Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 10:44 a.m.
Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at PDelGiudice@ compuserve.com.
Editor's note: Sun outdoors columnist Paula Del Giudice recently was named Chairman of the National Wildlife Federation and was selected to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to last Sunday's Rangers-Orioles game at Camden Yards to commemorate International Migratory Bird Day.
It wasn't the best throw you've ever made, Mom," Kevin told me as I left the mound at Camden Yards on Sunday evening. Despite everyone's best efforts at turning me into a major league pitcher in three weeks, my throw resembled a curveball that didn't straighten out.
Nevertheless, throwing out the first pitch at what would turn out to be a spectacular game in a spectacular stadium was a dream come true. It was like walking on a cloud as Kevin, Ranger Rick (the National Wildlife Federation mascot) and I were escorted down the elevator to the field before the game.
We listened to the music playing and watched the Orioles Bird act up as the 40,000-plus people who attended the game filed into their seats. I was really pretty calm there for awhile. Then Cal Ripken Jr. came out to help warm up Mike Mussina and I started letting the "I can't believe this is really happening" jitters set in.
I remember bringing my arm back, but don't actually remember much about the throw, other than seeing that it didn't quite go where I wanted it to. That's not a great feeling, but one that was pretty popular that evening.
Fellow Las Vegan Mike Morgan felt it when he beaned Brady Anderson with the ball twice in one inning, setting an American League record. A couple of outfielders for each team felt it when they went to take the ball out of their glove to make a play and the ball remained in the grass at their feet. The Texas Rangers felt it when the game was over in the first inning because the lowly Orioles unleashed a club record 10-hit inning.
My son Kevin felt it when he struck out last night to end the last game of this year's Little League season. We all feel it, but as the priest in a church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., said on Sunday, "There are so many people who go through their lives unwilling to take chances because they can't do something perfectly."
They miss out on so many things, so many joys in life.
That was one of the many lessons this experience held for us.
Kevin has been having some trouble with his hitting lately and left his games saying he's a lousy batter. So I turned on a baseball game a couple of weeks ago to show him that even the best of the best strike out on occasion. He felt better knowing that even Mark McGwire strikes out sometimes.
He told me on Saturday as we threw the ball back and forth on The Mall in front of the White House, "Mom, if you make a bad pitch, everyone will laugh at you." (No pressure there, right?)
I told him, "Then you tell them that I'm the bravest person you know. Ask them if they'd get out there and throw the first pitch in front of 40,000 people."
I've watched baseball since I was a little girl, cheering on those friends of mine in second and third grade who were playing Little League, chasing foul balls and trading them in for popsicles, and later rooting for the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, not far from where my father grew up. So while the experience of standing on the mound in Camden Yards was something spectacular, something I'll never forget, what it did for my young son was even more incredible.
Kevin has become a dyed-in-the-wool, love it forever, sleep in your uniform, stand at midnight at the fence surrounding the players' parking lot for an autograph, organize your friends on the playground for an impromptu game type of baseball fan. And that's how this sport endures.
* JUST VISITING: Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the 1999 summer visitor season for Great Basin National Park. Though spring has arrived at the lower elevations -- 6,800 feet at the visitor center -- the upper elevations still are in the grip of winter, with two feet of snow at the 10,000-foot elevation. The snow level currently is at 9,000 feet. The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive is open as far as the Summit Trailhead, and should remain open barring any further accumulations of rain or snow.
Throughout the summer, the Visitor Center will be open daily Monday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Daily tours of Lehman Cave will be given at 7:20 a.m. ending at 4:30 p.m. No advance camping reservations are accepted. All sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more information call (775) 234-7331 or visit PARKNET on the Web at http://www.nps.gov/grba.
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