Old School,
Did not want to bore w details of why buddy and I paid all team expenses for two years. "Team expenses" being tourney entry fees, which been so long I forget but like $600 per event? Don't recall? Reason we just picked up the tab Old School was there were several kids whose family's could not afford to pay to play each weekend and therefore would not be reliable on weekly basis, which we needed them to be. We didn't go the route of organizing fundraisers as partner and I did not have time to do that too. So we just paid the fees for all.
I have paid for many kids out of my pocket to play ball and go to camps. I only have one child and any time I sent him to a camp always paid a 2nd tuition for the scholarship fund for a kid to go who could not afford. Don't mean to get on my soap box but don't say I did this kid wrong. No other teams were willing to "invite" him to play with them. The #10 "role" was a role someone had to play. Perhaps Like a walk-on player? I didn't take his money and sit him.....he knew the deal when we invited him along. And he Got the PT he deserved based on his ability and skill level. We batted 10 players every game, so he got 2-3 ABs per game, he got 2-3 innings in field every game he was present. Just occasionally we would not invite him for big tourneys, as we did not want to waste his time, as then he would then be riding pine. That's when mama bear got upset. Upset to the point it became a "no good deed goes undone" scenario and we stopped inviting him to be our #10 player.
And as far as winning the trophy? Yeah, we won plenty of them. And 90% of the time you know who was the kid always holding the trophy in the center of the team picture?
#10.