Closing the Curtain on the Redbirds

Saturday and Sunday, Joe played his final baseball all tournament of the summer for the Redbirds at the Mt. Juliet Little League Park.  It's one of my favorite ballparks and one Joe has played in before.  It's an old school ballpark that was built in 1967.  When I think about it, I'm an old school baseball coach who was built in 1966.  

Two summers ago, I helped Scott McRea coach the Braves in the Cal Ripken 12U all-star regional tournament.  Joe loved playing for Scott and with the combined Dodgers-Braves.  It was a good squad, actually.  As I recall, we ran out of pitching in the semi-finals and lost to a solid Franklin team.  I coached the same group in the fall that year and it was one of the more talented teams I've had, top to bottom.  

What I remembered, of course, was having a beer in the parking lot after the final game with Scott McRae and Mark Erdman.  We talked about the boys, baseball, and a little about life.  Within a few short months, Scott was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and, as I've written about in this space before, he died on January 31, 2026.  He never coached another baseball game, so I consider it a privilege to have been with him, on the field and in the dugout, for the last baseball game he coached.

Sunday in between games, I found a quiet moment to slip away and sit in the first base dugout on the field where the Braves played their final game together in the July heat two years ago.  I said a prayer for Scott and his family, especially Daniel, who is such a talented, sensitive boy.  I am so very thankful that Scott and I crossed paths and got to coach together, even if it only was for a couple of years.  

In the first game on Sunday, Joe played his best, most complete game of the summer.  Early on, batting cleanup, he had a solid two strike base hit to left field to drive in a run.  They second time he batted, he hit a line drive in the gap in left center field, again making solid contact.  Joe also made two or three nice plays are shortstop, where he should have been playing all summer long.  The boys gonged Cedar Hill Mayhem in a game that was never close.

My favorite play, though, was when Bo perfect executed a safety squeeze bunt with the bases loaded and Joe on third base.  He laid down a perfect bunt and Joe scored easily, just the way you draw it up, as they say.

In the finals, the boys ran into an absolute stud  pitcher for the Kentucky Legends.  He was over six feet tall and threw harder than any boy I have seen at 13 or 14 years of age.  As I told Joe, he would be the best pitcher on MBA's high school junior varsity team right now.  He threw a one-hitter and the Redbirds got smoked by nine or ten runs.  It was a tough game to end the summer season.  Still, all in all, this group of boys had a good run together.   

Travel baseball is a strange animal and one I am not entirely fond of.  A group of boys is thrown together in the fall for a few practices and tournaments, or a workout here or there.  Then, several months later, in the summer, they play tournaments seven out of eight weekends and just like that, it's over.  I'm pretty confident it's not the best way to develop young baseball players' skills, not by a long shot.  

But, baseball is baseball, I guess.