April 3 – “Geyser-ed”

It started with a tingling, a cool, pleasant sensation creeping up my fingers and onto my hand.  Puzzling. 

And that’s how it began.  Last night I attended the opening day baseball game of my oldest grandson, Jachin.  Actually we went to the opening day game of Micah and Josiah as well.  We spent most of the day at the ball park.  Last night Cailyn was spending the night so Chris stayed home with her so she could get to bed at a reasonable hour.  I guess there is something about me being there alone that made me stand out.  That and Kel’s knowledge of my love of baseball.  So between the two of them I was drafted to be the official scorekeeper for the game.  Not a problem, really.  I enjoy doing that sort of thing.  It did mean no pictures or running commentary of the game for Nana, though. 

After saying hello to a guy I went to high school with who just happened to be one of the umpires for the game, I took my position on the bottom row of the bleachers and frantically began to enter the players’ names into the scorebook.  Didn’t have time to finish before the first pitch, though, so I had to catch up throughout the first inning.  But why should they wait for me?  I’m just the official scorekeeper.  Oh, and I was also the official pitch count recorder.  And they didn’t have the correct type of scorebook, so I had to keep track of pitches in a separate notebook.  I don’t know why they didn’t just ask me to operate the scoreboard, too.  Piece of cake.  I did catch up before the inning ended, though, and finally settled into a routine.  Little did I know that events were building that would lead to a disruption of that routine.

Somewhere in the flurry of recording hits and walks and wild pitches and passed balls, I began to notice a tingling, a cool, not unpleasant sensation creeping up my fingers and onto my hand.  Puzzling.  But I was focused on the batter and the next pitch and the runner on second base and … Then the feeling began to awaken in my mind a sense of remembrance.  I had felt this sensation before.  Many times, actually.  It was … it was … wet.  My hand was getting wet.  Very puzzling.  There was not a cloud in the sky.  The field hand no sprinklers that were mysteriously turning on.  But all of those would have made an appearance on my head first, not the hand that held the scorebook still on the makeshift desk that was my lap.  I looked around for another source of humidity, but saw none.  And with that turning on the bleacher, I suddenly noticed that the dripping on my hand had been there longer that I thought.  The entire underside of my blue jeans on my left leg was drenched.  And still the rain fell, or in this case, rose.  Finally I lifted the scorebook and realized that the underside of it was drenched as well.  Now that was the final straw.  I jumped from my seat, and still the moisture-ous flow continued, making its way upward from … from … under the bleachers?  By now others were wondering what was my problem, and they began noticing the phenomenon as well.  What was this mysterious geyser?

Stepping back from the bleachers I finally located the source.  Someone had dropped a full can of Dr Pepper and it had rolled under the bleachers to right under where I had been sitting.  And somewhere along its journey the can had managed to suffer a tiny pinprick of a hole from which was spewing a continuous spray of concentrated  carbonated beverage like Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park.  I had been geyser-ed.  The fan sitting next to me managed to move it and redirect the spewing menace away from our seats.  I dried off the scorebook best I could on the top side of my pants and resolved to wear some Dr Pepper for the rest of the game.  New style.  Oh, and I have to say … I never missed a pitch of the game.  All the records stand and are official.  Thankfully the final score was 15 to 0 in favor of Jachin’s team, so there will be no future review of the books for close calls or violations that might change the outcome.  But there will still be ample opportunity for future spewage.  As far as I know there will still be Dr Pepper’s for sale at all future games.  Please hold onto yours tightly.

Mark 4:39-40 says, “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’”

Father, thank you for the fun day at the ball park.  Baseball and grandkids.  Can’t get much better than that.  Amen.