I always thought summertime was a slow period for sports.
My athletics of choice this time of year were handball by the pool, backyard baseball and “peg,” in which the goal was to peg an arbitrary friend as hard as you could with a tennis ball. We would run around the house trying to avoid getting hit. The farther away you hit someone, the better.
Needless to say, none of those were news worthy. But there is plenty going on in Bainbridge this summer I can’t wait to cover.
For starters, the Bearcat baseball team has a summer league going all the way through August. At least once a week, they are having games out at the Bainbridge High School field. Tickets cost $5 for adults and $2 for kids. If you’re looking for a way to spend the evening outdoors, head on out and cheer them on. There are some outstanding young players rising up and filling in the slots left by the graduated seniors.
Bainbridge this summer also has a pretty competitive swim team slicing through the pool water, the YMCA Barracudas. They got back from the Tifton Invitational Meet last week with three swimmers placing in the top three in three separate races. Congratulations to those swimmers and keep it up.
As a former soccer player, it’s hard not to get excited for the 2014 World Cup, now five days away. Even if you despise the sport, the event should still be appreciated. Every country in the world with even a slightly competitive team will be represented in Brazil. Twelve different cities in the massive country will be hosting games in their venues with thousands upon thousands of fans filling the seats. The newly built Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, has occupancy of 68,000. That’s just one stadium of the 12. The event is going to be watched by an approximate 1 billion people worldwide, according to ibtimes.com Let’s keep in mind a sport where a ball is kicked into a net is bringing this many people’s eyes to one place. Pretty spectacular.
And who could forget the granddaddy of all American sports, Major League Baseball. Plenty of Braves to watch as the season marches into its heyday.
Let’s be honest, though. All of us are counting down the days until football season.