Baseball … my favorite sport.   It was my favorite sport growing up as a kid and it’s still my favorite sport … to both play and watch (at a variety of levels).

I grew up on US Army bases in Japan … I have great memories of playing Little League baseball against other American teams but also against the local Japanese teams.  Those teams were so dominant.  That’s also the time when the Japanese teams used to regularly win the Little League World Series.   I stopped playing when I was 18 … and ended up playing softball for many years … but then 10 years ago I was introduced to Ponce de Leon Baseball — a 30-and-over hardball league.   It’s now 10 years later and I still love playing the game.   We have our first game of the season tomorrow morning.

I also love to watch baseball … from Little League to high school to college to MLB.  I went to see one of my students at Georgetown Univ, Sean LaMont, play last weekend.  What a blast to watch college baseball.   One of the cool things for me is that our Ponce team occasionally plays on the Hoyas’ home field – Shirley Povich Field.   Of course, I’d much rather face a Ponce pitcher rather than these young college kids who throw some serious heat!

I’ll also be attending my first Nats game of the year this week.  It’ll be a game against the Phillies and their vaunted starting pitchers.  What an incredible rotation they’ve put together … Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels.  Wow.  But, the Nats are playing much better baseball … stronger defensively and an improved offense.   I also look forward to going to a couple of O’s games in Baltimore this summer — Orioles Park is still one of my favorite places.  And, I assume I’ll be making it to a couple of minor leagues games to watch Bryce Harper and some of the other young Nats.

Let’s play two!