Along with being an umpire, I also coached my own childrens youth baseball teams until such time that thier abilities went beyond my ability to offer constructive coaching......
I was grateful for the clarity to realize that my local baseball area needed a qualified umpire far more than it needed a mediocre coach.....
I look back on my coaching time with fondness mainly because of the players........and this week has brought me news of 2 of my former players and I want to share........
I had a young man named Robbie come into our fall ball program at about 10 yrs old....He had not had any opportunity to play baseball prior to that and was as raw as any ten year old can be.......He played on my teams from age 10-15. He became a good youth ball player and loved the game like very few....He never missed a practice, never missed a game.........he always gave 100%. He went on to a christian high school that did not have a baseball team and then on to college, so I did not get to see him much but I see his mother now and then and I always ask about him.....
This sunday in our sports section there was a photo of a local softball team who had just gotten back from a tourney where they had won first place.......this team had won the tournament even though it forfeited a game on sunday... You see these boys would not play on sunday morning so they would not miss Church....they roared back to sweep the tourney from the losers bracket and bring home the championship trophy..........
Smiling in the front row was Robbie.....
I am not suprized that he is a winner........he always was........
Then last night my local paper had another picture in it........in the obituaries......
A young man who played baseball on my team for a short few years........from 6-9 yrs of age....happy go lucky kid.......sandy blonde hair, who always had a joy in his heart.........He played on the same PINTO team as my daughter and they were fast friends........
He grew up, moved away...graduated HS just last year.........but unfortunately got in with the wrong crowd...........drifted into drugs and took his own life sunday night.........
To me he will always be 6 years old and I am today struggling with the greater will.......19 is too young....whatever the demons are.....
The hardest part was calling my daughter in the Army to let her know her first friend of her age had passed on.......
Baseball has given me more than I have ever given it.....but its the players.....to enjoy, to remember and to honor........the pyramid of baseball that some see as the only goal in baseball is truly steep and we need to refocus on what life and baseball really provides.......
just my .02.......
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