Brooke de Lench's blog

I think I may be doing a lot of writing this winter from my home office, by the looks of it. It seems like just yesterday that I was listening to the hummingbirds three feet away from my desk. Today the snow falls deep, giving me an opportunity to take it slow,  and have fun snow shoeing in the winter wonderland.

When my sons were eleven their youth baseball team had reached the championship game. There were two outs in the bottom of the sixth.  Our team was down by a run, but the bases were loaded.  Taylor, the first born of my triplet sons, was at the plate. It was a pressure-packed situation, but Taylor was the team’s leader in runs batted in and had come through in the clutch all season long. A walk would tie the game. A hit might bring in two runs and win the game.

Ball one.  Ball two. Ball three!  One ball away from a bases-on-balls which would knot the game. Taylor swung and missed at the next two pitches.  Full count.

Thirteen years ago, on their first day of their first year of middle school, my triplet sons each received a thick green booklet packed with school rules and policies, and survival tips for incoming sixth graders .  Parents were provided with a copy of the same booklet.

Before every sports season, parents all across the countries are asked to sign forms holding the sports program in which their child will be participating harmless and releasing the program from liability should he be injured. No ifs ands or buts.  The parent or guardian of a child using a program or town’s facilities must sign a waiver.  Such forms are typical for all camp programs; sports clinics and sporting events organized by independent groups, such as the baseball, soccer and football organizations using town fields.

The New York Times recently ran a thought provoking story by Michael Sokolove called The Uneven Playing Field . The long and short of the article was that the bodies of female athletes, especially their knees, are taking a beating playing sports.