THE DAY I WENT TO A GIRLS' SOFTBALL GAME

My exposure to girls' softball began with a trip to a sporting goods store to purchase an "official- certified-with-the-proper-seal" softball bat. At the time, I thought it would be a simple thing to do, but, as so often happens, I was mistaken.

After one clerk directed me to the area of the store where I'd find the official-certified-with-the-proper-seal-bats, I began to peruse the rack with the help of another friendly clerk who explained that the bats on the far right were the most expensive, costing $250. I quickly took my hands off that side of the rack, remarking to the clerk, "$250 for a bat for an eight-year old girl?" (There was more of a verbal exclamation point at the end of my sentence than a question mark.)

MOVE TO THE LEFT

I suggested we move leftward on the bat rack, only to find that the bats on the far left were $80 and that was the ending point; I'd run out of rack. I told the amused clerk that I wasn't going to purchase a $250 bat or even an $80 bat for an 8 year old who might quit the sport tomorrow after her first practice when she learned that she might sweat in the Georgia heat.

He reached into the bats on the rack and picked out one (the same as all the other bats since it was "official" and "certified with the proper seal," and I saw that it had various price tags on it reflecting a decrease in price over time, starting at $80 and moving down to $17.00. It looked like the $80 bats, walked like the $80 bats, and talked like the $80 bats, so it was an $80 bat for $17!

I pounced. With undisguised and unashamed glee, I said, "I'll take it!"

While checking out at the register, I vented my amazement to the clerk at $250 bats for children as well as $80 bats for kids. The friendly clerk told me that her father bought a bat at the store for her high school brother which cost $550. I asked if he had a major league contract.

"No," she said. (I wondered if she, her brother, and her father knew that less than 1% of all those who play youth sports will receive a college scholarship. The odds are that $550 investment will not bear a profitable return.) I left the store congratulating myself at saving at least $63 and as much as $233, neither of which I was going to pay, matter what. At those prices my eight-year old player could use a rolled up newspaper for all I cared.

SHOCKS

But the real shocks were yet to come when I attended one of the softball games to see the $17 bat in action. The four diamonds on which the girls play are nice, very nice. They have base paths, outfield fences, a seating area for the parents to watch their young athletes play the game, and a concession stand at the ready to slake thirst and vanquish hunger.

SHOCK WAVE ONE

As all patrons enter the enclosure, a sign greets them, first thing, right off the bat (pun intended). On the large sign is a cartoon drawing of a young girl in a baseball uniform with the caption, "Yeah, I play like a girl. Wanna make something of it!" The drawing isn't just of a girl, but of an angry girl, her face creased with a snarl, her eyes angry, her forehead knotted. It may be a small thing, but is this drawing making the girls think something that 8 year-olds don't normally think? Is this sign putting an anger in their souls where there is none at age 8? The eight-year old I know doesn't know that girls throw a softball differently than boys, and even if she did, she wouldn't care. No big deal. Is the sign making her care, making her take offense, setting her up to become angry?

GEORGE ORWELL WAS AT THE OLD BALL PARK

I thought of George Orwell's statement, "Freedom is the freedom to say, '2+ 2 = 4.' If that is granted, all else follows." What he meant by that is if one has the freedom to state the obvious without fear, censure, shaming, or penalty, he has freedom, but if one doesn't have the freedom to state the obvious, he has no freedom. It's obvious that girls play baseball differently than boys--the mechanics of their throwing a ball differs, the mechanics of their stride is different. Do we have the freedom at those four diamonds to say that girls both throw a ball, swing a bat, and run like girls?

I coached a 5th and 6th boys' soccer teams and I refereed 5th and 6th grade girls' soccer games. The way girls and boys play soccer is different too. How so? The boys at the same age as the girls were more aggressive, the ball they kicked traveled faster with more force, the male goalies were more fearless, and the speed of the game was faster. But the problem is, if you notice the obvious, you can't say the obvious.

It's even gotten to the point that in some progressive circles, you can't address a classroom as, "Boys and girls," although it's as obvious as "2 + 2 = 4" that there are males and females in the room. Some school districts are demanding that the teacher address them without noting the presence of two genders.

THE SECOND SHOCK WAVE

The angry girl sign was the first surprise. The second one came when the game began, when the batter stepped into the batter's box and the fielders were (more or less) in place. The players were in their sartorial splendor, each wearing a nice clean uniform, complete with softball cleats, although speed on the bases isn't usually a factor in these games since it's illegal to steal a base and nobody was going to be thrown out running from first to second, second to third, or third to home. But the surprise wasn't in their uniforms, it was in what they wore in addition to their uniforms.

The batter wore a batting helmet, but not just a batting helmet, but one with a face guard. A batting helmet and a face guard for an 8-year old girls' softball game? Were the pitchers that fast, so fast the batters were in danger? No, not at all, because no girl pitched the ball to a single batter. The coach of the team or a father of the team pitched to his own girls. Was this slow pitch or fast pitch softball? Neither; it was "lob pitch" softball. Any one "hit" with the pitcher's lobs would suffer the same pain as being hit with a lobbed ping-pong ball. It was like watching the pitcher lob a beach ball toward home plate.

But it didn't stop there. I stared in disbelief at the fielders. They wore helmets too, but not batting helmets. They wore some type of headgear that encircled their heads and had a face guard too. (It's difficult to describe; you'd have to see it.) The catcher, who never actually caught any lobbed ball, wore a chest protector, a catcher's mask, and whatever that thing is that hangs down from the mask and guards the throat like you see in a major league game. By the time the catcher caught the ball, it was slowly rolling on the ground behind home plate, so the risk of injury was, to say it euphemistically, "minimal."

THIS PARENTAL PANIC IS ALL OVER THE PLACE

This is something we're seeing everywhere in our society. A city in Washington state removed the all teeter-totters from their public parks. Next to go were the swings, both declared dangerous. School recess no longer includes dodgeball, a really fun game where we got to take our revenge on another kid by hitting him with the ball as hard as our young arms could throw it. Mea culpa. Again, too dangerous. Also banned in some school districts are red rover, tag, and tether ball. The 8-year old I know who's playing softball has never heard, "Red Rover, Red Rover, let Joe come over."

It gets more serious: in Silver Spring, Maryland, CPS removed two children from their parents because the they allowed them to walk home from the park. They took them away, although there's no law against letting a child walk home from the park. They made up one to cover the situation: they declared the parents guilty of "unsubstantiated neglect." What in the world is that? Sounds like a law straight out of "1984."How can someone be punished because of something that's "unsubstantiated?"

What we're seeing are parents who want to control their children and their environment to the point where they're raising them in bubble wrap. It's even gotten to the extreme where some parents go to their adult children's job interviews. That should be both humiliating and embarrassing for the interviewer, the interviewee, and the parent babysitting the interview.

I wonder about those bubble wrapped 8-year old girls playing softball. So much gear does remove the "risks" of a lob-pitch softball game, but it also removes the fun because such rules condition the  girls to be fearful, timid, eventually unable to navigate their way through life because their parents keep rushing in to protect them from the bumps of life, even the bumps of a softball game. About the only risk I could see during the softball game was a mosquito bite. They probably had the proper protection for that too.

One mother admitted her paranoia effected her son as reflected in a test he took:
 

"A couple of years ago, my then five-year-old son William took a standardized test in which he was asked about everyday objects. The tester noted his unusual responses to some questions. When asked 'What do candy and ice cream have in common?' William replied, 'They both give you cavities.' For the question 'What is chewing gum?' William answered, 'A choking hazard.' "

The softball season is over, and mercifully so. (The game was boring. Is there anything worse than watching nine childish, inept strangers you know nothing about play a game you care nothing about?) At season's end, every girl got a trophy, so not even their feelings were hurt. The coach, the parents, and the trophy declared everyone a winner. In the process, the trophy, the parents, and the coach conditioned them for socialism.

Not only were their bodies bubble wrapped, but also their feelings. If only life were that way, where everyone is a winner, where everyone is an excellent softball player, where everyone comes in first place, where we can remove all bumps, cuts, and scratches. But we live in a fallen world full of "Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and caldron bubble," as Shakespeare wrote. As Solomon said, we live in a world where even "a righteous man falls seven times." (Proverbs 24:16)

THE RESULTS ARE COMING IN

What effects will all this have on the adult Christian raised in bubble wrap? Will she have a confident boldness for Christ? Will they he a stand for Christ at a risk, when there's a price tag? Will their marriages suffer or be destroyed because they're incapable of "leaving and cleaving?" 

According to  Hanna Rosin, writing in The Atlantic, "The overprotective instincts of modern parents are destroying children’s independence, trapping them in a hyper-controlled bubble that they might never escape. (This behavior is not doing parents much good either; one study indicates that such mothers are more likely to be unhappy.)"

Myriam Signorini writes, "Overprotective mothers and fathers don't allow their children to suffer any frustration, and thus tend to protect them against any perceived 'threat,' trusting little in their possibilities. Beware! This approach ultimately harms the children, making them dependent,with little tolerance for frustration. Overprotective parents' children often have trouble relating to others and can be insensitive. To all parents I would say: Remember that your child will make errors. Overprotective parents generally believe that their children cannot make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes--even more, making mistakes is how we learn and develop as individuals."

That was some day at the softball diamond. What sort of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. 

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, "You can observe a lot by watching a girl's softball game"

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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

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Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

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