Leave the Lights on for Me

I spent many years at Sloan Baseball Field when Cole was growing up. It’s a baseball complex in Mount Pleasant that takes young boys from their first games up through their 12 year old leagues. I would arrive at the field early, run the concession stand and was often the last to leave. I liked nothing better than to be the first to get there and stand behind the home plate fence and look at the beautiful field and feel the energy as the place came to life. There was a time when I thought I wanted my ashes spread there when I left this world.

Then Cole moved on and so did I until finally we both arrived at Patriot’s Point, the home of Cougar Baseball. It seems impossible to believe that my son started 201 games on that field, that he grew from a boy to a man and that today I left the stadium for the last time as a College of Charleston baseball player’s mom. I’m sure I’ll be back, I love baseball too much but it will be different. It’s funny how you can come to love a place and how it feels like it is yours after a while. How you sit in a seat so long that when someone else sits in it you get a little offended because they don’t understand that it ‘belongs to you’. Many times I took mental attendance by glancing through the stadium at the regulars and if their seat was empty I’d automatically assume they weren’t at the game not that they had moved to escape the sun. It becomes a habit, a part of who you are when you spend four years on the same field. It’s like a coming home when you drive over the Ravenel Bridge and see the field lights on, kind of like the porch light on a dark night. It feels good.

I would be lying if I said I’m glad it is over because I’m not but I will say I’m glad I got to call this place home. I’ve always been proud to say my son played for the College of Charleston but I guess it is time to give my seat to another fan. I hope they love it as much as I have. I hope they smile and talk to Norm and Timothy every day on their way into the stadium. I hope they tell Milton that the grass is beautiful and I hope they are kind to Miss Audra when she has to enforce the ticket sign in, because even though I may be moving on it feels like I’m leaving some of my family behind.

So tonight Patriots Point I bid you farewell and thank you for the joy you have brought to my life and for the way you embraced my son. You have been good to me and I have grown to love you.

I will definitely be back so please leave the lights on for me.

See you at the field.

Tomorrow we head to Birmingham for our last regular season play, then on to the Southern Conference tournament. I know the ride is almost over and I know I’ve said it before but indulge me one more time, “it’s been a great one”.