By Cassidy Dover: "Mothers, Parents & Playoffs"

I know my mother loves me.  She must.  I mean I look back at all the grief I've given her through out my life.  I was never an easy child.  Even back to the day she learned she was pregnant with me.  What a surprise!  She thought she was long done with having children.  She went to the doctor to complain of her tiredness and her weight gain and all the other para menopausal symptoms she was having over the past three or four months. 

One simple blood test and she learned that she wasn't para menopausal, she was pregnant with me!

Then there were the toddler years.  I heard I screamed and carried on like the demon child her mother had wished on her when she was a teenager herself (and, in the great family traditons, she wished upon me during my younger years).  I had much older siblings and I would try to do what they did.  Sometimes I could and I'd succeed, sometimes I'd fail miserably.

Let's not touch those teen years.  I have photos of the hair and the clothing and the friends I chose to have.  It's a miracle I got to college.

Then there's that little thing of meeting a guy, barely spending time with him, and running off to marry him in my very early twenties.

During those years my mom put up with a lot from me.  She was my greatest cheerleader.  She would tell me how I could do anything I put my all into.  As long as I tried my best, she would stand up and say, "Way to Go."

There were rough times when she told me how disappointed she was in my choices.  She sat down and let me walk into my errant ways and waited with open arms to take me back in.  The door, even when I slammed it shut, was never locked.

"Cassidy, interesting, but this is a blog about being a baseball wife.  What's up?" you say.

As another season comes to a close, I look back at our past ten months as a parent would when looking at his or her child.

Ray has had some incredible success this season.  He has continued to accomplish much more than anyone would have expected of him - especially at his age. 

He's also had some great disappointments.  During those disappointments, or more accurately, after them, he examined where he had let himself down and made changes so his next outing would be better.

We had our issues.  As great as those have been, we have not locked the door to one another.  We've kept our communication open and we've worked hard to improve ourselves and our relationship.

Sheridan sure has changed!  She's grown into such a little lady (ok, I could go on here about how she's starting to give me a run for my money, but overall she's an amazing child who I love every inch of and every ounce of her self assurance and fantastic self image).   She continues to expand my heart to a size I didn't know it could be.

As fans of the game, I'm sure your team had its ups and its downs.  You, like any good parent, have belly ached and cheered.  You stood by your team through the losing streaks, and the wins.  You supported without limits.  No matter how poorly your team may have done, you look forward to watching your team next year and seeing what changes the off season will bring. If your team is doing great, you can hardly wait for the next round of the playoffs to begin and to see who will win it all this year!

See, in our family, we only have a one year contract.  So as I look forward I must also look back and assess how the year went to prepare myself for how the off season should go.  Although, in baseball, you never know.

In the past season you've also welcomed me to your computer and into your lives.  I hope that I have not let you down. 

It has been my personal goal for those who come to read my entries feel they know me.  I hope they can identify with me.  If not identify, maybe, just maybe, empathize a little bit more with the semi-charmed life my family leads.  I hope, through my writing, that you see how
similar we are rather than believing my life is so much different than your own.

I started with how I know my mother loves me, because it's how I hope you all know I truly care about you.  There have been weeks where I felt I had nothing to say.  There were stories I didn't want to share, but knew I needed to talk about.  At the end of the day, because Jimmy told me there were many of you out there who read Cassidy Dover weekly, I wrote.

To the other baseball wives, I hope you feel I voiced your feelings and your lives with dignity and respect.

To those who have read this season, I hope you learned and felt closer to me.

I'll be writing during the offseason.  I don't know if our escapades will be as interesting.  I just know my life goes on and therefore, I will try to write about it.

Thank you, very much, for reading what I've written this past season.  You have no idea how grateful I have been to write.

Cassidy

Cassidy Dover has been a baseball wife for more than 10 years.  Her husband Ray, currently in the minor leagues, has spent part of 7 seaons in The Show.  Cassidy lives somewhere in America with her daughter Sheridan.  Right now, they're probably waiting for Ray to come home.