Ahh, nuts

As I've mentioned I am on a softball team - have been for some 20 years. However, I don't play much. Actually, not at all. So I'm a coach or a bench jockey or whatever. The team, in first place, is manned by mostly young, athletic guys. Most of us original members are riding the pine (or aluminum). It's a minor time killer but nonetheless a nice way to kill an hour or two. This includes a cold beer in the parking lot afterwards - win or lose.

Last night, while on the bench with a few other elders, our pitcher tossed one at the plate. The batter didn't swing and it took a funky bounce and hit the umpire right in the jewels. He immediately turned around and grabbed the back stop's chain-link fence and moaned in pain. Sad, right? NOT to me. As this poor guy - who I've known for years - was cringing with pain and embarrassment I was laughing. Like really laughing. He flashed me a look. I guess I was the only one who found it funny.. I DID see others muffling their smirks. At the inning break, I privately apologized to the ump. He was gracious - or maybe happy to be breathing. I used the President Clinton line, "I feel your pain"... Corny, but I was desperate.

So, I wondered, why am I the only one to laugh? I don't know.. DNA? I remember my mother telling me a story (one of many) about a similar event in her life. She was in a hospital lobby - having one of her babies - when a NUN who was walking down the lobby's stairs tripped and fell down the entire flight. My mother told me how bad she felt first for the nun and second for laughing as she landed at the bottom. And, she said, she couldn't STOP laughing and had to leave the area. The story ran through my mind as I continued cackling at the poor ump. I bet my mom would have laughed... She liked baseball..