MICHELE NORRIS, host: This week, we've begun a series called Summer Sounds. We've asked people to share sounds with us that for them aren't just a part of summer, they are summer.</s>STEVE PROFFITT: This is Steve Proffitt. I'm a producer for "The Madeleine Brand Show" at member station KPCC in Los Angeles.</s>STEVE PROFFITT: I love Little League, even though a couple of days ago I took a ball in the chin. I was throwing batting practice and a pitch sprang off the end of the bat. I didn't even see it coming. I guess I'm just too old and too slow. But at the ballpark I forget that  sitting in the dugout, hitting hot grounders to the infielders, watching a kid chase and catch a long drive way out to the fence.</s>STEVE PROFFITT: After taking it on the chin, I decided to retire as a batting practice pitcher. But even though my lip was black for weeks, I love it out here because for just a little while during every game, I forget that I'm old and bald and a little saggy. And for a few moments, I really do remember what it feels like to be 12, with a whole summer ahead of me.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, host: A summer sound from producer Steve Proffitt of member station KPCC in Pasadena, California. You can share your Summer Sounds at NPR.org. Please put Summer Sounds in the subject line.
Steve Proffitt is sure it's summer when he hears the sound of a Little League game. This was underlined not long ago when he took a ball to the chin when his son was playing.