Chapter 52 Sport
Parker swung the bat as hard as he could, made contact with the ball, and knocked it to the far corner of the park, far beyond the chalked line which defined the boundaries of the baseball diamond. He charged around the bases, and slid into home just as the outfielder's thrown ball hit the pitcher's glove. The catcher stomped in frustration as the Booth family erupted in cheers. Parker's solid batting performance had given his team 3 runs. The opposing team was quite disgruntled.
"Daddy, I wanna play ball like Parker!" Christine exclaimed. "I wanna sock that ball so hard it'll fly clear to the moon!"
Booth grinned at Brennan over the top of their daughter's head. She had clearly inherited not only her father's love of sports, but also her mother's fiercely competitive nature. "Okay, honey, we'll check into girls' T-ball when we get home."
"No, Daddy, I wanna play on Parker's team. They win all the time!"
"Christine, in order to make the competition fair, players must be relatively equal in age, physical strength, development, and athletic prowess. For that reason, children are normally grouped on teams by age, and gender, ability," Brennan explained to the impatient little girl who wanted to do everything that Parker did, when Parker did it, preferably with Parker.
"No, Mommy!" Christine pouted.
"Chrissy," Booth interjected, "Part of playing sports is learning to cooperate with your team mates, following the rules of the game, and exhibiting good sportsmanship."
"But I'm a girl! Is there sportsgirlship?"
"Christine, stop being obtuse!" Brennan chided her wryly, recalling times past when she'd had similarly vexing conversations with Booth, during the 'I don't know what that means' phase of their friendship.
"Let's watch Parker's game now and settle your baseball career later over ice cream. You two just missed his throwing out the player on first base," Booth told his girls.
"Awww, rats!" exclaimed Christine. "Did you film it on your phone, Daddy?"
