
mine. We definitely did not mingle. We were polite. But it was obvious we were not of the same
social circle. She’s a Talbots kind of
woman. Always perfectly coifed and
bejeweled. All crisp creases and linen
and what’s trending in current fashion.
I am … not. I am very much a
jeans and t-shirts kind of girl. Always
have been, always will be.
She’s also a bitch.
You know the ones. Loud voice,
always taking over the room and ordering things done her way. Which, in some instances can be a good
thing. But not all the damn time. I get exhausted just watching her. You know the type. She sweeps in for the class holiday party,
all decked out in her festive outfit, perfectly put together, with perfect hair
and nails and sparkles and the expensive tote bag of goodies. She pulls out the big bakery box and loudly
tells everyone and anyone nearby that she TOTALLY forgot that she was supposed
to bring cupcakes for the party, so she had a very dear friend that bakes whip
these up last minute. Then she trills
that fake laugh that makes you want to stab her with a spork, and opens the box
with a flourish.
Inside are petit fours.
Not the small bite size ones, but the big ones that would cover your
palm. And they are fondant covered
squares decorated to look like presents.
There are sprinkles and swirls and metallic flakes. Fancy.
With marzipan bows and each one has a candy gift tag with each child’s
name written on it. Everyone gasps and
oooohs and aaaaaahs.
And in your head you are thinking, “Bitch, please. Last minute MY ASS.” And you just know that she put this order in
at Thanksgiving. At the fancy schmancy
organic gluten free artisanal bakery that you hear is amazing, but you don’t
know personally because you can’t afford $18.50 for one of those damn petit
fours. Well played, diabolical party
mom, well played. She’s casually implied
that the owner of said fancy bakery is such a close personal friend that she
would whip these up last minute just for her, even though it’s a busy
season. And, one look instantly lets
everyone know exactly where they came from and how much this box of 20 petit
fours cost, just in case there was any doubt about her large disposable income.
That bitch. That’s who I am dealing with here at the ball
park.
Her husband coaches the team and she is the official
scorekeeper and generally In Charge. It’s
obvious she’s used to being In Charge of everydamnthing. She has this giant button that is always
pinned right at her heart. It’s a
baseball with her kid’s name embroidered in it.
Damn thing is twice the size of a grapefruit. And it’s hand-made, special. Cost a pretty penny. Because of course it did.
We’ve had a lot of rain, so our game over the weekend was
rained out. It’s been a week since we’ve
played, and the last game we lost by 2.
Our kids are coming off of a week with no play, and a crushing
defeat. We already knew two boys would
be out. Then a third isn’t coming. And it’s almost game time. Suddenly we have a fourth kid that’s a
no-show. Can’t get in touch with him. We have 8 players. And it’s raining again.
Google. Rules say
that we have to have a minimum of 9 players on the field or we forfeit. We have 8.
The umpire agrees to let us play the first inning, with the hope that
the 9th is just running late and will show. This was very nice of him. The whole discussion has taken place over by
our dugout. We are well aware of the
rules and where we stand. We take the
field with 8. The other team doesn’t
seem to notice or care.
At the end of the inning, the umpire comes over and asks the
coach if our 9th ever showed up.
He tells him that no, we only have 8.
They again discuss the forfeit rule, and the coach acknowledges that he
knows and understands. No matter what
happens in this game, we lose due to the forfeit rule. Okay.
Let’s play ball. The game is
going dismally. The other team has
scored 8 runs on us in about 10 minutes.
Our best player – our home run hitter – is not playing today. We struggle on.
We rally. We manage
to get into some semblance of our usual rhythm, and the score is close. It’s 12-11.
We are proud. We have 8 kids on
the field. Our two best hitters are not
even playing. They have a full
team. And we’ve managed to hang in
there.
Suddenly, SHE takes notice.
Gets her phone. Starts
typing. Then, loudly, so EVERYONE can
hear, she starts reading the forfeit rule out loud. Everyone is looking at her, even the
umpire. She continues reading down to
the next part about how teams can borrow players from other teams, but only in
advance. And then, this bitch tells the
umpire that she thinks we borrowed a player illegally. That we “grabbed him from the playground.”
I’m sorry, what?!
Bitch has lost her damn mind. I
mean, if we were going to borrow a player, why the hell would we get only one,
leaving us still one player short where we have to forfeit? Not to mention, every kid on the field is in
full uniform. Where the hell did we come
up with a complete uniform for a random kid?!
Absolutely ridiculous. The game
is delayed for a couple of minutes while she babbles on idiotically to the
umpire about the rules and how she thinks we did this. And finally, the umpire realizes he as some
sense, remembers that we have 8 kids out there and have from the start, and
that it’s completely ludicrous to assume we would only put 8 kids on the field
if we were borrowing players because we need 9 to avoid the forfeit rule. So it’s confirmed that our kids are our kids
and not some random playground child and play continues.
Never have I wanted to have a win more than this. I mean, yeah, we lose due to forfeit, but
still. That bitch would know that we
really won. With only 8 players. And we would have kicked her teams’ ass with
less kids and her team’s victory is therefore bullshit and only because of a
technical rule.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Our boys couldn’t get it together on their last turn at bat, and they
ended up beating us 15-11. Which
sucked. But still. We managed to get 11 runs in, without our
best hitters, and without even having a full team on the field. I was still proud.
But man, I wanted to give that bitch a hoof to the taco. I didn’t say a word. I took the morally superior high ground. But I also silently wished that she got splashed
by a car going through a puddle in the parking lot. And I also wished that I had parked in the
back lot so I could drive through all the puddles.
Moral of the story:
Don’t underestimate the nonathletic, former band geek mom in the
background, cheering on her kid in sports.
Her silence doesn’t mean she accepts defeat easily. She just might be
competitive enough to cut a bitch. Or a
bitch’s tires.