Kristina Dailing
Daily Egyptian
The fascination many people have with baseball has fascinated me since my days of grade school gym class and my lunch hours of dodge ball.
When I was young, my free time was spent wearing a glittery pink tutu and practicing my ballet jumps in front of a mirror.
The neighborhood boys would spend hours pulling together teams and setting up daylong tournaments of soccer, basketball and baseball.
Ah, baseball.
America's favorite pastime.
Every little boy wakes up one morning and announces to his parents that he is going to be a baseball player when he grows up. His parents ooh and aah over his dream, and Dad grabs the old glove from the attic.
Dad and son then spend countless hours everyday tossing the ball around in the scorching sun, bringing junior closer and closer to his dream.
One special day, Dad takes his son into the city to a real live baseball game, and they create memories that they will laugh about for 30 years.
They start to watch their favorite team together and discuss important issues like ERAs and batting averages.
Dad teaches son what all the baseball lingo means and how the game is played.
An irreversible bond between father and son has been created that will withstand the test of childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
But sadly, son eventually turns Dad's teachings into something that it was never meant to represent.
When boys turn 12 and 13, changes occur and they become a vessel of racing hormones that plague them through the rest of their lives.
Boy's simple days of sports in the sun become what feels like an eternity of confusion and heartache. And although boys don't necessarily play baseball anymore, baseball lingo is still used, but not the way parents think.
Sadly, the innocent game of baseball has become a way for boys to "discretely" talk about sex.
Yep, the secret is out.
Baseball lingo has been made into a perverse language that allows boys to talk about sex.
I'm sure parents have started to wonder why their son is continuously being called a "player" when he stopped playing sports years ago.
Well parents, he isn't involved in baseball anymore.
He's discovered a new favorite pastime. And a child being a "player" in this new pastime is every parent's worst nightmare.
Running the bases in baseball is different than "making it to bases," in sex lingo.
Making it to first base used to mean hitting a ground ball to right field. Now it can mean how much a boy has seen under a girl's shirt.
Making it to second base at one time meant a solid hit to center field, but now it can mean kissing with tongue and maybe more depending on who is using the language.
Getting to third base can be a deep hit to left field or making out and a little more, again, depending on who is using the lingo.
A home run means the ball is hit out of the park, fireworks explode but, well, homerun in sex lingo also involves fireworks, but a different kind.
I'm sure when dads were telling their sons how important it was to score in sports, they never intended "scoring" to mean anything else.
So what was once an innocent sport that dads and sons could share over a hot dog and soda is now a way to tell kids about sex long before the child and parents are ready to dive in to the topic.
And parents can only blame themselves.
You took them to that major league baseball game.
You turned the game on after dinner.
You encouraged your son to read the scores in the paper.
What may have seemed innocent at one time has become a way to fit in with the crowd in an oversexed society.
So I've decided to make a plea on behalf of my 14-year-old sister, other young girls and the young boys of the world.
Be careful when teaching your son the rules of baseball. Players, running bases and scoring have taken on a whole new meaning that could keep parents of both young men and women up at night.
Baseball is no longer what it once was. I used to go to baseball games and fill with pride and excitement when "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" blares over the loud speaker.
Now, I look around at all the boys and their dads at the game together and shake my head.
Sure, it is all fun and games now, but a time will come when parents will be brought to tears when they remember the day they told their son about baseball.
Reporter Kristina Dailing can be reached at kdailing@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
