Sunday brought us to the final day of the 2022 summer baseball session for my son; Sunday morning brought us more rain too… kind of appropriate for this rainy summer that caused havoc with our baseball season. The games didn’t get cancelled, thankfully, but instead moved back to the park with field turf, about 7 hours later in the day. This was actually a great thing. My son got to fill in for one of his classmates and serve as an altar boy at morning mass. He also got to attend one of his classmates birthday parties, that we’d thought he’d miss because of the final tournament games. It kind of worked out… now it was game time.
But wait, there’s more. 5 minutes from the park, we were sent a text message that we couldn’t get on the field quite yet, and that the game would be delayed at least an hour; beautiful… So we got there, and we waited, watching the soccer match on the field before we got to the first pitch. Before the game, there was a team meeting; there was some drama the day before that I won’t get into… guess they had to clarify some things; I’ll ask my son about it later. As part of this “clarification”, they asked me to be assistant coach for the day and take score. I had helped out before, but was always kind of a “tweener”… part coach, part parent. Coaches are allowed in the dugout; parents aren’t allowed to talk to their kid or any other kids during the game. So yeah, I was kind of in limbo… always willing to help out. I was officially asked before the first pitch; cool with me.
Not going to lead with any suspense; we won our first tournament game of the season! Yeah, it was a great game. The biggest difference in this game was our defense. The kids were making the simple plays, which goes a long way to winning a game. My son was part of it. He had just struck out looking the inning before; he was not happy. I told him… you’ll get another chance, now go make a catch out there. Where did the first batter up hit the ball? A fly ball was hit towards left center field; the left fielder was NOT going to make the play. I told my son, when he’s in CF, any ball that he can get to, is HIS… between the outfielders and the infielders. He went after this ball, and started calling it. The ball hit his glove, and popped out… but who had his second hand right next to his glove? That’s right. He secured it with his bare hand, and made a really nice catch. Whew!!! Fundamentals baby!!!
Yeah, it was so, so sweet to get the W; felt great for these kids. They really did play well. Funny thing about it… we had 5 minutes to celebrate it. With the games already pushed back, the championship game started in exactly 6 minutes; how ironic… But yeah, back on the field facing the team that has mashed us the last few times we played; there wouldn’t be any mashing today. We played our butts off; we played a tough game, but in the end, came up short, losing 7-4… Take away that one grand slam that scored the previous 3 kids who walked, and… yeah, woulda coulda shoulda. Still, really great way to end the season, getting their first tourney W, and playing a really good team really tough in a game that lasted well into the evening.
So yeah, back to my official assistant coach stint in these two games. Guy that runs the league came around after my son’s nice catch, saying… too bad he won’t be around next year. I had already told him I signed him up to play fall baseball elsewhere, essentially ending his playing days with this program. He followed that up with offering me to coach the team next year… wow. You know, if he had played this card earlier in the season, much earlier in the season, then maybe… but now… Yeah, well, it is flattering; I do love to coach, and wish I could have done more during this season, but I was always kind of just “hanging around”. I guess I heard what I needed to hear the day before. After the “drama” that took place, the best kid on the team asked me if the umpire was giving me crap because I wasn’t a coach, etc. I told him no, it wasn’t me. He then said, well, OK, but I consider you a coach. That felt really good, especially coming from our best player. So yeah, I think there may be some more coaching days ahead for myself; I KNOW there will be more playing days ahead for my son. Thankful for this experience; excited for what’s next. Goodbye Wildcats…
Leave a Reply