Day 28: A Whole Team of Robbies

A couple of weeks ago (April 13) I wrote about the kind boy, Robbie, on my son's baseball team. Well, it seems that my son's team is a team of boys like Robbie. Its not just the team either, but all of the parents and families seem to be out of the same mold as Robbie.



This is a picture of my son striking out. This is the first game he's ever played in his life, the first time he's ever been up to bat, and the first time he's ever struck out. The thing that this picture doesn't capture is the cheers and shouts of encouragement that errupted from the audience as he struck out. You would have thought he had just hit a home run. It was by far the loudest and most enthusiastic cheering of the game. All of them meant to support my son and in a very real way they all supported me.

What these wonderful Robbie-like people don't understand is that my son can't hear well enough to realize that they are cheering him on, encouraging him, pulling for him. He can only hear out of one ear. He uses a very strong hearing aid on that ear. Even with the hearing aid when he is clear over at home plate with a batting helmet covering his hearing aid, he has almost no ability to hear anything going on around him. The really strange thing is my son doesn't need the encouragement and support being offered. He is perfectly excited to have gotten up to bat regardless of how he faired. I, on the other hand, am quite touched and strengthened by their support.