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by Stacey

As the mother of two boys I spend a fair amount of time playing with balls. Yes, I have changed a lot of diapers, but what I’m talking about are soccer balls, footballs, tennis balls, bouncy rubber balls that disappear under the couch and make the baby cry. If it’s round, we’ve got it and I’ve played with it.

So it was satisfying to read this article in the Sunday NY Times about Philadelphia Phillies baseball superstar Jimmy Rollins whose mother taught him everything he knows about the game.

Anyone wondering where he got his charisma, confidence and mouth need look no further than Gigi Rollins of Alameda, Calif., middle infielder for the Allen Temple Baptist Church women’s fast-pitch softball team, now retired. She dazzled with the glove. Burned around the bases. It was at her spiked feet that young Jimmy learned both the game and the verve with which he plays it; baseball might cherish the image of fathers playing catch with sons, but Rollins owes everything to his mother.

I don’t know anything about the guy, but the article says he’s a really good baseball player. In addition to that, the article says he’s got “’the Jimmy style,’ a sublime mix of electricity and undulating cool,” which he also learned from his mom.

Playing in Alameda’s church league for most of the 1980s, she was known as much for her flair as for her game. She had the Gigi style. Whenever she reached first base, she would flick her cap off into the wind as she threatened to head to second.” One of Gigi’s former teammates, Lisa DeWitt, recalled: “The girl was bad. Gigi is the one Jimmy got his talent from. And he got his grit from his mama, too. She was the one always talking.”

Jimmy watched closely. He and his younger brother, Antwon, who played briefly in the Texas Rangers’ farm system, loved how all eyes fixed on their mother. While their father (also named Jimmy) taught them the history of the game and hit them grounders on pebbled fields — better to quicken their hands for bad hops — it was Gigi who showed them how it was done on stage, the article says.

“I don’t remember my mom ever missing a ball,” Rollins said. “Her hitting was good, too. She’d gap some balls and drop it in gear, kind of like myself. She’d always take the extra base; she was far more aggressive than I am.”

He added: “I would listen to her and her friends talk baseball and situations. It seemed funny. I’m like, ‘These are women — what do they know?’ But they knew what they were talking about.”

Although the image of baseball mothers usually involves car pools and refreshment stands, several major leaguers have learned the game from their moms. The list includes Brewers catcher Jason Kendall, whose father, Fred, played in the big leagues. Because Fred spent February through September away from the family, it was Jason’s mother, Patty, who hit him grounders and taught him many of the game’s skills. There also was the former infielder Casey Candaele, whose mother, Helen Callaghan, starred in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

I love this. Playing sports is so often thought of as a bonding ritual between fathers and sons. And often the moment when a son can finally beat his father is one that both remember vividly. Two years ago, Gigi Rollins confessed to her son that he was finally better than her. “That was the moment for me,” Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies’ shortstop, recalled proudly. “I never thought she was going to say it.”

It’s refreshing to see a portrayal of a mother who values her own talent and success so much. What do you think? Does your family defy gender stereotypes?

For those of you who like to see my kids, here’s a video from last November that we call “Playing Catch.”

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