I try to spend so much time talking about my love of the game, and about how we need to understand it, but today I got a great reminder about exactly what it means to love the game of baseball.  I was lucky enough to catch the Blue Jays hosting the Twins with almost the full Blue Jays line up starting behind Roy Halliday and the Twins travel squad included Joe Mauer, last years batting champ and Glen Perkins.  I knew a couple of scouts that were there, and heard that Perkins might be up for the 5th spot in the rotation, so that seemed promising, despite the fact that he was going to face a pretty good batting lineup.  I was sitting in a seat right behind the net, row 1 seat 1 so I was able to take some great photos.  Here is Halliday getting ready to throw some serious heat.<br>

Roy Halliday

This was really fun because some great hitters were in the on deck circle right in front of me and I could hear them talk to their coaches.  Vernon Wells made a joke that he was gonna clear the bases by hitting one right over the Publix grocery sign in right center field.  Instead, he grounded into a double play.  His called shot was all in good fun, so no one who heard him razzed him at all.  Here is a shot of a Troy Glaus checked swing.

Troy Glaus

So I was having a pretty cool day, seeing these great hitters right up close, watching some great pitching, including the Twins young starter, who was having pretty good success against the Jays. And then I saw Griffen.  I suppose you are asking yourself who could this Griffen could be, never heard of him, right?  Well wait about 15 years.  I look to my left and at the end of the row, directly behind the catcher is 5 and half year old Griffen in full catching garb imitating Joe Mauer.  He squatted like Mauer, would snap his glove closed as if it was his that was making the popping sound as the ball hit the leather.  He would reach into his empty glove as Mauer did, and pull his arm back and easily toss the imaginary ball back to the pitcher.  If the ball was hit, and the catcher had to run to first, he would run along the row using the same motion as Mauer.  When the Twins backstop lifted his face mask, so did Griffen.  He didn’t do this for just a couple of innings, he did it for nearly the entire game, except for one inning when Mom gave him something to eat and dad took him to get a mini-bat.  Once he returned with the bat, he took turns catching and hitting.  When a lefty was in the box, he swung lefty, when a righty was in the box he swung righty.  His eyes never left the field.  His parents said he’d been doing this for about 3 years now, and that today he wasn’t feeling very good which is why he took the inning off.  Kids all around me were whining about food, or just getting hot and bored.  There dads were talking to them about the game but it wasn’t really keeping them interested enough, Griffen though was passionate about the whole thing.  My pictures of Griffen do not do him justice.  His intensity was unmatched.  When a hitter struck out and walked off the field slamming his hand against his bat in disgust so did Griffen. Here he is in the 3rd inning making the throw back to the pitcher.

Here is a shot in about the 8th inning, after his mom talked him out of putting his catching gear back on because of the heat.  If the catcher in the game caught from a squat so did he, if the backstops knees where on the ground so were Griffen’s.  Here is a pair of shots with the pro in the background, so you can see exactly what I mean.  9 innings. Pure Joy.

Now I know most of you would prefer to see the real players, but I want you to think back to when you were 5.  Could you have done this for 9 innings?  His dad wasn’t one of those telling him what to do, or how to do it, he was simply watching the big leaguers and learning right along with them. One of the men sitting in our section commented about how players don’t realize what role models they are but this was proof right there…this kid did everything they did.  The thing we need to hope is that they choose to be good ones.