18-1

They certainly bounced back. Maybe it had something to do with playing the team they'd been looking forward to facing all year, finally making up the game that had been rained out, a chance for some of them to play against their best friends, the kids they'd played with last year and the year before and the year before that. Whatever it was, they were in fine form.

We won, which is nice as far as it goes, but as we confirmed the game before, it's not everything. It was at least as much fun to hang around third base jawing with our friend E., who as coach of the opposing team got as much heckling from us as the players on his team got applause from our own players.

When it was over the kids from both teams congregated around the backstop, trading snacks and drinks. An hour later a group of us, half from our team, half from E.'s, met at a neighbor's house for our own snacks and drinks. The boys went outside with their balls and gloves and from the deck we could hear them in the alley, no adults, no winners or losers, playing catch in the growing dusk.