Monday, March 21, 2011

POTTAMUS SAYS, PART II

Pootie said : mama what time is it? Me: time for you to get a watch Bud!


Pootie: no really mom! Me: it's 0830. Pootie: alright it is time to go to

George's house then.



Pootie said if I don't stop being mean to him then he is going home....to

George's house.



Pottamus says: (on being reminded to share his toys with the little girl

Amanda watches during the day) "I AM sharing them, Mama--I'm sharing them

with MYSELF!"



Pootie: Mama, my eye is bothering me.


Me: well what's wrong with it?


Pootie: it keeps watering


Me: Let me see it, are you OK?


Pootie: Yea, it's because I was crying for Tah.



(In the parking lot at Applebees Pootie and me both crying....here's the text

a few minutes later between Amanda and me).


Tah: Pootie ok now?


Boogs: hes better, he keeps saying its all gunna be ok.. bless his heart he


loves tah-


Tah: Tah is a big fat crybaby..


He loves his pottamus though.


Boogs: we just pulled in the kmart parkin lot ; daniel said cmon buddy lets


go shoppin.pootie said i like shoppin but i love george....






Daniel was dancing & being silly and Itold Pootie his Daddy was nuts. Pootie

said "yea, im gunna kick him in the nuts."





Pootie was eating his dinner; he said-

 "Mama are you proud of me for eating


my food?"


Me: "yes I am, you did a good job!"


Pootie: "Does it make your heart happy?"


Me: "My heart happy?? Well yes it does!"


Pootie: "gimme a hug mama!"


...Best hug in the world....; then he says "My biceps are getting bigger."





Pootie is watching twilight ; he said "whew! those 'wolfus' (wolves) are

fat!"





.. last night I tried to get him to eat squash and he held the fork to his

mouth and looked at me and said "are you sure about this?"



Pootie says mommy I don't feel good, I think I'm sick. so I asked him what was

wrong; he said "my tummy is hurting, I think it needs chocolate milk."







Pottamus: "Want a tissue?"

Tah: "No thanks, pal."

Pottamus: "You got snots?"

Tah: "No buddy, I don't."

Pottamus: (Blows nose in tissue-then hands it to me)

"Here go-I don't want it anymore"



I caught pootie dozing off; i asked him if he was ready for bed and he said

no. I then asked him if he wanted to go lay down he said no. A few minutes

later he said "mama are you tired?" i said "yea."  He said "Well do you wanna go

chill out & watch the grinch with our shoes off?"



Pootie to Tah on the phone:

"Are you in the Army?"


Tah: "Yes I am, Pottamus...what are you in? The Army or Marine Corps"?


(Pause)....


I'm in the house..."

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Field of Dreams, Macon, Georgia Style….



Yes, I arrived there nearly 3 hours early. Yes, I “adjusted” my itinerary so I could make it back in time. Yes, it was selfish, self centered, but maybe in a few minutes you will understand why.


But first, I need to digress.


Our next door neighbor was a former minor league ball player named Jack Gilbert. Mr. Jack had once played ball at Luther Williams field for the Macon Peaches. His son Ronnie was 4 years older than me but invited me into his backyard at the age of about 4 to play baseball. I was immediately hooked even if I didn’t have a glove, a problem rectified by Santa Claus the following Christmas. In my tutelage as an up and coming major leaguer (I was to be the left handed version of Phil Niekro), it was a common occurrence that “Mr. Jack” would arrive home from work only to be handed a ball and bat and “coerced” to hit pepper to us kids. The pepper game would go on until an uncontrollable force of nature (supper or sunset) caused its end.

Let me digress further.


Luther Williams Field (named after the Mayor at the time, circa 1929), is hallowed ground for the baseball enthusiast, and in the summer of 1968 it was no different. It became-- in my mind anyway-- THE place where my “love of baseball roots” are planted. Mr. Jack played there. Ronnie was the son of Mr. Jack and introduced me to the game which was then enhanced on a daily basis with the aforementioned pepper game. Easy math.


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One Day I would get married and have a son and hope he would love baseball as much as I did--and perhaps he would get a chance to play baseball in Luther Williams Field in my hometown on a beautiful spring night with a full moon and it would be Norman Rockwellesque…



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Someone did the right thing and scheduled 3 of the Howard Huskies ball games at this grand historic venue. The second oldest minor league ballpark in the nation. Where my next door neighbor and Macon Peach Jack Gilbert, as well as some others— Henry Aaron, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Chipper Jones--and even a barnstorming guy named George Herman Ruth.


                                            ****************************

I have a photograph. It is of little Joe Fisher, my son, AKA “Mans Best Friend” when he played youth ball. He is maybe 8 years old. Our team was the one that got to go on the field with the “then and since moved to Rome, Georgia” Macon Braves. Little Joe is standing on the field next to the "Real" Macon Brave. He tells me years later that he thought he would get to actually play that night rather than to just run out on the field and hear the Star Spangled Banner. Regardless, on that hot summer night all those years ago a Dad saw his son run out onto the field and thought it was awesome. Maybe one day the prophecy would be fulfilled.


                                           *****************************


Little Joe Fisher is now big Joe Fisher, sometimes referred to as “JoeFish” by his teammates and Coaches. His Mother and sisters are the only human beings in the universe that call him “Joey”. I have always thought the name “Joe” is a good baseball player name.


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The Howard Huskies play Jones County in about an hour. I have walked around the ball park taking photographs, inhaling as much ambience as I can and to get my “baseball on”. It matters not who wins the game. I just want to watch the kids play. The other parents feel the same way. The sky is blue, the weather is better than perfect.



My son and his teammates are about to play BASE BALL in Luther Williams Field.

Babe. Hank. Chipper. And now a kid with a good baseball name-- Joe.

Yes, I'm about to pee my britches.



Huskies outpace Greyhounds 3-2

By Kerrell Goolsby

"In the first meeting between Howard and Jones County, it was a one-sided affair that favored the Greyhounds 11-3 March 1st in Gray. Fast forward to St. Patricks Day in Macon at Luther Williams Field and the Huskies held Jones County in check offensively and got the go-ahead and winning run on a fielding error by third baseman Eric Coleman to take a 3-2 win Thursday evening.

Brandon Spivey of Jones County (5-3, 2-1 in Region 3A-AAAA) took the complete game loss, going 6 1/2 innings with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks. Howard's Brandon Leigh took the complete game win, giving up only one earned run in the contest.

The Greyhounds took a 2-0 lead in the fourth on a single by Coleman, who drove in Sam Kent with one out in the frame. Jones would add their second and final run of the game when Coleman scored on a Dylan Holmes error. A double by Holmes scored Matthew Fitzgibbons in the bottom of the inning after Fitzgibbbons reached on a double with one out in the fourth. Howard would tie the score in the bottom of the fifth on a pair of singles by Joe Fisher and Davey King and a sac fly by Matt Mahoney.

Howard managed to hold Jones County in check in the seventh inning after the Greyhounds had a scoring threat in their half of the frame when Fisher reached on a single with one out. After King struck out, Atkinson singled Fisher over to second and Mahoney's grounder to third was mishandled, allowing the winning run to cross the plate.

Fisher led all Husky hitters, going 3 for 4 with a pair of runs scored. Fitzgibbons went 2 for 3 with a run scored while Holmes was also 2 for 3 with an RBI. Kent was Jones County's top hitter, going 3 for 3 with a run scored....."


                                                         ********************

At home, Joe came up and we went over the game like we have done a hundred times previous-- I told him it looked like he went out on the field like he had been playing on it his whole life. “Dad, I told Coach Slaughter, I’m so FREAKED out I have goose bumps!”, and Coach said “I do too.” Then Joe said “I saw his arm, Dad-- he really did!”

To cap off one hellaciously wonderful night, I posted my Facebook status before I went to bed:


Dear Joe;
Great time tonight buddy. I've been waiting since you were born to watch you play ball in that park--it was everything it was supposed to be..hope you boys enjoyed it as much as your parents did
Love, Dad



Before I placed the Blackberry on the nightstand, I just “happened” to check Joes’ Facebook status—this is what I found:

“Luther Williams-- no words can describe the feeling or the mood the park lays upon you as you walk on to the field.”

Joe, you said it better than I ever could.


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