Dream become Reality | South Texas Shooters (Photography That Is!)

I wanna Hit and Throw Like a Girl!!

February 7, 2016

For those that are scratching and hitting your head right now at the title, let me explain, so go get the coffee, ice tea, beer or fill a glass with Crown cause I’m gonna explain it!

Yesterday I got to go to the “Field of Dreams” but this “Field” is different cause “Dreams Become Reality on this Field”! For many years I have been taking photos of the action on this field and the action is awesome. Every February the season starts for Division I, II and III NCAA Softball All across this great land teams get up early in the morning to go practice on a cold field or in a gym or field house somewhere in hopes of getting their team to the Women’s College World Series! They work very hard on catching, hitting and throwing, their journey stated at 6 or 7 years old and even though they are anywhere from 18 to 20 years old when they enter college they have banged around the fields for ten years or more. They throw, bat and catch with such ease that sometimes the only way I know I’m watching a softball game is because of the yellow ball, pony tails and ribbons!!

Yesterday I got to take the field and step in the batter’s box and face a great pitcher, a 2 time Olympian, All-American, strike out wizard , coach, mentor, role model, teacher but most of all fine young lady Miss Catherine “Cat” Osterman. The duel was short lived, only took 4 pitches, the first was low, the next three had me swinging the bat like an old rusty gate, but then again I am old (er) now and most joints are in need of a squirt of WD-40 for better movement! I went down swinging, but that’s the way you suppose to go swinging, if the bat don’t make contact with the ball let them know you where trying and was not about to give up. There’s a Life’s Lesson there too!!

As I stepped away from the batter’s box a young man appeared in my minds eye on a ball field on 96th Street and Second Ave in NYC and he had just faced, Whitey Ford or Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan. But the man walking away had just faced a great women, an awesome pitcher and tried to take just one pitch out of the yard! If I go to meet God today, I can stand before Him and say Father I batted against Cat! He will come back at me and say I know, son she can throw!!!!

So the reason for this entry, when you think about telling someone they, throw, catch or hit like a girl, take a second before uttering them words cause a big yellow ball may be getting bigger as it nears the target (you)! I wish I could hit and throw like a girl!! I also wish I had enough hair to put in a pony tail too!!!

I know I will be heading to the “Field of Dreams” so I can capture “Dreams Becoming Reality” So if you get a chance, go out to a college ball field and watch them hard work women catch, hit and throw like a girl!!

Thank you Texas State Athletics, Texas State Softball and Cat Osterman for providing the chance to hit like a girl! Thank you to every single one of the fine young ladies I have had the honor of capturing with my lens give their all on “The Field”!!!