Enjoyable day at two sparkling diamonds

I went home with the smell of the ball park in my nose.

   The sand has shifted into my brown dress shoes as I kicked them off at the door. I sat down at my laptop with strands of softball chatter in my head.
   Sulphur Springs teams have played 20 innings on Wednesday and I was able to cover 95 percent of it. That’s baseball and softball combined.
   Lucky me.
   And I mean that.
   For every sporting event I attend I think I learn something. Maybe not about sports, but the human condition. And my appreciation of the competition and thrill of watching it all and documenting the action.
   I have been doing this so long, at times I go into automatic pilot. But Wednesday for some reason, I started to revert to the fan mode for a couple of moments. I caught myself watching the games with delight. It was just such a nice, warm, perfect day for baseball and softball.
   Then, like getting cold water splashed in your face early in the morning, I would snap back to taking notes and the reason I was there. I capture the game or games in story form for the newspaper.
   I am thankful to have a job, especially this job, in a town where sports are appreciated.
   It all started during morning chill at a softball game between the Lady Cats and North Lamar. I don’t know if I have ever been to an 11 a.m. softball game. But I have now. I can mark that off my bucket list.
   The Lady Cats were ahead 2-1 when I left in the top of the seventh inning. (They held on to win by the same score). But I had to hurry off to Eagle Stadium to catch the Wildcats game against Paris. Catch is the key word as the game was decided by a daring catch for a double play in the outfield by Willy Ivery.
   I am old school, it gives me thrills to see a fast, athletic hero named Willy partroling the outfield grass.
   The good guys, the hometown Wildcats, won that game 5-2.
   Then quickly as I could, I scooped up my stuff, grabbed my lawn chair and it was to the Lady Cats softball diamond for their second game of the day.
   I sat up my chair in a quiet corner, I thought. Then parents from Crandall moved in and surrounded me. But it was all in good fun. They were at the game to watch their kids. I was covering the contest. We got along fine. I was just happy to be at my second softball and third game overall of the day.
   It was a fun day. I sat down at home to write about it all. The story will fade, but not my memories of a perfect March day when Sulphur Springs won three games. I was fortunate enough to be an eye witness to the events.
   I got to see a diving catch to save the day for the Wildcats. The Lady Cats won two and hit two home runs. It was a productive afternoon for all the Sulphur Springs teams involved.
   I went home with the smell of the ball park in nose.
   And that’s where this story began.