An Itch I'm Gonna Scratch

It started out as a simple text message from my brother: "Do you have a baseball glove?"

He knows that I haven't seen my glove since I left for college. I think my step-brother claimed it as his own and hid it as he did so many things of mine while we shared a room.

I called him back. I hate texting especially when it comes to asking questions that require more than a yes or no.

"What do you need a glove for?" I asked.

"I don't need it, I just bought one and I wanted to play catch," he responded.

I hadn't thrown a baseball since last summer. But the timing of his response brought about an emotion in me I hadn't really felt since my senior year of high school, an itch (not that type of itch fools). The sun was out and shining bright, and it wasn't one of those deceiving type sunny days.

No, the temperature hovered around 62 degrees for a high, and I wanted to be outside with my brother tossing a baseball around. Seeing if my knuckle-curve and knuckler still worked. Reliving the good ole days.

He had an extra glove, so when I got off work I met him at his place. There we commenced to playing catch behind his apartment building.

A few people looked on sporadically. A few were cigarette smokers, a few were passer-by jogger types. I'm sure they all were wondering "Why are two grown-ass black men outside in suburbia playing catch with a baseball?"

You're probably wondering the same thing. But you see, it took us back to our youth for if only a half-hour. The beginning of March is madness for many, but for us growing up it was the beginning of baseball season.

I've wanted to spend a summer playing ball - in an adult baseball league, none of that softball stuff - again for quite sometime, and now I've got that itch again, and this time I'm gonna scratch it. My brother played last year, and I think that I'm joining him in the Midwest summer heat.

It's gonna be fun and carefree. Just like it used to be.

Ed's Note: Warning! I'm gonna keep that Alan Thicke's son's song on my page for a little while longer. At least a few more days.