If my 93-year-old mom’s life is any kind of foreshadowing of what my final years will look like, then I will still be watching baseball and following the San Francisco Giants.  Mom switched her allegiance some time ago from the Giants to the Seattle Mariners.  When questioned on this, she notes that she lives in the state of Washington and rooting for the Marines seems like the thing to do.  It’s where I’m from.

Although my mom grew up in Wenatchee, WA she spent a chunk of her adult life on the peninsula, close enough to San Francisco to experience more fog and wind than she cared for.  She left Wenatchee in 1953 and did not return until 2000.  The wife of a heavy construction nomad meant lots of moves along the way.  My dad retired in the mid 1980’s and my folks moved to the Portland area before finally moving back to Wenatchee in 2000.  They had returned to where they had first met.

Baseball came relatively late to my mom.  She did occasionally see the Wenatchee Chiefs play when she was growing up, but the San Francisco Giants were her first rooting interest.  She tells the story that I came home from first grade one day and it was all about baseball and baseball cards.  She was a good mom and joined me in my love for the game.  It was never a problem to have the game on the radio or on TV (although those opportunities were limited back in the 1960’s).  We would go to several games each year courtesy of season tickets that my dad got from his employer.  I think my mom enjoyed those times as much as I did.  With some prompting she recalls vaguely that she and my dad were` at Game 7 of the 1962 World Series that ended on a heart-breaking line drive off the bat of the Giants Willie McCovey.  On contact it looked like a two-run walk off single and World Championship for the Giants over the Yankees.  Alas it was just a line drive out gloved by Bobby Richardson.  Recovering from a tonsillectomy, I was home watching on our black and white TV and experienced the first of my Giant disappointments.  I have written this down so that as my memory fades my boys can remind me like I have done for my mom.  Some memories cannot be allowed to fade.

Now days mom lives here in Wenatchee at Highgate Senior Living.  My dad passed away back in 2011.  She rarely complains, but I know she is not thrilled with assisted living, but one of the joys of her day from April through October is baseball and particularly the Mariners.  If there is a game on, she is watching unless somehow the TV channel has been changed and then that’s another issue.  Technology is not her strong suit, and the remote is an unfriendly devise.

Since she is still quite mobile (with the aid of a walker) I took her to a Wenatchee AppleSox game.  The AppleSox play in the West Coast League comprised primarily of college age players hoping to gain some wood bat experience and take another step towards their ultimate dream of playing big league baseball.  This year, 33 WCL alumni were on big league opening day rosters.  The AppleSox have enjoyed an enthusiastic following and play at the local community college field.  I didn’t have to break the bank to buy the premium tickets that put us in seats that were salvaged from the Kingdome where the Mariners played for their first 33 plus years.  

It was in a pair of those nice seats only about 100 feet from home plate that my mom and I sat earlier this summer.  I thought that after watching all that baseball on TV she ought to go see a game in person or at least part of a game.  She last attended a Mariner game back in 2016.  Just as an aside, my niece Jennifer worked for the Mariners selling tickets, so she coordinated a bunch of us going to see the M’s play the Giants.  The Giants won that game.  My youngest son and I along with much of my extended family went home happy.  My wife, oldest son and of course my mom would have preferred a different outcome.

Back to the AppleSox game.  It was an enjoyable time.  The baseball was good and the ice cream we ate perhaps even better.  I love Blue Bunny ice cream!  The Sox ended up winning although we violated one of my childhood maxims by leaving the game early.  Some of those rules must now be applied more liberally.  We only stayed three innings with hopes for more next time.  (I’m a believer in the “leave them wanting more” strategy).  Probably my best memory was before the game even started.  A men’s acapella group was singing the National Anthem.  My mom joined right in.  Her voice has lost a little, but it was cool to hear her singing. Music like baseball gets into your head and brings back all kinds of memories long after other things have faded.

Perhaps the subconscious reason I took my mom to the AppleSox game is because I want my sons to take me out to a ballgame when I can no longer get there on my own.  I’ll probably want some cracker jacks and for sure ice cream.  Most of all  I will share with them a mutual admiration and attachment to the game.  The memories will include the Mariners “Refuse to Lose” 1995 miracle season, the Giants amazing run of three World Series Championships in five years, Wenatchee Youth Baseball and backyard wiffle ball games.  Perhaps I will sit there as quietly as my mom without much recall of the past, but at some deep level the game will work its magic and maybe I will be singing along too.