May 2011 - End of Season Baseball

The end of season tournament.  So stressful, such a long week, so tiring, so fun.

Jared's first time playing first base.  Nothing like giving it a whirl in the championship game.

He also had some great pitching

And a fabulous diving catch in the outfield.  He slammed stretched out, caught the ball, slammed into the fence, tucked and rolled and came up throwing.  The coach on the other team was giddy with excitement over the play and made sure to congratulate him on that play after the game.

But even with all that hard work..the chips fall where they may....and we took 2nd place.

But a bigger lesson was learned by my kiddo that day as our coach refused to shake hands with the coach of the other team and was trying not to let our kids watch them get their first place trophies...in fact...the lesson was uttered by our coach himself,

"Baseball doesn't build character...it reveals it."

Yes coach, yes it does.  And my son was watching..and did not like what he saw.  I hope he learned that lesson well.

Then we were off to the next field, and the next championship game.  This was Jacob's last game in this league.  Bittersweet, as we watched all the players we had played with and against for 8 seasons.  They will all be moving on to high school.  Some will never play baseball again and some who have played together since tball will be on opposing teams.

It was a close game...in fact it came down to the final play.  One of our assistant coaches took a gamble....

...it did not pay off and we ended the game with 2nd place.

Jacob with Coach Patrick and Coach Kevin.  These 2 guys have coached with and against each other for 8 seasons.  Kevin is from Boston and he takes some getting used to, but once you get him...you can't stop laughing at his on the field antics.  He loves baseball and he loves teaching these kids.  He keeps stressing to them you don't have to play select to be good...you gotta have heart and work hard.  He took hodge podge teams from our rec league to tournaments and blew the competition away, just to prove his point.

Thanks for all your hard work guys.  It was a fun run!!!!