The First Catch

Today was a momentous occasion, one that happens every year.
Today, I partook in the first catch of the year. Sadly, it was not with a baseball, as it appears I lost it sometime in the past, but with a football.
But the ball doesn’t matter. It is the idea that rings true. It is the idea that has sustained me through the winter. It is the idea that I have had since my childhood, an idea shared by many kids throughout the country, possibly the world.
The idea of catch is what matters most. Playing catch is more than just tossing a baseball around, or any ball for that matter. It represents more than just a game. For me, and many others, it represents fond memories, it represents childhood, it represents innocence.
Many kids grow playing catch. It is ingrained in our culture. Baseball is America’s Pastime, while football has become the national sport. The winter months shut in our nation’s children, close the door to the glorious splendor that only hot summer days and cool summer nights can provide.
Spring releases our kids. The little ones bursting with pent up energy, and us big kids, longing to grab the ball and run to the park for a game.
When I began playing catch, I was merely a young boy. A boy who idolized baseball players. A boy who idolized his dad.
Dad would come home from a long day of work, or after mowing the grass, and he would make the effort to play catch. That meant something. It surely did to me, and I would like to think it meant something to him.
Now every spring, when the first catch comes along, it isn’t with my dad. But that’s OK. It still represents what I happened as a child. And it represents more.
It represents spring. It represents hope. When the snow finally melts and puddles liter the lawn, it signals the arrival of spring. It is not a coincidence we have the expression “hope springs eternal.”
Spring is about hope. It is about promise. The hope of what the summer will bestow upon us. The promise that tomorrow will be a brighter day. The hope of the wonderful outcomes of those hot summer days and the promise that the cool summer breeze chills our rooms and eases our slumber. It is the hope of the sun after the storm and the promise that trees and plants will flower and provide us with beauty and sustenance.
Catch may seem like a simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball. And it is. But how true is it that such a simple act – throwing and catching a ball – comes to symbolize so much more. It symbolizes our hopes. It symbolizes tomorrow.