What Price Baseball?

Noah had the best game yet last night. A $10 game. (He get's $1 for every hit/run/good play.)

And now he's upstairs barking like a dog. I wonder if it was worth it.

See, last night, both Mia and Noah had games. There was a freeze warning being put into effect from the entire Metro Atlanta area north until 9:00 am this morning, but since it wasn't yet below 40 degrees, they played the games. Nevermind that the wind chill was probably below 30. Nevermind that the girls had to wear sweatpants underneath their shorts and turtlenecks underneath their game sweatshirts and jerseys.

And nevermind that the boys' teams don't even HAVE uniforms equipped for cold weather play. So most of them were out there in baseball pants and turtlenecks or long sleeved shirts underneath regular game jerseys. No sweatshirts, no sweatpants.

When Mia's game was over at 7:20, David told me that it was probably too cold for us to sit in the stands for Noah's game (he coach pitches), so we stayed 1/2 of the first inning so I could watch Noah's first at-bat and then watch him run in to score. Then we left.

Those boys were out there until 9:00 pm... none of them with any meat on their bones... and it was still technically only 41 degrees when they got home. But when I went outside to get Noah out of the truck and bring him in, it was COLD!

We had to turn the heat back on because of the cold. So last night, after breathing in freezing air all evening, he went to sleep breathing in dry heat. Bad combination.

I'm now sitting here at 4:30 am after waking up to the (not so) melodious sounds of his barking cough at 4:00. He's not quite croupy yet, but damn close to it.

So I'm feeling a HUGE amount of parental guilt right now... I should have insisted he go home and not play. He's prone to this kind of stuff and I KNOW better.

I'm also feeling a HUGE amount of anger towards his league. They should have called the games last night. Those kids had no business out there in that cold. I don't CARE if that means we'd have to extend the season by another week. I'd rather he have an extra game in May than deal with this.

My poor baby.