Winter & Summer Sports

5th grader Johnny Kendy went sking at The Giant Salmon Ski Resort in the Tetons Bleu last week. It was a class trip. They almost didn't get the trip in. An early spring thaw has settled onto the blue mountains. Johnny's class was the last one The Giant Salmon took this season. It was the first time Johnny had skied, though, and he loved it. Now he wants to follow The Flying Persimmon, and snowboard, and compete in the halfpipe. His grandmother sighed. She loves to see him have a good time, but every autumn she is afraid he'll get hurt in football, and now she has to worry all winter, too. Of course, the end of snow means spring and summer sports, and she'll have to worry about him getting hit by a baseball.

Julie Wagler isn't worried about her husband, Wally, getting hit by a baseball, even though his spring fantasy baseball camp with the Baltimore Orioles starts today. Wally is way past the upper age limit for the camp, that being 55, but he still has a full head of hair, which his grand-daughter died pink, so he looks young enough, if 55 can be considered young enough for anything [Julie is a good bit younger than Wally herself], and she knows the camp is just other older guys throwing the ball around with retired Orioles, like Cal Ripken, Jr, so she's not worried. She doesn't know, though, that the Orioles have a few young guys they want to give some extra experience, and today Wally will face Warden Lucky, the wild young lefthander from Kansas. His father named him after the warden of the prison where he spent his own younger years, and he changed the family name to Lucky because he was lucky enough to get a warden who thought the best way to punish prisoners was to make them play baseball all day.

So, while Johnny Kendy's grandmother breathes a sigh of relief that the ski season is over, so there is a chance Johnny will have gotten interested in some less dangerous sport, like butterfly collecting, by next year, Julie Wagler roller skates peacefully at the Derbyshire Roller Rink and Orthopedic Clinic, not knowing that this afternoon, her husband and Warden Lucky will be staring each other down in a diamond shootout.

[To be continued]