Funny Guy Friday... Irresponsible and Bad decisions...

    The other day, my 10-year-old baseball team was practicing in preparation for the upcoming State Tournament. It was hot, but not what I would consider a sweltering day. We did a scaled-down version of our running drills, and we did some defensive drills---nothing really taxing.
    About halfway through the practice, one of our players, one that happens to have the same last name as mine, complained that he felt sick. I lovingly told him to sit down and rest, drink some water and see if he felt better. Okay, I may not have been very loving, but I certainly wasn't mad at him as some have suggested! Anyway, he came back to practice, only to sit down again after a few minutes.
    This prompted my inquiry into his diet for the day: "What did you eat? Did you eat mom's egg salad before practice?" Again, not mad, although to some, it may have appeared that I was agitated. Anyway, he claimed that he did not eat anything that would have caused the problem.
    He was not the only one that seemed to be dragging, and we were all going to go watch a 12-year-old team from our organization play at another field, so I stopped practice a bit early. I did tell the kids that there is a very good possibiity that we will play games in hotter weather, and we will need to handle it better than we did at this practice.
    In the middle of this great teaching moment, Matthew threw up at my feet.
    Do you think that Derek Jeter ever threw up on Joe Torre's shoes? I doubt it. You will be proud to hear that I fought through the unpleasant circumstances, stepped aside and finished my speech.
    It turns out that Matthew ate nothing during the day. He forgot to eat because he was at a friend's house. Not to be too disgusting, but it was clear that there was not much in his stomach.
    Now, at the end of my talk, with parents standing around, I decided to ask the moms if it was a bad idea to take Matthew to the game, or should I just take him home. Now, what I thought I heard one of the moms say was: "Ask him how he feels and decide after that." No problem. We got in the car and he looked bad but seemed to be feeling better. In fact, I know that I heard him say, "That was the best throw up that I ever had." Good enough for me, it was game time! I decided his getting sick was a one-time-thing.
    We had a few other topics of discussion during our ride to the game, including, What do we tell mom? "Mom is on a need to know basis," I advised, "but you cannot get sick again." He promised he would not, and that was that---case closed! This is how men handle their business. The women folk don't need to be all up in our business!
    Problem---Mom showed up at the game. She was sitting on one set of bleachers and Matthew was sitting on another set of bleachers. My initial plan was to avoid Cheryl and use the "if she don't ask, I won't tell" policy. Unfortunately, I noticed that she was sitting with a few moms from our team, including the one that gave me the "green light." I had to go into action---I had to infiltrate her bleachers, and see if any of them blabbed. So after avoiding Cheryl for as long as I could, I joined her and was happy to learn that our secret was safe.
    Then she asked me how practice went......
    It was great, we worked on some defensive stuff and did a little running. They did fine------------Matthew might have thrown up. I panicked! I came clean, as clean as I could come with my shoes being kind of messy.
    "Why did you bring him here instead of home?" she asked in a not so nice tone, and without any concern for my shoes.
    Again, I panicked. I looked around and found the mom that basically ordered me to take him to the game, and I pointed at her said, "She told me I could take him... I asked... and she said take him! Extending my point on the she said take him! part for emphasis.
    Apparently, that is not exactly what she had said. In fact, she may have volunteered to take him home for me, and she may have pointed out that he didn't look so good.
    I told her to stop talking to my wife and that if she continued, her son would never play another inning. Apparently, her son's playing time is not all that important to her. She went on... and on... and on. Let's just say that it became clear to me that I may have made an irresponsible and bad decision when I brought Matthew to the game---but I really wanted to watch the game, and I would never impose on someone to drive my sick kid home. Although in retrospect, had I known that this mom wasn't going to have my back, I may have sent Matthew home with her, and I may have had him drink a big ol' glass of water right before he got in her car, just to show her.
    Anyway, it turns out that I was right, and it was a one-time-deal. Our older boys won the game and everyone went home happy----with the possible exception of the son of the mother that ratted me out. Poor boy. He may never play another inning for the rest of the tournament. You see... someone has to pay for his mother's irresponsible and bad decision.