Closing the Curtain on the Braves' Season

Damn, it always hurts when a baseball season ends.  

This afternoon was no different, as our 11 - 12 year old WNSL Braves lost, 10 - 3, to a Franklin team that was a little bit better than us.  Our boys needed to play a perfect game, really, to beat Franklin, and that just didn't happen today.  The Braves' postseason run ended in the semi-finals of the Cal Ripken State Tournament in Mt. Juliet, in an old school ballpark, straight out of the 1970's, that I really love.

God, I love coaching youth baseball.  Sometimes, like now, I think it's what I was put on the earth to do.  It's where I'm the happiest, always.  Every boy is a puzzle.  What do I need to do to reach him?  How do I motivate him?  How do I give him confidence playing this game I love - baseball - confidence that he can carry into life and all of the challenges life inevitably brings?

Baseball is life.  I believe that with every fiber of my being.

Resilience on the baseball field = resilience in life.  

What I can teach these boys in baseball translates to life.  It just does.  I know it.  I feel it.  Resilience.  Persistence.  Confidence.  Leadership.  Competitiveness.  Hard work.  Attention to detail.  Teamwork.  

All of it.

The Braves played two games today in 100 + degree heat.  A 10 - 0 win against White House and a 10 - 3 loss to Franklin.  The boys gave Scott, Mark, and me everything they had.  All of it.  As a coach, I can't ask for anything else.  

After the loss to Franklin, Scott gathered the boys in front of our dugout on the first base line to talk with them, post-game, for the last time this season.  It was emotional for me, as I looked down at their exhausted, tear-stained faces.  When I spoke, I thanked them.  For not quitting and for giving us everything they had.  

I felt really, really proud of how hard the boys played.  I also admired the boys, so much, for not quitting.  Franklin could have gonged them, with the bases loaded and a 10 - 1 lead, but our youngest players, JP Derrick, pitched us out of a bases loaded jam.  The Braves made Franklin play a full six innings to beat us.   And that's not nothing.

This group - the Braves - is special to me.  Coaches, players, and parents.  Very special, for a variety of reasons but mostly because they love baseball the way I do, and the way Joe does.  

Keaton, Joe, Daniel, Harper, Lucas, Huck, Henry, Big Mike, JP, Stephen, Ram, Trey, Bennett, Christian. 

My guys.  Every one of them.  

I'll write more later, I know.  But for now, I'm just grateful that my guys - my junior Dodgers - got to be a part of the Braves.  I'm grateful that I got to be on the field again, coaching these boys.

And you know what?  I might just put a group together in the fall, on the big field, in the prep league.  

We'll just have to see about that, won't we?

Dodgers forever.