I think Nolin has been willed to be a baseball player and if my family has their way, he will one day call Yankee Stadium his home.
Before we became parents, Jenn used to love driving by the baseball field across from our house to watch the little kids running around the field, so you can imagine her excitement when she found out that we would be adopting a boy.
My dad on the other hand sent Nolin an official Yankees onezie, ballcap and pacifier about 3 days after he was born. He was even more excited because the local minor league team was playing a home game while we were in town. He was going to take his first grand son to his first baseball game…
When we got to the stadium, he and my mom had to bring the ticket lady out so she could meet Nolin, they introduced him to a police officer and basically were just on cloud nine as we walked into the stadium. It brought me back to the days that my dad would take us to the ball games.
It’s a different stadium now and Nolin’s not quite old enough to stand behind the wall waiting for his chance to get a fly ball, or try and steal one like his Aunt did back in the day. Using all of her charm, she went up to a teenager & his brother who had just caught a fly ball asked if she could see it, then threw it to me and screamed, “RUN” besides being completely shocked at what just happened, I was also not blessed with the gift of speed…needless to say I didn’t make it very far.
We met up with my Uncle Bobby (another Yankees diehard), his brother Frank, my brother, and Gordie who was with his 4 month old daughter Maggie. Let’s just say that Maggie was not as impressed with her first baseball experience as Nolin. She pretty much screamed straight for the first 8 innings.
Gordie walked her from corner to corner of the stadium and told her I am going to win this one…well after 7 1/2 innings he finally conceeded and Jenn tried to calm her with no luck. I figured I had the 5 S’s down, so I could do it…nope, that didn’t work either and then my dad pulled out the powerful buddah belly and everything was right with the world (don’t worry he didn’t get an inflated ego or anything).
Shortly after, it appears all Maggie’s crying paid off because the batter knew where to hit the ball and she caught her first fly ball…pretty impressive for a 4 month old I know. It’s just too bad, that Aunt Erin wasn’t there to steal it from her because I think Nolin would have at least had a fighting chance of getting away…