Tell a good story

This is one of a player and his family. The kid didnt play his Jun year but the coaches begged him to come out his S year but told him he would only do pens and warm up the pitcher when the starter wasnt ready. One game he was warming up the pitcher and as he ran off the field I noticed 2 people giving him a standing O. I later found out it was the boys parents - class times 10!!!!!!!!!

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One game he was warming up the pitcher and as he ran off the field I noticed 2 people giving him a standing O.

I think kids like that always earn the respect of us parents and their coaches. That's a player who's obviously there for the love of the game and is a team player... they play a very important part of any team.

I could share many "good" stories as we've been very blessed over the years with coaching. My now college son has a former HS teammate who is in Iraq. I sent him a care package a couple of weeks ago. JohnLex7, another poster here, told their HS coach and asked for a hat for me to include in the care package. Not only did he send a hat, but this year's t-shirt and a letter to the young man. I know that thought would be appreciated by any kid... but one over in Iraq! I know it touched him tremendously to hear from his old coach. The coach told me "once a General, always a General". That's good stuff!

My son's high school coach last year worked repeatedly with him one-on-one to prepare him for a couple of college showcases. Also, he knew our son was interested in playing at a certain school and he set up an introductory meeting and Q&A with 2 players he knew from that program. When our son got into some trouble at school, the coach came over to our house and met with our son for a heart-to-heart talk lasting more than an hour. He has a wife and 2 pre-schoolers at home, but is always willing to go the extra mile.

The second of my three kids, Luis, played for Coach Henderson at Essex Comm Coll in Towson, Mariland. My kid was the 3rd baseman, and happen that coach Henderson is the Godfather of Bruce Robinson who also played for coach Henderson. One day coach Henderson asked my son to use a Bruce Robinson glove for the rest of the season. Of course my son acepted and never forgot that honor.

I mentioned in another post about getting support and back-up from Coaches for my children as they grew up.
Had an older HS son who was trying to test the waters ( so to speak ) while his dad had been deployed in Iraq for over a year. Oldest son wanted to see how far he could push it with mom.

Mom grounded son and had son call coaches to explain why he would be missing morning summer football workouts that week. Demerits or no demerits, Mom had enough and was pulling the carpet out from under oldest son, for good reason!

About 30 minutes later the front doorbell rings at our home. There, standing on my porch, are 5 football coaches ( & these guys are BIG!) who walk in and ask me to call my son out of his room to come talk to them. ( gulp!)
Son comes downstairs and the 7 of us sit in the livingroom. We proceed to have a pow-wow about son respecting his mother, being an example for his team, setting the standard, and picking up the slack while his father is deployed.

If I could have reached their necks, I would have jumped up & hugged each and every one of those Coaches. There was the back-up I had needed!!!

Son turned around quickly, ( thank goodness!!! ) and was made team captain.
( How about that? )

I am forever greatful for the caring & the extra time these coaches took to pay attention to my son. They didn't just talk-the-talk,...they walked-the-walk.
That made the difference, IMO.

My son was at a pivital teenage moment in his life and these coaches made a significant positive impact. They reenforced their belief in my son that he could do good things, was capable of success, and that he had leadership potential.

How does one thank someone for a gift like that?

I realize that this is not a baseball story, but it is a story about the good influences of some great Coaches on an athlete. No one asked these Coaches for their help, they just did it. I could tell, my son could tell, it came from their hearts.

What a wonderful gift indeed.

What a great story SSMom
Those coaches deserve a (even if they are football coaches , after all our baseball coaches are football coaches 1st!!)

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Originally posted by shortstopmom:

How does one thank someone for a gift like that?

brats???



Good story, SSMom. Thanks.

I worked with a great coach who once kept a young man on a team despite the fact that the young man's IQ was just about one notch above subsistive living. That young man, Eric, always had a smile on his face and when he messed up, which he did all of the time, he'd look at you with that smile. I asked the coach why he kept Eric because it was apparent that Eric could barely function. In fact, I worried about Eric's health since I always thought he didn't have the abiliy to pay attention. My former mentor's answer was a classic. He said that every player on that team had a future, for Eric, his future was now. That team remains one of the biggest things in that young man's life.

These stories are awesome and exactly what I wanted to get started when I first put this post. We need to stop focusing on the negative and celebrate the positive. Positive stuff will make a more and lasting impact than the negative.

Awesome stories.

I'll tell you one more. We had a young man named Mike. He had a rare skin disorder that made his feet blister. With this disorder, it can happen to any part of the body but his were to his feet. The guys on the team called him "feet" because he couldn't keep his shoes on for long periods of time. It got worse between his Junior and Senior seasons. By the time he was a senior, he couldn't stand to have his shoes on much at all. Believe it or not, he wanted to contribute and so, he practiced barefoot. When we were getting ready for the state tournament run, and my arm was getting really tired, he asked if he could throw BP along side me. In 1998, the Edwardsville Tigers went 40-0. One young man on that team will forever be known as "feet." He was an inspiration to us all.

I have to brag on myself one time. At the start of the season I had a young man who wanted to play baseball who was a Senior - I knew him pretty well because he played football and I am asst. football coach as well. I have no idea how he was eligible to play this season even though he didn't have enough credits to graduate - the principal explained it to me and I still didn't understand it. I had his blessing to let him play.


This young man made some bad choices early in high school but really grew up the past two years. When our season started I asked him about his grades and he was a couple of credits short to be able to graduate. I thought about it and let him play anyway. He has been a great leader on the field and in the dugout.

One thing he and I did was work out a plan so he could still be at baseball and get his school work finished to get his credits.

He told me last night he had passed the classes he had to make up in order to graduate. This young man will now be able to walk the graduation line with his friends and get his high school diploma.

Coach2709, it's great to watch boys mature through adversity and see them persevere and succeed. I credit good coaches for much of the character-building that goes on in their lives.

My son's team is in the playoffs and the coach told each of them they had a 10:30 curfew last night. Because of some unanticipated events, my son didn't get home 'til 10:29 and rushed to the phone to call the coach. (They were required to call from a home phone so he'd know they were home.) Anyway, he made the call and then started almost hyperventilating. I asked, "Are you okay?" He replied, "Yeah, but I almost missed this weekend's games plus maybe next weekend's too." He knew that his coach would follow through on his threats, because earlier this season son had to miss a game for being 10 minutes late to practice, due to a misunderstanding.

I am so thankful for coaches who instill discipline in their players and mete out consequences when their expectations are not met. They are making a positive impact in the lives of their players that will be far-reaching into other areas down the road.

When I was in 8th grade we had a kid that was cut from the team during tryouts. He was about 4'8" and 75 lbs. at 13 and had little baseball skill at all. Still, despite his lack of skill and being cut, the coach decided to keep him on as team manager.

This kid showed up for practice every single day and worked his *** off just because he loved the game. He kept a flawless book for the team and cheered on his peers more than anyone else on the bench.

One day, our game was moved to the HS varsity field so the varsity coach could observe and see what kind of talent he had for the upcoming years. A the time, I was the starting pitcher and #3 hitter on the team. We were up like 10-0 in the 5th inning and Coach turns to me and tells me I'm out. When I asked why, he said because Anthony needs to get his at-bats today.

Sure enough, he pinch-hit the tiny little manager for me in the 5th inning. And sure enough, Anthony battled through an 11 pitch at-bat and drew a walk. We all cheered and the varsity coach was smiling the entire time. The next batter after Anthony walked as well, advancing him to second. Despite our powerful (for an 8th grader) 5 hitter being up, all eyes were on Anthony at second. Coach had just given him the steal sign.

Poetic justice has it that Anthony got a terrible jump and stumbled running to third but the throw was high. As he slid in, the umpire called him safe. His slide was so terrible that he jammed his knee into the bag and chipped some bones in his shin. He had to come out of the game and was in a cast for a few weeks in school.

I don't think Anthony ever played any ball again. But that one AB in front of the varsity coach in 8th grade was like the World Series at the time. I might not have been too happy about being pulled out then, but looking back I gained a lot of respect for the coach who pulled me to give our manager his 15 seconds of fame, albeit in Modified baseball.