A Baseball Story !!

So Payton has been playing baseball this year and this is his first time ever playing. He is playing in a bigger kids league as well where they do kids pitch. He is the youngest on the team and he is....let's just say..vertically challenged to begin with. So it is 3/4 of the way through the season and he has struggled hitting so far. There are kids that tower over him and some of them are heading on 11 yrs old. So he has been struggling to get his confidence. He has hit 3 or 4 balls so far this year to the infield but had yet to hit a big one as of yesterday. He has been swinging a lot but he has not been hitting the ball much so he has gotten down a little on himself. I just kept telling him to keep swinging and it would come !! So here we are in the 4th inning last night and he is up to bat.. I am coaching 3rd base... praying for God to give him one good smack of the ball at some point so he will start to believe in himself and get confidence. He has wanted to hit the ball so bad and he tells us every game that he just can't seem to quite get to it. Ohh... it will come son !! So back to the 4th inning- P-dog up to bat - ball 1 ... ball 2.... ball 3.... and no strikes !! So at this point I flash back to the movie ' The Natural ' and I am thinking of Roy Hobbs bat 'Wonderboy'. I think about how it seemed to bring him luck all of the time when he was up to bat. If only Payton could have that bat with him right now and if God could just give him the strength of Sampson just this one time I would promise that I would always use a tissue to pick my nose from now on ! So anyways... 3 balls and no strikes and I am praying for a miracle to happen. The pitcher winds up (and by the way he is a big kid who looks more like Goliath out there) and throws the ball and Payton winds up the bat and swings. Now, if I could ever tell you to paint the sweetest moment in your mind on paper it would be one like this. He not only hits the ball but he hits it over the outfielder's head and it just keeps rolling and rolling to the deep part of the park. At this point I have left the earth for lunar orbit because I am jumping up and down so high and I hear every parent in the crowd screaming for joy for him. He takes off for first and as he is heading there his coach says, "don't stop Payton!!!!!". Well, no more sooner did the words come out of his mouth than Payton took off full speed for second base and boy was he picking up steam. I have never seen a kid run so fast in my life and I am not exaggerating !!! They were yelling ' "DASH" from the stands as he rounded the bases. So he gets to second and I see him coming for third base full speed. I also see the outfielder finally getting to the ball and him trying to throw it in to his cutoff man. As he is coming towards me I am going to tell him to stop at third base because the ball is coming in now to the infield. STOP !! STOP!!! STOP!!! But this kid was determined to score. I don't think he ever looked up from the ground to even see me telling him. He just focused on the ground and ran right by me full speed. Remember Forrest Gump in the football game in college when he ran back a kickoff for a touchdown and just kept running through the endzone into the tunnel. This kid was some sort of Dash and Forrest combo turned freight train in the Running of the Bulls in Spain !! So as he passed me I couldn't even get the stop out before it turned into "RUN.. RUN....RUN..!" And he did and he beat the throw to home and scored a home run !! I was so happy that I ran over to him at home plate and hugged him so big that I thought his helmet was going to pop off like a cork !! He just smiled at me with a look of satisfaction and complete and utter happiness. It was one of the best sports moments that I have experienced as a father. As I was walking back to third base to coach again I turned to the other team's coach and said , "That was my son ..he's never hit it out of the infield..and he just hit a home run !!" I am sure he thought that I was a little slow on the uptake at that point because he was standing right behind me when Payton hit the ball. I didn't really care though because I was so proud that I needed to share it with someone. Even a stranger !! About 30 seconds after the play was over I started to laugh hysterically at third base because of the look of determination on Payton's face as he ran right by me. I was laughing so hard that I walked over to the sideline and stood there a minute to catch my breath. Then my laughter turned to welled up tears in my eyes because I was so proud of the person that Payton is and the will that he shows in this life. I was so worried for such a long time for him this season because he didn't get to shine a whole lot at the plate. I was afraid it would leave him down on himself but it was like all of my worries for Payton were lifted off of my shoulders at that moment when he hit that ball. I thought that the baseball season was too much for him and that maybe we chose the wrong league with too big of kids. All of it was gone in one moment with one swing of the bat. It was like Payton was saying okay so I haven't hit the ball much and so what if you are Goliath- I am Payton Billings and this is my time !! He did just that and with one swing of the bat he rode high on the wings of eagles as he ran the bases !! It was his shining moment and no one deserved it more !! I was just happy that I got to share it with him !!