Sunday's Sundae

When I was growing up playing little league, one of the standing rewards in our family was a hot fudge sundae if you hit a home run.

This was a very big deal.

Our family never ate out to eat. Whenever we'd pass by McDonalds we'd plead to our father to let us get a meal there, but he'd respond "wave to it as we go by." We rarely went out for ice cream and we hardly ever had dessert at dinner. As a matter of fact, the sure fire way to know whether we were going to have dessert at dinner was whether or not my mother had put down a spoon with our silverware. If we had a spoon, we had dessert. No spoon, no dessert.

So getting a hot fudge sundae for hitting a home run was a really big reward. In a family of eight kids, getting one on one time with my Dad was tough, but if you earned a sundae, it was a special moment that we shared with each other, just the two of us.

I was lucky to have earned one, solitary single sundae in my little league career. I was not a very talented hitter, but I was a very good pitcher. One game when I wasn't pitching, one of the only games my parents were unable to attend, I hit a high 3-1 fastball over the Corkers sign in left center (Corkers was the name of our team)... a solo home run. Later on I knocked in the only other run we got that game. We lost 14-2 that game, but it was a personal memorable game for me on the offensive side of the ball.

I have passed on the sundae for a home run tradition with my son. He earned one last year in fall ball and earned another one today. He hit a line drive high over the left fielder's head, earned a triple standing, but a bad throw allowed him to run home. He immediately ran over and jumped into my arms. He was so excited.

After the game we headed over to the Whistle Stop, a local family run ice cream shop by the train tracks in downtown Safety Harbor and enjoyed some father/son time while he savored every moment of his hot fudge sundae.

Its a great tradition started by my father and I love passing it on to my children.