By Mike Gianotti

Last weekend my boy, Sam, and I went to 9:00 a.m. baseball practice on a cloudy cool Sunday morning. As the boy ran for the field, I sat in a spot where I could watch him while pretending to be buried in my newspaper.

After warm-ups and infield drills, the coach had the boys line up by third base, announcing that they were going to do a drill called “get on your horse.” In this drill a ball is hit up into foul territory behind third base. The coach told the boys they were to turn around, “get on your horse,” and run back to catch the pop-up.

As each boy took his spot on the field, the coach bellowed, “OK, son, what’s the name of your horse?” Replies came back: “George,” “Trigger,” “A-Rod,” “Rhino,” etc… Lots of giggling and not many pop-ups caught.

Then my boy stepped up to the spot. The coach yelled, “OK, son, what’s the name of your horse?” Sam replied instantly: “Pantyhose!” The whole place fell apart laughing. I didn’t know whether to laugh or crawl under the stands. Then I smiled, thinking, That’s MY boy!

For the rest of the day, whenever it was Sam’s turn to do anything—batting, fielding, base running—a coach would call, “OK, Pantyhose, you’re at first,” then later, “Grab a bat, Pantyhose…” How awesome is that?!

Those coaches will never forget the day a horse named Pantyhose took the field!

Mike Gianotti (aka: “Roseville Dad”) is one of Sacramento Parent Magazine's esteemed bloggers sharing his adventures in fatherhood.