Sons Baseball Career Has Ended, Amusing Epilogue, and Thank yous to All

When I came upon this site in 2000, Mike was a freshman in high school, five feet tall, playing on the freshman baseball team in a program where the varsity averaged two wins a season and he thought he would like to play college baseball. Not for a minute did I ever think that would happen (we were the people who changed him from a lefty to a righty in little league - so that he wouldn't be pigeonholed - and told him he couldn't play baseball during the summer because overnight camp would be much more fun and he could play softball there - because they were practically the same).

Fast forward to the summer of 2002, I was proceeding with due diligence researching showcases and travel teams never once encouraging Mike to actually go through with this plan. Perfect game and College Select were the same weekend that August and since I went to college in Binghamton, what fun that would be to show him the old haunts, that's how I chose which showcase to go to. I knew that if Mike were to pursue this craziness D-III was the only option and that way he could go to a better academic school under the guise of playing baseball (my plan). When I got to the showcase the parental talk around me was scouts, drafts, Division-I, the College World Series - I couldn't believe what I saw at that showcase, there were definitely some fabulous stand-out players but there were a lot of players that were at the same level as Mike - was I crazy or were all these other people crazy? That was the question I posed to Tom Rizzi and he assured me that there was a place for Mike in D-III. We went through that winter seeing coaches, torturing Tom with frantic emails, and still my plan was for Mike to go to a better school by claiming he would be playing baseball. He decided to play his first select baseball the summer after he graduated, I told him if he made the team he tried out for he could look at better baseball programs and I would lower the academic bar.

In the end he chose not to apply early to several very selective colleges and chose to attend the school that he had gotten into anyhow. We weren't thrilled but it was his choice - he had grown 11 inches and developed into a pretty decent ballplayer. In the end he played four years of competitive college ball, played well, and I got to see a fair amount of games. Thanks to the website I went to the first game knowing several parents and because he had chosen this school I had the privilege of developing a friendship with Cathy and Towny Townsend over the three years that our boys overlapped. I attended the last home game, it was great to see him play one last time and it was a sad loss. I was unable to attend the double header the next night at Villa Julie but Mike told me he had a decent day with a triple as his last hit. He told me that after the game the umpire came up to him and said "Mike nice hit to end your career." He also told me he had asked to be taken out so that his friend, a fellow senior, could play one last time as well.

He was very realistic as to his baseball expectations, he accepted a job offer that he had received back in January (it seems that the firm has a very competitive softball schedule) and he was offered a contract to play in the Israel Baseball League which he declined as he knew he was ready to move on.

So you think that was the end - hah, last Tuesday he went with his Dad to Fenway, it had been years since the schedule permitted that. When he got home he ran in, woke me up, and showed me the foul ball that he caught. Dad was standing proudly behind him as this was not a rinky dink bounce off the seats scramble for the ball foul ball - it was a "legit catch" - he had jumped up and snagged that ball with two hands like any right fielder would have done. And my reaction - I felt terrible that I missed his catch! I suppose I now have to watch the games he goes to as a spectator now.