How lucky am I!!!

The fraternity of it.

Stopped by my son's old HS tonight and just talked with the coach for over an hour. Just about this and that. Just baseball. Talked about season's past, the upcoming season, players we've known and coached at different levels, other coaches in the area, on and on. Fun, relaxing, interesting. Not much I'd rather do than hang out at a baseball field and thats all I did.

Not sure what drives it, but I sure know what feeds the beast - ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH THE GAME!! Running a pre-season workout, watching my son's indoor workouts/lessons, watching ESPN Classics, participating on this web site, or reading hot stove stuff on espn.com - you name it. I've always said that I'll watch the Eagles if they are on TV and I'm not doing something else. but I'll watch ANYBODY play baseball on TV. I travel a fair amount in my job - warm months I always find a ballfield - even if it's adults playing softball - it's still the game. Seeing some of the kids I coached growing up, in college - MEN!! One of them IM'd me today - BS-ing a bit - he said "When I graduate, we'll find you a head coaching job at a high school and I'll be your assistant!" To have a kid that played on a team that you assisted on, want to do that?? That's what makes it the great game that it is!! PRICELESS!

The passion for baseball…. Its weird, I like all sports but none come close to baseball. I played ball in my younger days and loved it but it wasn’t my best sport. We had season tickets (weekends only) to the Senators and I would go to every game I could. My mom would sit at the kitchen table and listen to every game on her radio. We learned, don’t bug mom when the game was on. When the Senators left Washington my father circulated a proposal that would start a new league comprised of “city team” – never took off but he did get a nice write-up in the Washington Post – I still have the article.

Got away from baseball for many years until my son started playing. His first practice wasn’t exactly stellar – he told me “dad I stink”. I tried to convince him otherwise but he just looked at me in that way that says dad you are clueless – that was 8 years ago. I saw (and helped where I could) him work and work and have fun and fun and he is constantly improving. We did rec ball, local travel ball and now full travel. We have so many friends through baseball.

My son and I have spent countless hours in the car driving to practices, games and tournaments (as well as Ga Tech, Georgia, Richmond Braves, Rome Braves, etc.) – great times…..

Passion, you bet!!!!!

Baseball practice started last weekend – he looked real good – crushed two out of the park in BP.

You know it's an issue when your told to keep your eye on the road and it's a baseball field your passing.

Just think 40mph, 4 lanes of traffic, rush hour, and all you want to see is one pitch before you pass it by. I'll bet I'm not the only one guilty of this.

Funny you should ask about what drives my love for baseball. Just the other day, our basketball team was playing in a tournament at another school. That school just built an addition. As I was walking to their auxillary gym with some of my baseball players, the kids started planning where I would put up a hitting, pitching, fielding station and where I would put cages. They had me laughing so hard and one of them looked at me and said in a serious tone, "Coach, you know we're telling the truth. No one loves baseball more than you do." What is so ironic is that they described exactly what I was thinking.

I love the competition. I really miss the feeling of me against you. Hitter vs pitcher from both perspectives. As a Hitter, every pitch every at bat was personal. The feeling I had on the mound when I had a fastball count against me and I came off of that mound in a rage as I released that pitch. (I wasn't smart enought to understand pitching backwards then.) ON EVERY PLAY IN BASEBALL, YOU KNOW WHERE THE COWARD IS. I LOVE THAT! Who backed down? YOU SEE IT ON THEIR FACE! I love that play in the hole when you can't make the play and yet you do. I ALSO LOVE THE GAME BECAUSE OF A COMMON BOND PLAYERS - COACHES - RIVALRIES and then I LOVE THE FRATERINTY THAT DEVELOPES WHERE YOU SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT THE GAME AFTERWARDS. I could go on and on. One other reason that I love this game is that my Dad at 74 years of age works in a muffler shop. He still can't retire because of his life. However, I call him after every game and he can tell you about every one of my kids and he tells everyone about his son the COACH!

I love to teach. I love to teach kids. I love to teach them how to hit something better and watch the difference I can make in a player.

Maybe I love making a difference, it makes you relevant.

The Smells.....fresh cut spring grass. Brats on the grill by the concession stand. And even the locker room smell of my son's bat bag.

The sounds.....the crack of the bat, the laughter from the dugout, the sounds from the umpire behind the plate.

The Sights: The green fields during late winter, the boys taking BP and Infield. Seeing old friends and making new ones.

But what really fuels my passion. My son.

The love of the game. I love to teach the game. I love to see young boys turn into men and know that I have had a small part in it. Competition is a big part of it.

These posts are great - I just cannot wait for the first game. We're going on a couple of visits at the end of the week and will get see some intersquad games. I'm just about as excited over that, as I am to do the visits.

Baseball is wonderful for me just because I love the game. But then you throw in my son's passion for it, the wonderful men who have coached, mentored and taught my son by example, the friendships we have both built..... What's not to love. It's been a huge chunk of our lives and will always be in some way or another.

for me, dunno really. It's just fun to wip a ball around and swing a bat, and run around. What I like most about the game is the element of surprise. You never know what's gonna happen in a ballgame.

I don't know. Sometimes to overthink something, to analyze it - destroys it. Heisenberg principle. It just is and always will be and that's enough.