6-4-3

Sometimes, your kids do something very small that shows that they’re undeniably yours. Little things that show that there’s a connection between you and them; not because you’ve cultivated it, but just because it exists on its own. Something innate, not programmed.

I was pleased when my son decided that he liked Star Wars. I was thrilled when he decided that he liked baseball (and turned out to be pretty good at it himself). And I’m over the moon about what he discovered last month when I took him to his first game at Minute Maid Park.

My son – my six-year old son – loves keeping score at baseball games.

I can not even begin to tell you how thrilled I am about this. I’ve kept score at nearly every college and professional game I’ve been to over the past decade (and that’s quite a few). It’s a good way to stay on top of the game and I’ve found that, much like taking notes in class, the act of writing down what’s happening helps me commit the games to memory. I can bust out one of my old score books and look at a game from 2000 and still remember individual plays just like they happened yesterday.

He likes all the other things about going to a baseball game too – eating hot dogs that too big, hassling the opposing team during batting practice, and goofing around with your grandfather. He also decided that cotton candy is pretty good, even if he did only eat five bites of it.

This wasn’t his first major league game, though. When he was just seven months old, I took him to a Rockies-Cubs game at Coors Field. He doesn’t remember that one, of course. And we’ve been to plenty of A&M games at Olsen Field.

This, though, is the one that he’ll remember as his first real big league game. I think it went pretty well.

I guess I’ll have to buy him his own score book so he can keep track of all of his games too.

Fries at the bottom of the bag

• There was a big honkin’ fire around these parts yesterday which required the temporary evacuation of pretty much the entire city of Bryan. In addition to creating massive traffic jams as 65,000 people streamed into a town that’s already holding 90,000 of its own, the situation also gave local businesses the chance to show which employees they deemed expendable and local doctors the chance to make statements that probably could have been phrased better.
• Respect the R2-D2 socks, yo.
• July is over, so here’s a link to this month’s photo gallery.
• I don’t think I ever got around to posting June’s gallery, so here’s that one too.