Rituals

Every year I take pictures of all the girls on the softball team and make little books for them. At the end of the year party they pass these books around and everyone signs them and they have pictures of themselves in action and one of all the girls. My favorite pictures are the batting pictures. Gracie always looks mad. I don't know if she is trying to scare the pitcher or if the sun is just in her eyes. Several of the girls stick their tongues out while they bat. Some have thier faces screwed up in concentration. One girl has her eyes closed in almost all the pictures of her batting. It is amazing what your camera catches. Things you don't notice while watching the game. Gracie has a ritual before every pitch. She draws a line from the point on the plate out, then she crosses it like she is marking her spot. Then she pounds the plate with her bat. Then she is ready. She repeats this with every pitch. The other night we were watching my nephews baseball game. This one boy came to the plate twirled the bat and hit his cleats a few times then got into his stance. After the third time Gracie asked why he did that. I just looked at her and said cross, cross, pound, stance. She just smiled.