The kid was there holding his sign before the game, in between innings, after the game. Wearing a Reds jersey with the number 44 on the back, the kid had short, dark hair tucked under his Reds hat, and looked to be about 11 or 12. He stood out amongst the sea of Brewers’ blue and gold at American Family Field, but he didn’t care. Half inning after half inning under the relentless afternoon August sun, the kid expectantly made the walk down the stairs from his 15th row seat in Milwaukee next to his dad with sign in hand. My nephew Keller and I would watch him get as close as he could to the visiting Cincinnati Reds dugout and then as he held up his sign staring at one player in particular and yelling his name as that player ran onto and off the field – “Elly!”

The sign itself was just your basic sheet of white cardboard that every kid in America has used for a school project at one time or another. The words from a large black marker formed a message that read: “Elly, you’re my favorite player. Trade you a pair of my sliding gloves for a pair of yours?” Fastened onto the board was a pair of white sliding gloves. On the reverse side of the board was the same message except it was written in Spanish, Elly’s native language.

Elly is Elly De La Cruz, the Cincinnati Reds’ 22 year old superstar and face of the franchise. De La Cruz, aka “La Cocoa” is a six foot five athletic freak of nature. The Dominican-born shortstop flashes an infectious smile, throws bullets from shortstop to first base, steals bases by the handful, and can unleash mammoth home runs with his powerful swing at any given moment. So, it’s understandable that the kid wanted a piece of De La Cruz, a big kid himself.

The last few seasons have seen the introduction of sliding gloves/mitts in major league baseball. They look kind of like the mittens your mom used to put on you when you were five only they’re more stylish in 2024.

It was practically impossible to do anything while wearing them when you were younger. Mittens sucked. It was like not having any hands. Now, they have finally found a decent use for them – major league baseball. They use them all of the time now in major league baseball after suffering through too many years of dislocated and broken digits from base stealers going in head first only to injure a finger against the base or against their opponents’ leg, foot, glove, etc. Now, when players reach base, out come the sliding gloves which are designed to reduce the risk of injury from friction and impact, and to improve grip and control to help prevent these injuries. Progress I guess.

Back to the kid. I watched him and his sign the entire game. I watched Elly. If Elly ever saw him, he didn’t show it. Time and again, straight into and out of the dugout Elly ran. These players have to focus during the game and it must be difficult especially for the more popular players like De La Cruz, but I still began to feel bad for the kid as did many of the other fans in the vicinity. Even my nephew yelled “Elly!” a few times trying to help the kid out. Elly went one for four that day, and the Reds held on for a 4–3 win over the Brewers, but the kid never got his sliding gloves. At least he hadn’t when we got up to leave shortly after the end of the game.

But I thought about the kid afterwards. I once heard that the measure of our faith is in our perseverance. It’s faith in whatever you choose to have faith in, so I imagined the kid’s faith in Elly through his afternoon of perseverance did finally paid off, and as the stadium was emptying out, the kid got his “Mean Joe moment” and Elly appeared from beneath the stadium somewhere and looked at the kid and as he tossed his sliding mitts to him, he said, “Hey kid, catch,” or maybe it was “Aquí niño, atrapar.” Maybe it didn’t happen, but maybe it did, and it gave me a good feeling to think that it did.

Gracias, Elly. Gracias.

“Dearly Beloved, We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life.”

Prince was simply known as “The Kid” in his 1984 movie “Purple Rain.” Elly has some Prince to him. He has some flare, some style, some nice drip. He has some stage presence, and man does he have some talent. These are all things that the multi-talented sports-fan Prince Rogers Nelson would have greatly appreciated. This song came out nearly 30 years before Elly was even born, but I feel like when Elly is doing Elly things, that the fans and the crowds can see the talent and feel the energy and they too will feel themselves drawn to and screaming for The Kid.

Come on readers. Let’s get nuts.

Thanks for reading.

sincerely,

the80s