Definitely Not in Kansas Any More

Last night, Son Number One  — the newly-teen-aged-one (O.M.G!!!) — had his first baseball game of the season. Because we’re talking about Dominic here and he lives/breaths/dreams baseball for a couple of months before the season actually starts, it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. He was about to explode.

Also, by the time the game ended, it was 42°. Because Wyoming.

The team took it about as much in stride as one could have hoped, and even seemed to be enjoying themselves. True, they were a bit stiff out there — a fact perhaps best exemplified by the 3rd inning groundball to Dominic at short. He’s a typically smooth fielder — surprisingly smooth, given his father — but his throwing motion was a) much stiffer than usual and b) significantly lower than ideal as a result, and c) not caught by the first baseman who would normally have no trouble with it, except that his joints had pretty much stopped working. Because Wyoming, remember? And 42°?

Oh. And there was a good wind blowing. So the “Feels Like” temperature was probably in the high 30’s. (And when I say “high,” that’s more of a hope than a belief.) Still, they were having a great time. Warmed my heart to see it. Which is good, because the rest of me was thinking I’d probably never be warm again.

That’s nothing, though. It snowed during Sean the Second Son’s practice the day before. Right after the hail stopped. (They didn’t look like they were having quite as much fun as the Babe Ruth guys, either. Because some of them were wearing shorts.)

Looking for really, REALLY cold baseball? As usual, nobody does it better than the Big Boys, as evidenced by this story from April 17th:

Warm good wishes to the Minnesota Twins and their fans for playing and/or watching when the game time temperature Thursday at Target Field set a record for coldness at a Twins game.

It was 31 degrees for the start of the first game of a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays. There was a doubleheader Thursday because of the snow and cold that had postponed a game on Wednesday. The only reason there could be any baseball played in Minneapolis on Thursday was that Twins employees pitched in and helped clear the snow at Target Field.

Congratulations to everyone involved. That was a true team effort.

Attribution(s): Images provided by Shutterstock, for which I am very grateful. ’cause there’s now way I’m taking my camera out in 42°.