Peanut Butter Night

When my kids were young, they loved to play games. But at church, the older kids would rather play with each other than allow the “little kids” play with them. I understood that it could be dangerous for the little ones when the big kids got competitive. But I also knew that all the kids liked to play games. I had an idea about that and discussed it with my pastor, acknowledging that it wasn’t a “church” function, and he was fine with it. Adjacent to the church parking lot was a large field with several baseball diamonds, all belonging to the city. I checked with the city, and one of the baseball diamonds was available every Thursday night. I decided to call it “Peanut Butter Night”, to keep it simple. Dinner for us that night was going to be a sack of peanut butter sandwiches. As soon as I got home from work on Thursday, my wife grabbed the bag of sandwiches she had made earlier, and we ate them in the car on the way to church (thus more time for fun). And if this was going to be fun, it needed to be simple… for my wife too. I called a couple of other families from church and told them what we were doing. They came, and everyone had a great time. The little kids loved playing baseball, even when they weren’t sure when to run, or which way. A good time was had by all. On the following Sunday at church, people were talking about the fun they had on “Peanut Butter Night”. Now everybody started coming to the pastor and wanted to know why they weren’t invited to this new Thursday night “church function”. After explaining to several people, the pastor told me to stand up and give an explanation of what was going on. He was tired of explaining to the church members one by one. I explained that I wanted to start something so the little ones could play baseball and have fun, but everyone else wanted to come too! I guess the games on “Peanut Butter Night” just sounded like fun! Next Thursday, more than half the church showed up. I told one of the fathers he could be the pitcher – and he should position himself about 12 feet in front of home plate. He was to throw it underhand so the small kids could hit it. Now the little ones, ages 3 to 6, were pretty much spread around the infield. The older kids brought their gloves and took positions on the field. The point was that the little guys were to field the ball, not the older ones. This was their game and I wanted them to have fun. The first kid up was a four year-old. He managed to hit the ball toward first base… I told him to run and pointed in the direction of first base. Two of the little kids in the field were fighting over who got to the ball first. I finally got one of them to throw it in the general direction of first base. The runner made it to first – with much cheering from his mother. The next four year-old comes up, and after a couple swings, hits the ball and dribbled it to the pitcher’s feet. The father who was pitching, apparently caught up in the excitement of competitive sport, picked up the ball, spun around, and threw it to second base. An 11 year-old caught it, tagged second and threw it to first yelling, “Double play – they’re out!” Now, the little kid on first had not left the base yet because he didn’t know he was supposed to run. The kid who hit the ball had started running but in the wrong direction. I stopped the game, and said, “Guys! These are little kids, I want them to get on base…they’ve never been on base before!” I could see this wasn’t going to work. So we moved the smallest kids to the church yard to play baseball there. Now everybody could play. By the third Peanut Butter Night, most of the church showed up (about 80 people), and I was ready! Most of the mothers just wanted to sit in their lawn chairs and talk. I added a volleyball net to the “games” and most of the other adults and older teens played that. The younger teens and pre-teens played softball, and the little kids played baseball on a little diamond on the church lawn. The most important rule was that ANYONE could play. We were a church, and nobody was going to be left out…. And the next rule was NO ONE could make anyone feel bad about their playing abilities. We were playing “games” that were supposed to be “fun”, and I wasn’t going to let anyone forget that!
During the young teens game, the eleven year-old boy (of the double play on 4 year-olds fame), was grumpy because “girls” were playing too. He had been playing baseball since T-ball when he was six. So in this eleven year-old’s mind, (other than his mother) he really could see no practical use for “girls”. So when a girl came to bat, he moved up from his center field position to about 10 feet behind second base, and stood there bored, expecting little. However the girl was 10 year-old Krista, my daughter. She was a good baseball player, but her younger brother Adam could throw a ball better than her, and that REALLY bugged her. Her consolation was that she could run faster than him, and that REALLY bugged him. Needless to say, these two were highly competitive. Back to the game. Krista took a big swing and connected. The ball flew over the head of the astonished 11 year-old. He chased that ball a long way. Once he got it and turned around to throw, he saw her crossing home plate. All he could say was, “Wow! They can hit!” Later in the game his team was up to bat. They had a runner on first and second base. Krista was playing third base. The batter hit the ball and she caught it on the fly. Both runners attempted to turn around to get back to their bases. But Krista took off and tagged them both before they could get back (she was fast). She did what is referred to in baseball as an “Unassisted Triple Play”. To which our incredulous 11 year-old boy exclaimed, “Wow! They can field too!” So in one short game, a 10 year-old girl was able to partially open the much closed mind of an 11 year-old boy. Ah yes, and the world was a better place. (; Our church had a lot of fun with that night. And although our special event added one more night on to many busy schedules, it was relaxing and easy on mom, and with just a couple of rules to follow,everyone was able to play games and have fun…. you know… the way it’s supposed to be! (-: