The games were fun, however, the real enjoyment for our oldest came during BP. (That's batting practice for all you baseball virgins.) Ben was allowed on the field with the team and could help shag balls. That boy would run his tush off in order to beat an outfielder out of a catch. One of the coaches told me that Ben shagging balls was great and he loved having him there. I agreed and said that it was a boys dream come true. Timmy, the coach, laughed and said, "Yeah, there's that too. But I was talking about how great it was that a kid could get these players off their lazy a$$ to run during BP". Apparently Ben motivated them. They didn't like getting shown up by a young kid.
One night after a winning game, a group of us got together and went to a steakhouse not to far from the ballpark. There were four or five players, my friend Tracy - who was Director of Merchandise, #1 son, and myself. The waitress began taking orders, starting with #1 son. He said he'd like a steak - medium and a baked potato. She asked him if he would like a soup or salad. Ben said, "Yes, please." She pursed her lips a bit and repeated, "Soup or Salad?". Ben smiled at her, but furrowed his brow a bit and repeated, a bit louder, "YES, please". For a third time, completely frustrated, and a lot louder on her part, "DO YOU WANT SOUP OR SALAD?" Ben looked at me completely perplexed and said, "She keeps asking me and I keep telling her, YES, I would like a super salad". With that the entire table broke up in complete laughter. When she finally composed herself, and it took a minute or two, she said, "no sweetie, do you want a SOUP or do you want a SALAD with your dinner?" Ben broke into a huge smile and said, "Oh, I get it now. I thought you were asking me if I wanted a giant salad!"
Needless to say, that is one hilariously true story. So.... it was told often. So much so that Ben at one point was called Super Salad. As the years passed, that small boy grew. I stepped down as the team photographer after seven wonderful years. The T-Bones schedule was in direct conflict with Ben's collegiate summer team schedule. There was no way I was going to miss shooting my own son's games.
It was around that time we were out to dinner at a steakhouse with the entire family. Someone mentioned "super salad" and Ben went off. He said, "Enough is enough, the whole super salad joke was funny in the beginning but come on it's been years! Can you all finally drop it and let it go."
I apologized. I was so very sorry. We didn't mean to hurt his feelings. We thought he was laughing with us but apparently it had worn pretty thin over the years. We all agreed to never mention it again. And with that, talk around the table commenced, until the waitress came to take our orders. When she got to Ben, he said, "I'll have the KC Strip, medium, baked potato, and soup with ranch". You could have heard a pin drop. Every conversation around the table stopped and everyone sat in amazement staring at Ben. "What??" he inquired. I leaned forward and said, "Ummm, you just asked for soup with ranch". He shook his head and said, "No I didn't!!" as he looked up at the waitress, she was nodding her head pretty profusely in agreement, "Yes, actually you did". Ben laughed, shook his head and said "Okay, let's just go back to super salad please!"
Fast forward a couple more years.... This time instead of the dugout, I'm sitting in one of the suites at a T-Bones game. The announcer comes on and in a big booming voice amidst the cheers says, "Now entering the game, # 9, Ben Baker".
I'm amazed I was able to shoot any pics during that game. It's hard to focus a camera with tears of pride streaming down your cheeks!
#Still Following His Dream
#For the Love of the Game
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