If you give a kid a new baseball glove,
he’s going to ask for a baseball.
When you give him the baseball,
he’ll probably ask you, “Wanna play catch?”
To properly play catch, he will want you
to take him to a baseball field.
Before he goes to the ball field,
he’ll want to get dressed.
He’ll wear his favorite jersey and hat
and his baseball pants and tall socks with cool stripes.
Then he’ll want to look in a mirror
to make sure he looks exactly like
his favorite player on his favorite team.
When he looks into the mirror,
his eyes might get wide with wonder,
for he’s not seeing what he actually looks like,
but dreaming big ninth-inning dreams.
When you finally get to the ball field,
when you finally start playing catch,
it’s possible some of his throws might not
be very accurate or strong.
Some of his throws will go over your head
and some of his throws will bounce on the ground.
Sometimes, he will forget which foot
he should step with and sometimes
he’ll hop and jump and twist and turn
just to see if it’s possible to still throw the ball.
There will be several times when
he doesn’t actually catch your throws,
but watches them bounce in and out of
his glove or miss them all together.
He’ll retrieve and then bend over and
use the new glove to help pick up the ball.
In his eyes, this is all part of the game.
After playing catch for a little while,
he might get carried away and request
ground balls to scoop up and pop flies to chase.
He’ll pound his glove with his fist
getting ready for the next opportunity
to hear the precious, popping, snapping sound.
When he’s done playing catch,
he’ll probably want to go home and take a nap.
You’ll have to scrub grass and dirt stains
out of his favorite jersey and pants and tall socks,
while he curls up with a blanket and a pillow.
He’ll crawl into bed and make himself comfortable
and fluff the pillow a couple times.
He’ll probably ask you to tell him a story
of your first baseball glove and if it’s okay
to take the new glove to bed with him.
You will say Yes, but not with a baseball.
He’ll put the glove on his hand and
curl up with it and fall fast asleep.
He’ll dream big, ninth-inning dreams
and when he wakes up,
he’s going to ask for a baseball.
When you give him the baseball,
he’ll probably ask you, “Wanna play catch?”
Because his favorite thing to do
is spend time playing with you.
**With thanks to Laura Numeroff for the inspiration.
