We all have our little pet peeves and soap boxes.
I get totally frustrated when a driver can’t follow an arrow in a parking lot and is coming at me the wrong way. I mean, how difficult can it be to follow an arrow.
It also drives me crazy when a sports announcer or writer refers to a first-year player as a “young freshman.” Let’s face it, if someone is a freshman, he or she is young.
I have a much more detailed list of things that have me looking for the nearest room with padded walls. Most of the things are my quirky issues that, if I let them, might one day land me in that room with the padded walls.
One soap box has to do with child safety at baseball and softball games.
I write a column on this every two or three years simply because I see unattended children running around the bleachers and grassy areas outside a ball field without a care in the world.
I love being at a ball park. I feel a connection to those special times long ago spent with my dad watching baseball games.
One thing Dad taught me from the earliest age is to be aware of what is going on around me at the ball park. Yes, the game is played inside the fences.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t dangers associated with the ball park. Dozens of times each game, foul balls leave the fenced boundaries of the field and are unguided projectiles heading toward the stands, the parking lot or, worst yet, the grassy area where unassuming children might be playing.
Granted, the odds of a foul ball hitting a child are very rare, but it only takes one of those rare occurrences to severely injure someone.
I’ve seen windshields shattered by a baseball. And I’ve received my share of bruises when being hit by a ball in the course of playing a game.
Seven or eight years ago, while covering a softball game at Niceville High School, a foul ball came my way. I was unable to get out of the way of the ball, but I did use my plastic clipboard to shield my upper thigh from its impact. The ball shattered the plastic, and I can only think of what it would have done to my leg if I didn’t have some protection.
I also think about how badly that foul ball would have hurt a preschool child playing in the grass alongside the field.
Every year, I observe loving parents watching from a distance as their child plays around the stands. Those parents are in a great position to keep a predator away from their child, but they are no match for the speed of a falling baseball or softball.
I’ve also watched as children put their fingers inside the mesh netting or chain link fence surrounding the field. One foul ball or wild pitch could mutilate those little fingers for life.
For the most part, a ball park is a safe place, but — as is the case with most safe places — there are subtle dangers that often go unnoticed.
Take your child to the ball game and soak in the atmosphere surrounding the game. I encourage you, though, to know your surroundings and to be safe.
Emailrandyd@crestviewbulletin.com, follow @cnb_sports or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Play it safe at the ball game