Saturday, June 29, 2013

Andy: Teacher and Leader

Our Little League Closing Ceremonies were last night.  We avoided them religiously for a while, but have always looked forward to them the last five years.  Interesting how that coincides with when both children started playing.

Our opening ceremonies were full of traditions: Opening pitch, parade of teams, Board members praying publicly for help.  Teams gather nervously, as the kids are still learning about each other and making friends.  Oodles of anticipation in the air for the season.  No one has tasted the bitter pill of life lessons learned.

By the closing ceremonies, camaraderie has formed, championships won and lost, and the same ten people, now worn out, praying publicly for help.  Teams gather, some bittersweet, some relieved, and celebrate their season.  The end of year awards:Huston (sportsmanship), Tilford (ultimate Little Leaguer), Volunteer of the Year and Sponsor of the Year.  It's more carnival than services, more fun than we originally expected.

A couple of notes from this year.  Heather won her first trophy.  Granted, we were the only team in our league, but 10 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie is a very good record.  It was well earned.  She smiled the smile of the victor, too.  She's comfortable with that role, even if she didn't play it.

I was sad to learn that our Volunteer of the Year is done with Little League.  Andy Bailey coached Robby for three seasons.  He turned Robby's Little League experience around.

Robby had played four years, and was ready to walk away.  He had been a good player on poor teams, shuffled out by whatever it was that makes a good player on poor teams chosen by the League.  He had been jobbed on All Stars at his first attempt, left out by numbers and politics.  He loved to play, but hated the system.  He was ready to quit.

Andy chose Robby to go to Majors at age 10.  He rode Andy's bench for two seasons, learning the whole way, and having a lot of fun.  They were winning, one team winning the final President's Tournament for our District, beating three Middlebury teams to get there.  That team went undefeated, and looked good doing it.  Robby was a strong role player.

He finally got a year to star for Andy, playing on a good team along with a future major leaguer, Justin Walter, and a catcher he loved playing beside, Sam Wruble.  Robby had one sacrifice fly in the month of May, the only recorded out on him that month.  He hit about .700 that year, slightly behind Justin, and won five games as a pitcher, losing once.  Robby had some talent, but Andy molded it.  He stuck with the kid who cried every time he struck out that first year, and turned him into a quiet leader.  Robby still doesn't say a lot on the bench today, but is the teammate that cares more about winning than about his own game.

He gets to join a baseball team next spring that is a defending sectional champion.  Had he walked away at age 10, it would never have happened.  I'm not sure another year in Minors would have killed  the dream, but it would have seriously challenged the desire to play.

As an assistant coach, I got to go along for the ride.  He made me a better coach, and I crystallized something I already knew:Nice Guy and Desire to Win are not mutually exclusive.  I learned how not to destroy  the individual while playing to win.  It's made me into a good coach and administrator.  Heck, my daughter would have given up before that trophy without me learning those lessons.  I hope they echo in history.

I know you're not walking away from coaching, and the administration of the program you're running from here on will effect even more people.  Keep bringing your best, Andy.  Thanks for the great ride.

Nah..I'm not off base on this one.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Thanks, Ms. Miles

One of the advantages of the Facebook/Twitter world is contact with people unseen in years.  It is interesting to see how they have changed and how you have changed.  I even pondered the "what if" I had gone home to the little town instead of following the path chosen.  Conclusively, I can say the past is a place to visit, but not a place to live.

However, I received some news from the past today that is worthy of revisiting.  Ms. Bonnie Miles was a teacher at our Jr. High/High School and passed from this world June 17.  She taught English and was the Newspaper/Yearbook sponsor.  I spent three solid years under her tutelage in the latter capacity.

I probably drove her crazy with my immaturity, but hopefully gave her some gratification with my writing.  She recommended me to the Auburn Evening Star to write about school events for pay my last two years of high school, a job I did faithfully.  I know I turned in my stories on time each week during the school year, and I rarely saw the editor's knife.  I was also the sports editor for two years, more figurehead than title, but it helped give me the eye for detail that carries into the medical profession today.  I even toyed with the idea of being a sportswriter, but chose another path.  I probably missed my calling.

I learned how to pound out a story when I really didn't want to write.  I learned the try to keep my verb tenses in line.  I learned "you hold a loaf of bread, not a meeting."  I learned from my attempt to be yearbook editor to not start something you couldn't finish, and I still feel badly for the people hurt along the way.  I learned many years later how much I enjoy writing and hope people find something worth reading when I do.

I've thought about Mrs. Miles a few times over the almost three decades since I left High School.  Other writers were more creative and talented and I'm sure they're a greater tribute to her legacy than I.  I know I am grateful for the lessons learned and pass them on to my children and players.  Ms. Bonnie Miles, you echo in history.

No...I'm not off base this time.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Uh Oh! Wandering Again

Random thoughts on a Sunday night while preparing to send the kids away for a week at church camp.

-Anything worse than canned movie sequels?  May I provide some evidence?  Caddyshack II, Major League II, and anything beyond The Sandlot.  At least they didn't try to make Tin Cup II, Cup at The Open Championship.  He could have made a 17 trying to get out of the Valley of Sin at St. Andrews.

-NPF Softball has the best players in the world, playing a game that is fast and exciting.  Why won't people watch it?

-Cubs scored 14 runs today.  Would like to see that parceled out and used as needed.  Not gonna happen.

-Pittsburgh Pirates 16 games over .500?  Are they for real?  They are sure playing like it.

-Angels are 10 games under .500?  With that lineup?  Where are we playing, Krypton?  Inconsistency reigns.  Mike Scioscia may need to step aside.

-Gotta love MLB Network's Plays of the Week.  Shows you how good these guys are.

-AL East has no team under .500.  Solid division from top to bottom, and the Jays' offseason moves look pretty good.  All the Wild Card teams could come from here again.

-Chicago baseball is 62-85.  Tom Dreesen has it right: "Bad baseball raised to a higher art form."

So...am I off base?

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Coyotes Howl One Last Time

We've played our last game of the Little League season.  It's a sad time for me.  Ask any girl I have coached, I end up blubbering like an asthmatic seal.  I can't help it.  I fall in love with my players.

The Coyotes were a special and large group of players.  We had a wide variety of skill levels, a wide variety of interest levels, and a wide variety of ...well, variety.  It was a group that only lost two games and tied one through the course of the season.  For the vast majority of the time, they did what they were asked, didn't complain, and became a team.  In a Little League setting, that is as good as it gets.

Amber, Ashley, Bailey, Bella, Bridget, Camille, Cierra, Darci, Elena, Jo, Marley, Meghan, Tayla, Victoria, and my own Scooter, Heather.  I am amazed by your grace, strength, and toughness...that's just in the dugout.  The women you will become will do even greater things than winning softball games.  Hope I gave you something of value.  

Nick and Amie were a husband and wife team that gave me the privilege to coach.  I know where their two daughters get their fortitude and abilities.  Great teamwork always starts at home.

Little League should find a way for the kids not given the opportunity for All Stars to continue to play.  Their answer is Fall Ball, but prime months in Northern states are wasted.  Thanks to ESPN/ABC, too much money exists in the All-Star system.  Makes you wonder why the program was started in the first place.  

Maybe a sanctioned split season could be a possible answer, but the logistics would be difficult for smaller leagues.  Travel ball looks better because you can play as much as you want and pick your places to battle. Maybe a graduated system for travel ball could match teams of similar ability and keep the safety issues accompanying mismatches out of the mix.  It is up to the individual programs to police this currently, spreading trust to a lot of people.  Everybody wants to have the ego boost of playing for an elite level team, but not everyone has the ability.

So...am I off base?

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Return To The Planet of the Umps

I've been umpiring a lot of softball lately.  My coaching only covers two days a week, and baseball is in intermission at this point.  If you're hooked on the diamond, watching goes so far: may as well watch and have some say.

I first umpired a couple of years ago.  I enjoyed it, but worked all Minor Softball games.  Since we were only intrapark, it was pretty much a snoozefest.  Lots of walks and girls learning NOT to swing the bat to be successful.  Including seven and eight year-old players in minor ball instead of a machine pitch environment also taught them to depend on the older players while they spent a lot of time playing in the outfield.  By the time they are nine, they are bored with the game and decide X-box would be better.

As coaches, we tried to keep play equal, but the kids like to win, too.  The younger kids weren't learning where to make the plays, so it was not automatic by the time they got into minors.  I always believed this was the case.

Umpiring opened my eyes to how right I was. The biggest difference in play was with...catchers.  We have ladies at our league who can catch the ball and sometimes stop it.  Every visiting team using the machine pitch system had a catcher who not only stopped the ball, but knew how to call out the play, talk to their team.  One extreme case called time, and said, "I have to tell the pitcher a joke."  It is a very underrated item in the catcher's arsenal and I've actually seen it turn a game around.  She didn't learn that standing in the outfield.

One argument for playing seven and eight year-old players in minor ball is to develop pitching.  Except in very rare circumstances, pitching is not learned in a Little League season: it is too short to effectively teach from scratch.  Personal time spent practicing will develop pitchers: release balls, catch in the backyard, and lessons from true pitching teachers are needed.  While the motion is basically natural, the muscle memory is earned from repetition.

Girls, put in the time and effort to get good at every phase of the game.  I'll try to call them well.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Dad's Perspective

Today is Father's Day in the United States.  We honor the place fathers hold in our families and in our world.   I would like to wish all fathers a Happy Father's Day.

Fathers were part of God's design for families.  Men were placed at the head of the family, women as their helper and completer.  The children were under their guidance and direction.  It has worked well for thousands of years.

Within the last half century, a movement has tried to diminish the role of fathers.  Men have been portrayed as fools, with one track minds, and incapable of completing simple tasks.  The children live under the guidance and direction of their parents, and supposedly don't need that guidance and direction.

A few years back, a company provided free cards to send to mother on Mother's Day to inmates at a prison.  The prisoners requested so many, that they ran out.  They decided to come back and make the same offer and Father's Day and had few takers.  The influence of an active father in their lives could have changed their outcome.

I have been active in my children's lives.  At 14 and 12, I am seen in varying lights, as the rule keeper, disciplinarian, and coach.  I am considered clueless on cool stuff, and while I am considered funny, it's grown-up funny, not high school funny.   Like Bull Durham's Crash Davis, I'm supposed to give life wisdom and move them on to the major leagues.   I don't particularly care how they feel about it.  I am trying to provide guidance and wisdom, not be their best friend.  I hope they know they can talk to me about anything they need to talk about.  I hope they know I love them.

Roy Hobbs, the hero of The Natural, said, "A father makes all the difference."  I hope I make that difference for my children.  I hope I have a good effect on some of the other children that I coach.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

I Can Only Imagine

It's moving day at the U.S. Open.  It's an exciting day in the world of golf, where players seeking to add their name to the roll of the greatest players of all time, try to position themselves for when the tournament really starts: Sunday afternoon.

The story before the tournament started was the golf course.  Merion, playing at under 7000 yards, was too short to challenge today's players.  The players would make more birdies than a U.S. Open course should allow.  It would be like the Whatever Open wherever they're playing this week.

Merion has done her part to provide a memorable tournament.  The golf course has allowed only two players under par through two rounds.  The course has been softened by hard rains, not the fast, firm, tawny course the USGA likes.  Imagine what the scores would be if there were no rain.  Imagine the speed of the greens that they aren't making putts on now, if the skies hadn't opened early in the week.

Merion has provided quality champions in it's prior Major championships.  Chick Evans won a U.S. Amateur, part of the legacy that lead to a scholarship program.  Bobby Jones won two majors there, closing out a Slam in 1930.  Ben Hogan hit a one-iron shot for the ages to earn an Open win.  Lee Trevino snaked out a championship in a playoff with Jack Nicklaus.  David Graham didn't have the highest quality career, but proved worthy with 18 fairways, 18 green in regulation in the final round.

I can imagine the type of champion emerging from this weekend.  A veteran, playing tremendous golf from near the lead.  At this point, could have Phil Mickelson's name written all over it.   Billy Horschel's 67 yesterday, when the field's scoring average was over 75, was highest quality, but it wasn't the final rounds.

I still believe the golf course will win, because it usually does at the Open.  Merion has a way of providing an enertaining Open, and a playoff is not out of the question.  Today should be an exciting day of golf, worth the time to watch.  Probably the last time for vernerable Merion, but it will be a memorable ending.

Wonder who the Open will win this year.

So...am I off base?

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Decisions, Decisions

Heading into the last two weeks of a Little League season, many decisions are waiting to be made.  How is this team progressing?  Who has improved enough to earn more playing time?  Who has waned in their interest and needs an attention grabbing stint on the bench?  Will I ever see my wife again?

Last thing we need is an approaching storm to throw in one more decision.  Derecho, not bird, is the word.

My daughter wasn't even there, she was with friends in a secure location.  My son was originally scheduled to umpire.  He was kept home, because if things needed to be pulled down, an adult should make the decision.  After the managers talked to the available parents, the decision was made not to play.  Storm was about 75 miles away and was moving fast, filled with heavy winds.

And it's pop-up predecessors struck hard...twenty-five miles south of our location...three hours later.

Maybe not the best decision, but still a good one.  All it takes is one poorly placed storm to damage people, buildings and lives.  One injury is too many.  As coaches, we have come to love these girls like our own daughters. The thought of any one of them being injured by our decision is too much to bear.

The outcome can't be known ahead of time, and it looks poor now.  This regret is easier to live with: I slept well last night between storms.

I have a hard time with one other decision made elsewhere. We will not be playing All Star Softball.  Our District Administrator has a rule that All Star Teams should have 12 players.  Out of our 15 girls, we only have nine who can play.  Therefore, we were not chartered for All-Stars.  A team that has lost only 2 games all season is shut out of their chance at a World Championship, however slim that chance may be.

Reading the Tournament Rules in the back of the Little League Softball Rulebook says nothing about the size of the roster.  Is this a DA making up his own rules?  Why are we trying to exclude teams?  Are we trying to favor one league over another?

Travel ball looks better and better.  Maybe that's why our District seems weak on the field.

So...am I off base?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Monday Morning

Some quick thoughts while waiting for the spilled coffee to come out of my scrub top...

-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are below .500 with one of the top payrolls and lineups in baseball.  That situation usually means a manager is on his way out.  After all, if the players don't perform, it's the manager's fault.  I like Mike Scioscia, but I wonder if he is burning out.  I know I am watching his team play.

-The Chicago Cubs have had a recent track record of winning baseball, but not much success.  What is in place on the North Side of Chicago is not a blueprint for success, and at least one more year from being even .500.  Fans haven't gone to Wrigley to watch the baseball game in a long time.  It could be longer.  Theo Epstein built the Red Sox from the inside out.  The Cubs farm system is pretty bare.  Jumbotrons won't change that.

-Little League has a poorly organized system when the dates for the first round of their tournaments aren't given to the managers of All Star Teams until after they've picked the team.  Have had to replace players in the past because vacations overlapped the District level of games.  Of course, maybe that is just our district...

-Maybe that's why travel ball has taken over.  I've seen most of our district play and I think we could put together one, maybe two representative travel teams out of the entire district.  I know there are better players out there.  It shows at the higher levels.  When putting up with uncommitted players and parents, I'm ready to go into the business of travel ball for myself.

-Volunteer work is the heart of children's sports.  So why do many parents have such a hard time doing ONE 3-4 hour shift in a concession stand during an entire season?  All of our schedules are full and hectic.  Just driving them to the game and watching is not enough.  Having spent time on the Board, the headache of making the money pay for putting the kids on field means a little bit more effort from all of us.  If you have the money and not the time, donate it.  If you have the time and not the money, donate it. Aren't the children worth it?

-The U.S. Open Golf Tournament begins this Thursday at historic Merion GC. The National Championship of American Golf is harder than Chinese Geometry, Mandarin or Szechwan.  Narrow fairways, hard and fast greens, and elephant graveyards buried all over the golf course lead to bounces and rolls only Stephen King could love.  It also leads to compelling stories of character, discipline, and hope.  Who will the unknown player be this time?

So...am I off base?


Friday, June 7, 2013

I Work Most Saturdays

Saturday is a great day!  Most people look forward to Saturday as a respite from the world of work.  Some people keep working.  Some individuals are workaholic working, taking care of business to an extreme.  Some people are completing their regular work week, working hard to make a living.  Some folks are working on projects, making their homes more to their liking and increasing it's value.

I work most Saturdays, too.  I work to teach boys and girls how to play baseball and softball.  I work to get the fundamentals of these games into their minds and bodies.  I work to teach the right way to run bases, catch fly balls, and chew sunflower seeds.  I work to teach a love for a game that has flourished since before the Civil War.

I teach other things, too.  I teach respect for the authority that applies the rules.  I teach respect for the coaches that teach the game.  I teach respect for the teammate who is giving their best beside you.  I teach teamwork helps everyone achieve more.  I teach winning with humility and losing with class.  I teach that you can do it.  If you don't give up on yourself, I won't give up on you, no matter how many runs scored on that ball you missed.  I still love you, even though you struck out.

I teach because the world is working against me.  SportsCenter highlights focus on an individual when the team can do more.  Hollywood and Washington puts talk ahead of deeds.  Skinny and bulimic is revered over healthy and active.  Even players within the game bully others who "don't measure up."

We all fall short somewhere.  Romans 3:23 says "All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God."  Without His grace, we have no chance.  We have to depend on someone else.  Forgiveness is paramount, and nothing we can control: it has to be given.  Sound like any games we play?

I work most Saturdays.  I hope I get the work done.

So...am I off base?

Monday, June 3, 2013

The Bride

As always, my weekend moves a little too fast.  I wake up on Monday morning and find that I suddenly have to go back to work.  While helping to save lives is a good thing, it is stressful.  I see stories that are heartbreaking at best, tragic at worst.  It is Life.

However, I am still alive, which occasionally defies logic.  I have a wonderful wife, which just celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary.  While twenty-two is a highly esteemed and revered number in some culture, somewhere, it is not considered a milestone here.  I beg to differ.

In the United States, divorce rates run around 50%.  The number of people living together is at an all-time high.  If you believe advertising, it is impossible to find a soulmate without the internet.

My wife has been a wonderful partner and companion.  She has become beautiful in ways I never imagined when we made our wedding vows.  She is the center of everything in our home, whether involving me, our children, or herself, and usually in that order.  She makes sure everyone gets where they're going and then takes care of herself.  It is a sacrifice she believes is worth making.  If she didn't believe it, it wouldn't get done.

Sometimes, I look at her and see the best things about her, sometimes the worst things.  It is always her I see, the gift God gave me as a friend over a quarter century ago.  And I hope to have and to hold, from this day forward, until death do us part.

So...NO!  I am not off base on this on.
 

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