None of the second or third graders at a recent Delaware County Little League game lost, writes Maria Panaritis for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The fact they could even play makes them all winners.

“Kids who came out of isolation and its quarantine lingo of ‘death,’ ‘infection,’ and ‘virus’ took a chance on how to be normal again,” Panaritis writes.

When the season started in March,  kids wore masks. So did dads and moms.

Back then, infection rates were high. Vaccine was scarce.

The fact they played at all was a testament that people were done isolating indoors.

“We were emerging from a year of hell,” Panaritis wrote. It was time to “start punching back at the forces of nature that had stolen so much from so many.”

For the first few games, being stuck inside for a year took its toll. Players couldn’t pitch straight. No one caught a ball and the only scores came from RBI walks.

“Still, it was beautiful,” she writes. “The kids and parents were outside and around each other.

“You realized that everyone out on this field, on the sidelines, on the bleachers, was grateful.”

Read more in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the return of Little League baseball.

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