Saturday, March 22, 2014

Hoops, Baby

Ah, my favorite time of year.  March Madness they call it.  I call it Heaven. 
The picture above was taken when I was about nine months old.  You can see that my mom had high hopes for me.  Sadly, I played basketball back in the dark ages when girls could only dribble the ball twice before passing and we had to stop at half court and turn it over to the forwards on the other side who would then dribble and pass and dribble and pass and hopefully make a basket at the other end.  Not very exciting.
But I was a cheerleader.  I remember those wonderful post-season games in tiny, steamy high school gyms in Central Illinois, the over-flowing bleachers stuffed with fans screaming, yelling, and stomping while their favorite teams coursed up and down the floor making basket after basket.  My brother Paul was a wonderful player.  I still remember how proud I was when our local team had winning years.
I guess that was all I needed to become a fan.  When basketball season starts, I love to sit in the stands and cheer on our boys...and girls.  We have been so blessed this year with teams that have had great success.  But even after the high school season is over I am following the NCAA tournament and all the other tournaments that colleges play in.  I grab the paper every morning and check out the scores.  I am not so brave as to actually fill in the bracket.  I just am excited to read about the great comebacks, the upsets and the close games that are played.  I like nothing better than a game that goes into overtime.  Sometimes my 'favorite' team wins, sometimes it loses.  But it is all good, as they say.
And when the finals come and the trophy has been awarded to the Best of the Best, I smile and look ahead to the coming season......
Ah, baseball!  Did I tell you how much I love baseball......?

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