My favorite memory (so far) came from a loss. My sons 10 year old year of LL he played minors. I had always coached his teams (and still do) and every year I would pick a "project" player. That year we had a 12 year old young man who had experienced some unbelievable turmoil in his young life. Tall and skinny with glasses, this young man had marginal ability but outstanding character. He took on a natural leadership role that was great to see. All year long he refused to wear his glasses while he hit. I'm not sure how, but he managed to hit quite well (.420 or so) without the benefit of decent vision. Fast forward to the semi-final game of our local TOC's. We are down 2-0 in the bottom of the 6th and I manage to convince him that he really should try hitting with his glasses on. He goes up to bat and smokes the first pitch over the CF fence. First ever HR. Not a dry eye in the house. I'm glad I was wearing sun glasses while coaching 3B. We lost that game 2-1. Turns out that was his last AB in baseball. He has moved on to other things. That was 4 years ago. I still see this young man at his current HS. When he sees me, I get a high 5 and a smile. There are a lot of reasons why I love baseball but the way the game keeps paying you back has to be pretty high on the list.
Dave