{"id":20660,"date":"2024-03-20T00:07:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T06:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20660"},"modified":"2024-03-18T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T21:08:23","slug":"bibis-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/bibis-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Bibi\u2019s Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JOELLEN COLLINS<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
JoEllen Collins\u2014a longtime resident of the Wood River Valley\u2014is a teacher, writer, fabric artist, choir member and unabashedly proud grandma known as \u201cBibi Jo.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, I was able to be involved in something that reminded me of the values and aspirations associated with the America of my childhood. I spent some time observing the annual San Francisco Little League opening ceremonies at Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, the playground of my early life.<\/p>\n

I went for the pleasure of seeing my granddaughter start another year of baseball, the only girl on her team in that age bracket. Last year they won the San Francisco championship, and the celebratory photos show one blond pony-tailed girl amidst the cheering boys.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s my girl!\u201d I thought, carrying on the love of this sport, part of her grandma Bibi\u2019s childhood and adult family devotions.<\/p>\n

I have written before how my uncle Doc used to take me to see the Hollywood Stars, where I developed a crush on a renowned base stealer, Carlos Bernier.\u00a0I have an old photo of my attendance (taken just two days before the birth of our first daughter) at my husband\u2019s Entertainment League game (with teammates like Bobby Darrin), and the broad smile on my face.\u00a0It was such fun to be able to \u201croot\u201d for my shortstop partner. He continued to participate in softball leagues for many years. I still love baseball, though my loyalties have shifted in the second half of my life spent in Idaho.<\/p>\n

What was special about this last event was not only the anticipation of being able to \u201croot\u201d again for a favored team, but the overwhelming appearance of hundreds of kids\u2014toddlers to teenagers\u2014all proudly wearing fresh uniforms and marching together around the former football stadium. It was a heartrending spectacle, symbolic of wholesome activities outdoors. The excitement was obvious, but also the grand mixture of kids of all sizes, colors, neighborhoods, and incomes.\u00a0Sometimes lately I have to put aside my rose-colored glasses because of the fearsome hatred, evidence of falsehoods, and the difficulty of discussing politics. But here, on a sunny (though cool) day, the panorama of bright yellows, reds, blues and greens in uniforms on smiling kids with proud parents was reassuring. I know there are cranky Little League parents and some signs of poor sportsmanship, but mainly this is a time for kids to cheer each other on, say \u201cIt\u2019s O.K.\u201d to a fellow player who just struck out, and to absorb the truth (though tough sometimes) of knowing that there will be another chance to shine even if a foul is called.<\/p>\n

In short, seeing this generation playing our \u201cAll American Sport\u201d somehow makes me feel optimistic that these children will survive the stresses of our current world, that they will learn to practice tolerance, acceptance, and empathy for even those not on their particular teams.\u00a0At least, I can, if even briefly, sense the promise of the America I\u2019ve seen in both heroic and shameful times.\u00a0Perhaps getting to first base is still a goal that we can treasure, with a cheer and a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JOELLEN COLLINS Recently, I was able to be involved in something that reminded me of the values and aspirations associated with the America of my childhood. I spent some time observing the annual San Francisco Little League opening ceremonies at Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, the playground of my early life. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-on-lifes-terms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20661,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660\/revisions\/20661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}