This week I give out my award for the best spectator ever. I'll call him Wayne. Wayne spends his spare time following his grandchildren's youth sports teams. It really doesn't matter where they play or what the sport. He seems to show up at just about everything. For a recent baseball tournament, he drove two hours to watch his grandson play in one game. And then drove two hours home.

Wayne arrived shortly after the first pitch with his chair and cooler in tow. He set up "camp" away from all the spectators, but with a perfect view of the field. And then, to my surprise, he pulled out a book. I couldn't believe my eyes. Four hours round-trip and he's going to read a book. He leered up whenever he heard the crack of the bat -- whether it was his grandson batting or not.

Between one inning, his grandson was near him warming up the left fielder and that caused him to look up. Most parents or grandparents would have some sort of baseball advice. Not Wayne.

I turned to another parent and said, "Wayne has it all figured out, doesn't he?"

The rest of us are stressing out over watching 14-year-olds play baseball and his only care in the world this day is making sure his grandson realizes there are more important things in life than baseball (he had just struck out the inning before).

And so you might ask yourself, "Why drive four hours to read a book?"

Well, believe it or not, after the game Wayne could recall just about every critical play -- more than I can say, thanks to my gift for spectator gab. Every player he passed after the game was congratulated for something that happened during the game. Once again, Wayne has it all figured out.

As I listened to the other parents barking at the umpires or their own kids I had to sit and wonder: If all of us took a chapter out of Wayne's book, wouldn't the youth sports world be a better place?

By sitting out there with a book, Wayne was sending a very important message to everyone in attendance on and off the field -- he was there not just to watch a game, but to enjoy the day. My guess is he was doing two of his absolute most favorite things: watching his grandchild and reading a good book.

Wayne drove two hours to the game, watched his grandson bat once and have zero attempts in the field. Our team got creamed in less than two hours. Wayne closed his book, folded up his chair, sent along a few "nice jobs" and drove two hours home with a smile on his face. In his mind, time perfectly spent.

Wayne has it figured out.

Jon Buzby's columns appear in newspapers and magazines around the country as well as numerous Web sites. Email your comments to JonBuzby@ hotmail.com