I remember as a young boy walking to and from grade school. The crossing guard, an actual policeman on a walking beat, would affectionately refer to me as ‘LEFTY'...!!!
After many months, I got up the courage to ask him why ‘LEFTY' since everything I did was right handed...!!! He politely responded that when I step up onto the curb at the only busy intersection I would cross on my 3 block walk to school, I would always step up with my left foot first...hence the nickname, 'LEFTY'...
It never dawned on me that I purposed to use that ‘left foot first' approach to street crossings...
Perhaps it had something to do with my father intentionally teaching me to bat ‘LEFT HANDED'...since, as my Dad would say, "All the good hitters in baseball were left handed..."
And so now, I'm faced with a dilemma (actually a challenge I'm very excited about), since my youngest son, Jared, has developed a ‘buckle fracture' of his left wrist causing him to lose 3 weeks of baseball...and with the tournament season rapidly approaching...
THE DILEMMA...Should I try to make him a switch-hitter...???
Last year, almost to the day, he developed a ‘buckle fracture' of the right wrist, and, as his coach will readily admit, he now has the strongest arm on the team...We think, primarily, because of the scar tissue which has strengthened the area which had been compromised by the ‘buckle fracture'...BTW, the Orthopedic Specialists suggested that this might be the case...AND SO...
Jared and I theorize that maybe the same could be true of this new ‘left wrist buckle fracture'...and maybe, just maybe, we ought to be considering developing him into a switch-hitter...after all, for 3 weeks he can't really do much with that left wrist while its in its bright orange cast (dotted with black signatures of his friends, including the catcher who fell on Jared's wrist and Jared's Daniel Boone Orioles teammates), so we might as well at least TRY OUR GRAND EXPERIMENT...
BTW, we have decided to keep OUR GRAND EXPERIMENT a secret from his team, his coaches, and his siblings, except his brother, Justin, who will assist us in Jared's rehab process...
We will keep you posted, and we hope ‘GOOGLE JUICE' won't spill the beans...!!!
P.S. BTW, today is June 13, 2011 and it is also Jared's 13th birthday, and he has 2 weeks left with his cast and OUR GRAND EXPERIMENT...!!!
