As the spring baseball season winds down for Joe, I've been thinking about how lucky we were to bump into Oliver Davis in the parking lot of Green Hills Park in April 2020. It was the early stages of the pandemic, the Junior Dodgers had splintered, and we had decided Joe wouldn't play baseball that spring.
That meant, of course, that I wouldn't coach Joe in baseball that spring, as well. I'm not sure who would have been more disappointed, Joe or me.
As I arrived late to a practice with JP's Dodgers, I ran into Oliver in the parking lot. He asked me if Joe was playing baseball that spring. When is said he wasn't, Oliver told me he could use him on the Diamondbacks, and the rest is history.
Fast forward two years later. Joe is a Diamondback stalwart, along with Oliver's son, Preston. New friendships have been formed and existing friendships have been strengthened, for Joe and me. Joe and Preston are tight, as are Oliver and I. It's special.
This spring, we have 18 players on Diamondbacks 1 and 2, including several of my original Junior Dodgers. Joe, Ram, Trey, Nico, George, and Bennett. To have coached them when they were first playing baseball - at ages 4 and 5 - and to be coaching those boys now, when they're nine and ten years old is the thrill of a lifetime for me.
What's really amazing, too, is that having done this once with JP and his crew - JK, Wes, Benton, Elijah, Porter, and all the rest - God has blessed me with the opportunity to do it all again. Just as the sun set on the last days of the Dodgers, I've been able to do it all again with Joe's Diamondbacks. It's more than I could have expected and more than I deserved. And I'm loving every single minute of my time with these boys.
As much as I miss being on the field, at practices and games, with my Dodgers' coaches - Randy, Chris, Will, Tom, and Tony - I've been incredibly blessed with the opportunity to forge new friendships with Ryan, Matt, Alan and, of course, Oliver. In many ways, it's the same, almost an extension of the times I shared with my coaches. Now, I share them with Oliver's coaches.
The group of Diamondback families, too, is markedly similar in so many ways to what Michele Sweeney so aptly called our Dodgers' family. Parents, grandparents, and older and younger siblings. I love interacting with all of them.
And, of course, there's the boys. Huck, Rex, Bennett, Cullen, Ram, Trey, George, Nico, Leland, Nash, Austin, William, Preston, Henry, Henry, Pike, Patrick, Schuyler, and Joe. Without question, they're the best part of all of this. Each one of those boys is unique, special, and gifted.
There's the International Bank of Schuyler, where Schuyler and Ram have accounts. Currently, I owe Schuyler $20 and Ram $15, payable in cryptocurrency. With both boys, I made deals. Five dollars for every hard hit ball regardless of whether it results in them getting on base. I want good, hard swings and good, hard contact. However, if one of them doesn't hustle on the base paths - that's you, Schuyler - or makes a boneheaded play in the field - that's you, Ram - I take five dollars back.
And, guess what happened? First, Schuyler started swinging harder and hitting the ball harder. Then, Saturday, after I opened up an account for Ram at the International Bank of Schuyler, he started smoking the ball. Schuyler's at $20 and Ram is at $15 and, more importantly, both buys have bought in - pun intended - and are having a blast. When of them gets on base, they look at me coaching first base or standing outside the dugout and I hold up five fingers or shake my head, sadly. They laugh, I laugh, and we share a moment or two.
To me, that's what coaching is, in a nutshell. It's finding a way to reach each boy that motivates him and, at the same time, lets him know that you care about him and only want what is best for him. It's establishing and building trust over time - sometimes years - so that when you correct a boy, or even get on him a little bit, they know it comes from a place of love. It's knowing which boys need you, occasionally, to light a fire under their asses and which boys need you to reassure them, to build them up.
It's my job, as a coach, to figure out the best way to motivate each boy to be the best he can be, to give full effort all of the time, while making sure he is enjoying playing baseball. I love that part of coaching.
So, on to this weekend games, then the end of season house tournament next weekend. Can't wait.
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