I've spent every summer for the past fourteen years in a softball field. I played on the tee ball, minors, majors, seniors, and high school leagues. Softball was my way of showing who I was while growing up. My Dad taught me everything there was to know about softball. Softball was my life. As I played the game of softball I saw, heard, felt, tasted, and smelled many things.
The view of softball was my favorite even from when I was in tee ball; although, the imagery was a little different. While in tee ball I can remember seeing the old rusty fence, the soft green grass in the outfield, and the dirty sandbox look of the infield that had five white spongy shapes. It all looked so fun to play in. While in the outfield my main focus was the bright yellow dandelions and while in the infield sand castles were the only thing on my mind. The view of the softball field held most of my attention, but the sounds were also very intimidating. The sound of all of the other kids yelling "we want a pitcher not a belly itcher" or "we want a batter not a broken ladder" made me very nervous, but the sound of the coaches telling me that I WILL hit the ball or I WILL get an out was a great confidence booster.
High school softball was very different as to what I saw, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled. The sight of the field was amazing. The green grass was always cut to perfection, rarely seeing any dandelions which didn't really matter all too much because the main focus was always the game. The redbrick dust was the biggest difference from tee ball to high school softball. The red brick dust always stained our softball clothes a brown dirt color. Another thing that stained our clothes was blood. There was always someone who had a bloody red mess on their knee, leg, or elbow from sliding or falling or getting hit with the ball. It never seemed to fail that one girl would show up to school the next day with a bright purple and black bruise or a scab that covered her entire knee.
While some of the sights could be very disturbing the sounds could be even worse. There are always a few games every summer where a girl would get hurt so bad that she wouldn't be able to get up or move. Her screeching cry would send chills down my spine.This situation was the worst to see and to hear. On a lighter note the sound of the ball hitting the bat and the words coming out of the umpires mouth always brought us girls to attention. The feel of the bat when it hit the ball or the ball landing in the palm of the glove were some of the best feelings that I had while playing softball. Yeah, the perfect cut grass and the gravel feel of the brick dust was very intriguing, but it never beat the feel of hitting the ball and getting on base or catching the ball knowing that you were in control of the situation.
To me the smell of a softball field is the best smell out of all the other sports I have played. The fresh cut grass and just the smell of the outdoors has always been better than being in a gym full of sweaty basketball or volleyball players.
The taste of softball can be a good or bad taste. The bad tastes of softball would include sliding with your mouth open getting a mouth full of brick dust which dries out the mouth tremendously. The only thing that can fix that is the good taste of a fresh cold bottle of water or the fruity taste of Gatorade on my tongue.
Like I said before softball has been a part of my life for a long time and hopefully in reading this you can get a little taste of how it has made my life a great adventure.
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