Birthday party at the ballpark

Today Riley's friend William had his birthday party at the Dash game. Just after the rain delay, Riley and his buddies decided to head over to the grassy area to play catch for awhile. Just as the rounded the corner from the third base line to the outfield, we heard a loud C-R-A-C-K. Jeremy Farrell did it again -- he had hit another booming home run. And who was directly in line to catch the ball as it sailed over the fence and landed at his feet about 5 feet away from him? Riley. It was almost a perfect moment -- getting a homerun ball in front of all of his friend and their parents... Even from about 1/4 of the way across the stadium as I watched this unfold with some of the other parents, I could feel his excitement (and honestly, the parents were all so excited for him too). But then the big kids came along. They had to be at least 12, and even though Riley with his glove on his hand was sliding downhill to grab the ball, they knocked him out of the way to get to the ball. Certainly a natural reaction, so I didn't hold it against them to have gone after the ball, and they were old enough to know better than to steal a ball from a little kid, so I was sure they'd do the right thing and give it back to him (especially because there were also some adults with the 12 year old monsters). It was not to be.

As Casey and I were discussing the etiquette of this later, I figured he might lecture me on how whoever gets the ball should keep the ball, even if it's a big kid vs a little kid. He surprised me with his response, "I'm just glad it was me that was right there and you across the stadium. I was mad, but if you'd been there, I'm pretty sure you would've knocked that 12-year-old kid out." Ah, he knows me so well.

Luckily, Riley is a much better sport than I am. He shrugged it off and kept walking to the grassy area to play catch with his friends.