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There are wins that make any coach proud. There are loses that you can take solace in the fact that at least you played well – like last Monday’s against Rochambeau. And then there are loses like this Monday’s, also against Rochambeau, that are back-breaking and potentially season-crushing loses.
If you read my Facebook status Monday night, then you know I was beyond pissed off and extremely disappointed that we blew a seven run lead in the last inning against Rochambeau in an eventual 13-12 loss.
It’s not easy to write this blog because if I wrote what was going through my mind all night, my emotions would have gotten best of me. I’m more upset about the fact that I had to leave the game at 5:00 Monday to get to a 5:30 meeting. Along the way, I kept getting good texts from Coaches Greg and Mark. It made my drive back to West Haven as pleasurable as it could possibly be – seeing that I had to leave a game early – knowing that the score was 7-5 Great Oak when I left and now it increased to 12-5 after the top of the seventh!
In fact, when I arrived at my meeting, the 20 other people there asked me how the game went. I told them I had to leave when it was 7-5, but now it was 12-5 so I think we’ll be alright. That led to jokes by those in attendance at the meeting to say things such as, “You know what that means, right? You can’t be there next time. They seem to do better without you!”
It was awesome. They laughed. I laughed…and I was just waiting for one of the coaches to text me and tell me that it was official – we had won. Even Dylan, who I was texting score updates to, was excited and told me to text him after we won. Put it this way, knowing we had this huge lead made it easier to tolerate this meeting.
I would say about 20 minutes into the meeting, I hadn’t heard from the coaches regarding an update. It was one-of-two things, I thought. One: They didn’t want to text me during the meeting. Two: We were having a little trouble closing the game out. Regardless if it was one or two, I still was expecting to get a text imminently saying that we won 12-10 or something like that.
Ten minutes later, I got a text from Coach Greg saying it was 12-12. Keep in mind, I’m a half-hour into an hour-long meeting, my team apparently just blew a seven run lead, and I don’t know if it’s a joke the coaches are trying to play on me or if it was reality. There was nothing I could do but keep sending texts back to Coach Greg wanting to know what happened.
The next text I got from Coach Greg was that we lost 13-12. Losing for me is never easy, even if we play our best possible game and lose by circumstances beyond our control. Having it in the back of my mind that the coaches were joking with me, I wasn’t as upset as I was when I found out it was indeed true.
When my meeting ended, I stormed out and called Coach Greg immediately. He said we did in fact lose, and it happened so quick that it was even hard to remember what happened. He told me that Chris started to tire – he had come in in the third inning to replace Alex and shut out the beast known as Rochambeau for four innings – and we were in trouble. We turned to Preston and he just got lit up.
Rochambeau is a type of team where you can’t throw a fast pitcher at. That’s exactly what Preston is, and I knew that if we had to go to our two aces – Matty M. and Preston– this game, I hoped it would be really late. If it was any other team, Preston would have dominated. It’s just that Rochambeau is such a huge, fastball-crushing team, that even Aroldis Chapman and his 106-MPH-fastball would have had trouble getting the Rochambeau hitters out.
So the story goes that there were some plays we could have made in the last inning that we didn’t, but what it ultimately came down to was that Rochambeau just hit the stuffing out of the ball. Still, in my mind, I just couldn’t fathom how we blew a seven run lead even with them hitting the stuffing out of the ball. My team does that as well, but even when we do, one of those shots is going to be caught. I just couldn’t understand how we couldn’t have gotten outs on any of those hits.
Again, I wasn’t there so putting the blame on anyone would have made it unfair. I will be honest, however, that in the heat of the moment after I found out what happened, I did try to blame someone, but it was never Coach Mark or Coach Greg. I did yell at them both and tell them that I wasn’t blaming them, I just was going over the questions in my head I needed answered and if it came across like I was blaming them, I really wasn’t.
Fair or unfair, someone had to take responsibility for this loss – which at the time I told both coaches could be a season altering for-all-the-wrong-reasons type of loss – and I put the blame on the captains. I just couldn’t understand how they didn’t bring the team together and calm them down. “How could they let this happen?”, I thought. Purely selfish, I made the decision Monday night that the three captains weren’t starting on Tuesday against rival Seymour. If that didn’t send a message to the team when they saw the three active-captains sitting against their rival, than I didn’t know what would. When I tell you I was beyond pissed off, I was rip-roaring mad.
At that time, my emotions were clearly clouding my rational judgment. It took an hour phone conversation with Coach Greg to calm me down. He told me that it was unfair to blame the captains because there wasn’t anything they could have done, and if I needed to blame anyone, then blame both he and Mark. It was an eye-opener for me because to place blame on someone when nobody was to blame would have been the worst possible thing I could have done. I’m just so competitive and I can’t stand losing that I was just looking anywhere I could to make an excuse for this loss.
During the phone conversation with my buddy, Coach Greg, I explained to him that a loss like this is so hard to take because we don’t have anything to look forward to once the season ends. I told him that I was tired of people devaluing middle school baseball as less important than Little League and high school. Yet as we talked, we both helped each other understand that middle school is probably the toughest to coach because it’s the first time the players play on a bigger diamond, and to think that last than a year ago the majority of our team was playing on a small diamond, all things considered, the transition has been rather seamless.
As bad as the loss was, for six innings, we dominated Rochambeau. We totally had our way with them. We jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the top of the first on a double by Matty M., a walk by Preston and Dan, a passed ball and an error on Mike’s groundball by the shortstop.
We increased our lead to 7-0 after the top of the second when Dan unleashed a two-run ground-rule double, Timmy had a run-scoring single, and we scored on a passed ball. Rochambeau ended up getting one run back in the bottom of the second, but Gunnar made a remarkable catch in center field that limited the damage. The ball was absolutely smoked, but Gunnar tracked the ball right off the bat, got a terrific jump and made the ever-incredible over-the-shoulder catch.
Brian Scalabrine
We went scoreless in the top of the third, and Alex was back out there for the bottom half. Other than the well-hit ball that Gunnar caught, Alex continued his comedic act with the Rochambeau hitters. If Alex was throwing a beach ball and the Rochambeau hitters had an ocean to hit it in, they wouldn’t have been able to against Alex. The junk he was throwing had them looking like Brain Scalabrine trying to guard Lebron James.
Unfortunately for us, the weather conditions made for a really muddy mound, and Alex’s cleats kept getting caught in the mud. Because of this, Alex kept losing his balance and started issuing walks in the bottom of the third. When the score got to be 7-5, the decision was made; we were going with our other junkballer, Chris.
Chris came in and got out of the inning. I knew it was a matter of time before Rochambeau’s bats awakened and they struck for a big inning. I figured that if their big inning was the bottom of the third and we still came out of it with the lead, we just might be alright. Yet when we had second and third with no outs in the top of the fourth and our three, four and five hitters all struck out, I was not too happy. We just couldn’t afford to get no runs with two guys in scoring position. All we needed was some form of contact from the hitters to advance the runners.
To squash my uneasiness, Chris shut down the foe in the bottom of the fourth. It was time for me to depart at this point. I departed on a good note, so at the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, I have that mental moment to find comfort in.
With the emotions having passed and clear-thinking having taken back over, we took the best team we are going to play to the ledge twice. Still, I couldn’t help but shake the thought that maybe the team would just cave in after a loss like this. However – what was music to my ears – I heard that the baseball team was absolutely silent on the bus ride home. I heard they were – like myself – beyond pissed off and extremely disappointed. Coach Greg told me he had to drive Adam, Jeff and Dan home, and the topic of conversation throughout the ride was how bad they wanted to destroy Seymour.
As crony as it may sound, sometimes the game of baseball is all about learning life’s lessons. I’m still learning this myself, but in reality, if this helps the team overcome something down the line, then it’s all worth it. Who knows, it may be something as simple as ensuring they go hard to the end. I know from my own experience in college, it’s easy to tank a final if you’re guaranteed an “A” in the class. Anyone can take the short-cuts life has to offer, but how does that prove something to yourself? Go hard to the end, regardless if you clinch an “A” in the class or you’re up seven runs in the last inning of a game. When it’s all said and done, it’s difficult to move past the woulda’s, coulda’s and shoulda’s because that means you coulda, shoulda, or wished you woulda done better. In the words that Nike has adopted as their motto, “Just Do It.”
What a great time to be playing our rivals. Sorry Seymour,
-Matt-
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Sometimes a simple benching will go a long way. After Tuesday’s game when I ripped the team about their attitude, I vowed there was going to be changes on Wednesday. Sure enough, it was time to send a message to the team that attitude issues were just not going to be tolerated anymore. In fact, I went so far as to tell the team that if they act up or throw the bats again, I’m reporting them to Mr. Bell because I’m sick of it.
As a mix of a sulking attitude and looking lost at the plate – more of the later than the former – Wednesday was a perfect time to bench Dale. Hands down, when you evaluate every player on the team, in terms of how easy it comes for him, Dale is most likely the best player on the team. When he wasn’t in the lineup for Wednesday’s game, I think the team actually saw that they were focusing more on each puzzle piece than the completed thing.
The way they responded against Woodbury on Wednesday – especially after the whole Dylan incident when we could have just unraveled – was remarkable. It was a complete 360° turn around from Tuesday.
I wasn’t going to go on Joseph Stalin on them on Wednesday and be like, “You missed the ball, OK you’re out. You struck out, OK you’re out.” For those of you familiar with high school basketball, I wasn’t going to go all Vinny from ND-Fairfield on them. Granted I was distracted, but I wanted to keep the mood around the team rather light so that they could get back to having fun.
I told the team from the start of the season that I wanted to focus on pitching and defense this year. Well, in the last two games, that’s exactly what was on display. Starting with Wednesday against Woodbury, Adam – pitching all of one inning for us in any game so far – ended up pitching six innings of two earned-run baseball on 108 pitches in an eventual 10-5 victory. It was exactly what we needed at the time because we honestly had no other pitcher available.
Adam just has it in him that he never wants to disappoint. No matter if I put him at catcher, third, shortstop, pitcher or the outfield, he always gets the job done. He could have let his current struggles at the plate distract him on the mound on Wednesday, but that’s just not Adam.
Capitalizing on the momentum from the day before, Chris started on the mound on Thursday – also against Woodbury – and matched Adam’s pitching performance to a T. He gave up one run in five innings on 83 pitches, but more importantly, had just two walks in our 9-1 victory. It hasn’t been an easy ride for Chris so far this season on the mound, but in the last two games he showed why he can be a number one pitcher. He has a vicious curveball that kept the Woodbury hitters off balance all day on Thursday. Watching him fool the Woodbury hitters time and time again was like watching a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus act.
As we go forward in this season, Chris is going to need to be a big part of what we need on the mound. This was a huge confident booster for him. Even when he struggled earlier in the season I reminded him that he wasn’t getting shelled by any team. The reason they were scoring on him was because of walks. Sure enough, the last six innings he has pitched have yielded only two walks. It’s no coincidence that now when he’s starting to issue less walks, he’s dominating. Chris’s only complaint yesterday was he wanted to keep going, but 83 pitches was more than sufficient, even though I knew he could have kept going.
Because of the team’s performance the last two days, we were able to get everyone involved in the action. Matty G. started at second base on Wednesday, played all game and collected a hit and RBI to go along with a walk and solid defense. He even pitched two shut-out innings on Thursday!
Tommy made his debut at catcher and did awesome. The backstop at Great Oak is so huge that if you hit a foul ball behind you, you need to hit it home run distance in order to reach the backstop fence. Tommy – his first time on the big diamond at catcher – caught the last four innings on Wednesday and did a great job of blocking the ball and throwing down to second. He even caught a foul pop which is even harder at our field because of the enormous backstop. Add in the fact that he had an RBI and also caught two innings on Thursday and he’s only in sixth grade!
Cole started on Wednesday and grounded out in his only at bat. However, on Thursday, there was a very high flyball hit to Cole in right field that was moving in the wind but Cole caught it, certainly not an easy play. The kid is fearless at the dish and makes it hard to keep his bat out of the lineup. There isn’t a pitch he can’t hit!
Alex has started at EH the past two games and has done nothing but hit and/or get on base. Alex is very baseball smart. Other than making occasional mistakes on 0-2 pitchers and getting too much of the plate, he understands the game. We had a runner on third with two outs on Thursday and I wanted Alex to steal. Alex, who has absolutely zero speed, didn’t end up stealing because he didn’t see the sign (thanks Coach Mark), and when he came in after the inning I go, “You know what I wanted you to do, right? He said, “Yeah, I was planning to get in a run-down so the run could score but I never got the sign.” That’s a kid who understands the game.
As for the regulars, Dale didn’t play at all on Wednesday but batted in the nine hole on Thursday and had two well-hit balls. Matty M. and Preston continue to rake, especially Preston, whose only outs seem to be hit 280 feet. Dan has been our most consistent player all season and hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down. He is absolutely ripping the ball, unleashing vicious hits up the middle. Mike, even with his achy back, is starting to hit bombs as well and factor that in with his amazing defense. Gunnar has moved to the lead-off sport and has thrived. It seems like everything Jeff does is done quietly because of who he bats between but all he does is put the ball in play and do good things. Timmy is struggling right now, but showed signs of life on Thursday.
We got the heavy hitters come Monday and Tuesday – Rochambeau part two and then rival Seymour. It’s time to bring it,
-Matt-
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Anyone who has never coached a game before probably anticipates the worst part of coaching is when you’re losing. They’re right to a certain extent, but an incident like what happened in pre-game activities on Wednesday is one million times worse than any losing streak can make any coach feel.
I won’t lie; I was frustrated all day on Wednesday about what was our current losing streak and wanted to get a win against Woodbury more than anything. Yet, it’s just so crazy that what was on my mind all day changed in a less than a split-second. Similar to a hitter expecting a fastball, the hitter’s whole approach during the at bat changes when the pitcher throws him a curve.
I was the hitter at bat on Wednesday expecting a fastball – that fastball being for us to right the ship and get a much-needed when. Life, in this case the pitcher, had other ideas and threw me a curve at the most inappropriate time. Then again, when you’re the hitter, is there ever an appropriate time when you want to see a curve?
During warm-ups, a freak accident occurred in left field. I was hitting flyballs to the outfield and Dylan was the left fielder. On the last flyball I was to hit at Dylan, something happened, and the flyball hit Dylan straight in the face. We don’t know what that something was that caused him to miss it. He could have lost it in the sun or he could have looked away at the last second thinking he heard someone call for it. Talking with Dylan after the game, we just don’t know what happened.
Granted, whatever the reason was that caused him to miss the ball, it didn’t change the fact that he got hit in the face. I’ve seen a player get hit in the head with a flyball before, but usually they need a couple of seconds before they get up and try to shake it off. Yet, Dylan wasn’t doing that and my heart dropped. I hauled my ass out to help him not knowing what to expect, and still not knowing where the ball had precisely hit him.
When I got to him, I saw steady drips of blood on the grass. He was very calm – all things considered – but he kept complaining his vision was really blurry and his eye hurt. When he said his eye hurt, all I could think about was the Luis Salazar incident – the coach for the Atlanta Braves who suffered a significant eye injury. When I saw Dylan’s injury and saw him looking at me with the damaged eye, expecting something like the Salazar incident and not seeing it, I know that’s why I was reassured and knew he was going to be OK.
The eye sustained a cut just under the brow and it was very swollen. I’m no optometrist, but considering what I was preparing myself for, I knew we had dodged a bullet. I know with eye injuries it’s important to keep the pressure in the eye down. I needed to make sure he remained calm and didn’t elevate pressure in the eye because if he did, the bullet we just dodged would have ricocheted back and struck us.
He kept mentioning that his vision was blurry, but I assured him that was totally normal. It was the body’s defense mechanism for dealing with this injury. I told him I saw the eye – and I promised to him I wasn’t lying when I said this – and it’s not as bad as it feels. Whether that reassured him or not, I really don’t know, but nevertheless, his ability to stay calm was incredible.
The thing about Dylan is he just is an amazing kid. I’ve been lucky to coach him for going on two years now, and everything I have thrown at the kid has been handled with the utmost dignity and class. Dylan didn’t get a lot of playing time last season because his second base position was blocked by an eighth grader, yet that never stopped him from being a leader in the dugout and in practice. Keep in mind, he was doing all of this on a predominantly eighth grade team.
At the start of this season, he had the inside track to become the starting second baseman. Unfortunately, Dale got injured to a point where he could only play second base, and in order for Dylan to get playing time, I needed to move him to the outfield – a position he’s never played before.
Dylan, one of my four eighth grader captains, could have chosen to sulk about this, but he didn’t. Instead, he chose to bust his ass and be the best left fielder he could be. In the five games he played in left field, you would have thunk he played there all his life in the way he easily adapted to the position.
Especially during this time when I have written about our team members blaming someone else for their own shortcomings, Dylan never blamed Dale for getting injured. He never blamed me for not putting him at shortstop. He did what the most successful people in life do: he had an opportunity – and maybe not the most ideal situation for him – and made the best of it. In other words, he sucked it up and moved on from his second base days. I mean, is that not awesome or what?
Other than taking him out of close games in the later innings as a defensive replacement for Owen – the best defensive outfielder on the team – the move to the outfield for Dylan was perfect. It was an opportunity to get his bat into the lineup and he was making some of the difficult plays look easy. It even got to the point where he even told me he kind-of liked left field!
Of course, after this whole incident, I couldn’t help but kick myself for moving him off of second base. I also couldn’t help but think that maybe the reason he missed the ball was because I told the outfielders they needed to do a better job of catching the ball and Dylan, doing what Dylan does best, took that to heart and didn’t want to let me down. That’s the kind of person Dylan is – as long as others are happy, he’s happy.
For lack of a better terminology, if we had the perfect mascot for what I want this team to be, it would be Dylan. He’s a remarkable captain who leads by example. He’s the total team player and picks up others when they are down. He goes out of his comfort zone to make sure his teammates are happy. Whether on the field or the bench, you can always hear him encouraging his teammates on. And – what is Dylan to a tee – if he strikes out or misses a ball, he’s over it right then and there and moves on.
Nothing against anyone else on the team, but if they all had a little Dylan in them, perhaps we’d not have suffered an emotional letdown like we did against Jockey Hollow. Part of what I mentioned in Wednesday’s blog was about the team looking in the mirror and realizing it’s their fault, not someone else’s. Well you know what, Dylan is that mirror.
So yeah, anyone who says losing is the worst part of coaching, you’re right to a certain extent – until this happens. Add in the fact that I still had to coach a game afterward when all I could think about was Dylan. I’ll tell you one thing, no losing streak could have made me feel as bad as I did for Dylan after his injury.
If there was any bit of salvation – if you want to even call it that – we won 10-5 behind Adam’s incredible pitching performance. As the team so eloquently put it, we won it for Dylan. That we did, only when I talked to Dylan after the game, he only wished he could have been a physical part of the victory, not an emotional part. And when the eye doctor told him he suffered a significant eye injury and can’t resume baseball activities for at least five days, his response was, “How come”? Yup, is that Dylan or what?
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What a difference a day makes. Not every day is better than the day it replaced, and that sure was the case for the Great Oak Spartans baseball team Tuesday afternoon against Jockey Hollow. Whether it was an emotional letdown because the team we were playing didn’t say “Rochambeau” on its uniform, or a pothole on the road we are traveling, I don’t know. What I do know – and the team was the one to say it – is that we believe we lost to an inferior team on Tuesday.
After the first victory against Memorial – which right now seems like eons ago – I wrote a blog entry entitled Day 17: Calm Before the Storm or Storm Before the Calm? In that blog entry, I wrote specifically about overcoming adversity. I predicted this was going to happen; it was inevitable that we were going to lose. The thing I didn’t have an answer to – but had an idea of – was how the team would respond when the going got tough.
It’s not the end of the world and I don’t want to make a bigger issue out of it then it is because maybe it was a one game fluke, but the idea I referenced in the last paragraph was that this team would hit a few potholes and continue on. On this road known as Great Oak Spartans baseball, there is one thing I’m sure of and can rule out: We are not going to miss every pothole and smooth sail the rest of the way.
Again, it’s only six games into the season, and if you told me at the beginning of the season we’d be 4-2 after our first six games, after last year’s debacle, I would have gladly signed up for it. This team is too awesome of a team to play the way they played on Tuesday afternoon. Like I have previously stated on my blog: no matter the record, I always believe my team is the best, and I know that to be above and beyond true for this group of kids. With that said, I know why the wheels loosened on Monday and fell off on Tuesday.
I’m not putting this entirely on the team because I need to do a better job of coaching myself. My motto is to be aggressive and when I needed to be aggressive the most on Tuesday, I cowered. In the last inning, down 6-5, Owen was standing on first base with no outs. Hindsight is 20/20, but what I’m kicking myself about is not having Owen steal second and have Adam bunt him to third. I elected not to steal Owen because I didn’t want to risk him getting thrown out, something that happened earlier in the game. After Adam struck out and Matty M. flied out to deep center, Owen stole second with ease, but by that time it was too late.
I know I have to suck it up and move on – and I will – but if I played to the situation instead of thinking “what could have been”, Owen would have stolen second, got to third on Adam’s bunt, tagged up on Matty’s fly ball and scored rather easily to tie the game. I should have taken the blinders off and realized that Adam is struggling right now, but I’ve seen Adam do some remarkable things with the bat and I didn’t want to take the bat out of his hands in that situation.
Part of being a good coach is reacting to the situation and not letting the “what could have been” get the best of you. I certainly dropped the ball on that Tuesday afternoon. I’m not saying that my decision – or lack thereof – cost us the game on Tuesday, but it certainly could have helped us tie it.
The bottom line is that we didn’t do a lot of things right on Tuesday. We haven’t had a game where everyone in the lineup has hit. We’ve had a few players step up and carry the load, but now they’re slumping while the others are starting to heat up. We haven’t had a game where the lineup is entirely on the same page.
Our defense has been atrocious the past two games – and that’s being nice. Standard, routine, easy groundballs are being booted! It’s funny because the plays we shouldn’t be making we are making, and the one’s we should be making – the standard, routine, soft groundballs – are going right through us or getting bobbled.
A few blogs ago, I talked about the outfield, and how in upcoming games, balls were going to be hit to them. That has held true the past three games and the outfield defense has been no better than the infield defense. Plain and simple, we are bad at judging fly balls. It’s one thing if the ball hits the glove and drops out, but its another thing if you call for it, think you size it up, and the ball doesn’t even hit your glove!
There have been mistakes on the base paths but I can forgive those. I’m fine with the team being aggressive on them. Especially now, when no one can seem to get on base, it’s like they feel the need to get to third so they can score on a passed ball. I can’t necessarily blame them for that.
I briefly mentioned hitting before, but we aren’t picking up the ball well at all right now. Unfortunately for us, the pitchers we have been facing aren’t walking us. When we were averaging 16 runs a game thorough our first four games, pitchers were walking us with ease. It’s no coincidence that in the past two games when we’ve hardly walked, our runs per games average is cut to 6.5. Does that mean that walks have accounted for 40% of our runs?
However, all of those things are not the reason I believe the wheels fell off on Tuesday. What I will not tolerate – and until Wednesday’s game I have not acted on it – is the attitude on the team so far. I’ve tried to create this motto where it’s not about me, myself or I; rather, it’s about the team. Much to my dismay, it’s been more about the former than the later recently. It’s easy to overlook something like that when we’re winning, but now that we’re losing, it needs to be rectified.
I’m tired of the selfishness. I’m not one to take kindly to praising myself, but I have done a decent job at staying true to my words of “sucking it up and moving on”. After an error or a strikeout happens, once I say my piece, I’ve over it. I can wholeheartedly say I’ve been better at doing that then I thought I would be. If I can do it, there’s no reason the team can’t.
Even during the post-game meeting on Tuesday, it wasn’t so much the loss I was ticked off about as it was the reason in which I believed we lost. I ripped into them about the selfishness of them. There’s too much blaming of the umpire. There’s way too much sulking. There’s way too much feeling sorry for themselves. There’s certainly a time and place where all those all acceptable, just not in a team atmosphere. More specifically – not on this team.
I’m tired of the backward K’s and then throwing a fit or helmet and blaming it on the umpire. It’s bittersweet – for obvious reasons both good and bad – to hear the team say things such as, “That team sucks. We are so much better than them. I can’t believe we lost to them. How the heck did we lose to them?” I’m tired of the always blaming someone else for what is entirely our fault. Again, it goes back to the whole concept of being selfish and making it all about me, myself and I. Sometimes the best remedy comes from within, and if the team ever took the time to look in the mirror, they’d see the obvious reason why they are struggling. They’re holding the other team, the umpire, or other teammates accountable for their own shortcomings these past three games.
I will continue to beat into this team the concept of a team. If changes are needed – and if this continues I will make changes – whatever those changes are, I will make them. As I said from the get-go, I’m here to win. If the players don’t like the changes, I’ll know by their reaction if they are a team player. If they bitch and moan and blame me, well then it’s all about themselves and we’re back to square one about always blaming someone else. Rather than get upset at me, do something about it. I was afraid of losing the team last year and I ignored those changes, but I swear to you that won’t happen again. If they understand the changes and do something about them, then I’ll know they are team players.
I don’t want people to take that the wrong way and view it as a threat. If we just get back to having fun instead of pressing – like they’re doing now – then we’ll be back on the road in no time. It’s tough for me to yell at these kids because they are a special group, but if I’m having fun – even after these two loses – then there is no reason they shouldn’t be as well. If we put the egos aside, and focus on the completed puzzle instead of just one piece, we’ll be fine.
As with every dark cloud, there’s a silver lining. I don’t believe we’ve played our best game this season and we are still two games above .500%. Even as we were mercying teams, I still don’t think we have come close to our capabilities. I wouldn’t make a promise I couldn’t keep, so I promise you all that we’ll be able to look back on these two games and laugh about it when it’s all said and done and we have completed a successful season.
Bear with us and we’ll get through this,
-Matt-
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I never knew a joyous loss existed. I’m here to win people; I hate losing. Yet, sometimes you need to take a step back and appreciate effort, regardless of a win or a loss. I swear, when Rochambeau was getting off the bus, they were in order of height. The first kid who walked off the bus was huge and the last guy who walked off was taller than me. One of their players even had a beard!
Seeing all these behemoths – and I mean that in a nice way – brought me back to my eighth grade days. I don’t think I owned a razor till sophomore year of high school! It is quite fair to say that they intimidated us, but we’re called the Spartans for a reason: we will go into any battle against machine guns and muskets, but the opponents are going to need to fire canons at us before it’s all said and done.
Our nickname isn’t the Ravens, Eagles or Cheetahs. We don’t fly or run as fast as we can away from our opponent. We are the Spartans, and ancient Greece would have been beyond proud of the battle the Great Oak Spartans fought yesterday.
Plain and simple: On looks alone, they were Goliath and we were David. As we were watching Goliath warm-up, I tried to keep David loose and let David know that the bigger Goliath is, the harder Goliath falls. Plain and simple, my message to the team in the pre-game huddle was to go out there and have fun. I told them there was a difference between going out there and pressing and going out there and having fun.
By no means was it an easy decision, but I decided to start Matty M. on the mound against King Kong. I really thought about starting Alex Sunday night and Monday morning because I had a feeling they were going to be a good hitting team and wouldn’t fare so well against slower stuff, but after speaking with the assistant coaches, we were all in a consensus to go with Matty.
Let’s put it this way: The way King Kong came out hitting in the first inning, even Naomi Watts wouldn’t have been able to tame this beast. Regardless of the fact that they were crushing the ball, we ended up getting out of the first inning giving up only one run after we put-out the batter trying to stretch his moon shot into a triple. The put-out from Dylan-Adam-Preston was executed picture-perfectly and definitely fired the team up to slay the beast against us.
To get the team even more fired up, we took the lead in the bottom of the first after we scored two runs. Matty M. had a double and scored after Dan reached on an error. Dan ended up scoring on Mike’s single.
To say the team was excited and confident after they took the lead was an understatement. You could see it in their eyes that they knew they could hang with the big boys. Matty was back on the hill in the top of the second and got a one-two-three inning.
This got the Spartans even more fired up. The thing about this team is that they show their emotions in such a good way. You can see that they want to win so bad and truly believe that no one is better than them. Even when they got a standard out on Monday, they were pumped up and screaming. No matter how hard and for how long you practice, it’s hard to teach emotion because its practice, and it’s hard to show emotion in practice. The team made yesterday’s game feel like a playoff game – on a Monday nonetheless – and it was just incredibly awesome.
We went down scoreless in the bottom of the second, and the battle still favored us by a run. Matty was back on the hill for the top of the third with Rochambeau’s top of the order coming up. Not that it mattered if it was the top of the order since everyone on that team mine as well have been a number four batter. Anyhow, they came out swinging, but again, with the amount of runs they should have gotten, our defense came through and only allowed them to get one run as they turned an inning-ending double play. The team ran off the field beyond fired up and I could just feel that we were in for such a memorable and special game.
We went down scoreless in the bottom of the third. I asked Matty how he was feeling and he said he was ready to go another inning so I sent him back out there. Matty wasn’t striking them out, but he was throwing strikes and the majority of hits they got off him had a chance to be caught. Still, I couldn’t help myself from being nervous, but in order to try to shake the nerves, I joked with Coach Greg that there is no way we’re going to beat this team 3-2. We both laughed and got ready for the top of the fourth.
The top of the fourth is where the opponent got the upper-hand in our battle. The Great Wall of China loaded the bases against Matty with zero outs. They ended up getting a walk and took the lead 3-2. It was time for a pitching change so I brought in Chris. Again, not an ideal time to bring in a new pitcher, especially against a team like the Incredible Hulk, but we had no choice. Chris struggled a bit on the mound – but to his defense was squeezed a little bit by the umpire – and I could see by the expression on his face that he was frustrated.
After it got to be 6-2, with the bases still loaded and no outs, we broke out our grenade launcher in this battle. Enter Alex. Welcome to the game kid…now shut them down and get the momentum back to us! Andre the Giant was so far out in front of Alex it was comical. Alex got the first batter he faced to pop-out to short and induced another inning ending double-play to limit the damage.
When the Spartans were slowly jogging off the field, a difference between earlier in the game when they were running, you can see the emotion that they were showing all game starting to temper. I called them in for a huddle and told them that after that long, probably 25 minute half-of-inning, it was only 6-2. Someone asked, “Really, that’s it?” and you could just see that positive energy come right back to this team. They were pumped up and screaming in the dugout during our half of the fourth.
It’s common nature that in every battle, momentum wavers from side to side. Well, in the bottom of the fourth, Alex’s performance on the mound helped Mr. Momentum establish a new address – with us.
Os (Dan) led off the bottom of the fourth with a double and the fire, maybe just an expression during the huddle, became real again. Mike’s single advanced Dan to third. After a stolen base by Mike, we had second and third with no outs. Timmy hit a sac-fly that scored Dan and the lead was cut to three. Alex-ander the Great followed that with a single scoring Mike and cutting the lead to two. The dugout and parents acted like they just won the lottery. It gave me goosebumps. After Preston roped a single down the third base line to give us first and second with one out, Gunnar flew out to center.
It was up to Owen, our number nine batter to deliver. Owen dropped down a perfect bunt, made the pitcher rush his throw and he overthrew the bag. Owen was safe and two runs were in! If the fans acted like they won the lottery when the last run scored, they acted like they won the lottery a second time this time! Even I couldn’t contain myself, as my emotion got the best of me and I started pumping up my arms and yelling, “Come on”!
With Owen standing on second base, the tying run was just 180 feet away with Adam up. Adam worked a walk and Matty was up. Matty grounded out to shortstop to end the inning, with the throw just beating him to the bag. It would have been nice for him to have been called safe, but the battleship had been righted this inning and made for smoother sailing the rest of the way.
Alex continued his comedic act against Mt.Everest’s hitters in the top of the fifth. To get further momentum on our side, Mike threw out a runner stealing to which Dale yelled out, “They aren’t stealing on you anymore”! The fire on our side was burning right threw the brick-houses known as Rochambeau. Even their coach – who probably doesn’t have to coach at all because of his superior talent to most teams – must have started to get nervous because he called his team in for a huddle. All I heard him say was, “I don’t know why we’re acting defeated…” Just for him to say that, I knew we got to them.
Further proof that they were nervous was that in the bottom of the fifth, Rochambeau put in a new pitcher who could have started for a varsity baseball program. We were down just one at this point, but with the way he was throwing, that run mine as well have been 100 runs. If this were the battle field, he’d have been their cannon.
Dale led off the bottom of the fifth with a walk, stole second and third, and scored on a passed ball to knot the game at 6-6. This kid was throwing so hard that our four, five and six batter’s all struck out. However, as knowledge dictates, the harder you throw, the harder it is to locate the ball, and lucky for us, that’s exactly what he had trouble doing this fifth inning.
Rochambeau regained the lead in the top of the sixth and we went quietly in the bottom half. Nevertheless, Alexander the Great shut down Godzilla in the top of the seventh. When our team ran off the field after the top of the seventh, I huddled them up and told them that there is nothing sweeter than a walk-off win. They responded in two ways, with the first being a “together” chant and the second being the bottom of the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh, down one run, Adam worked a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. After Matty struck out, Adam, the tying run, was standing on third with Dale, the number three batter, up. I almost gave Dale the bunt sign there because he has been in a funk all year. He isn’t seeing the ball well right now and to make matters worse, how in the world was he going to see a baseball that, at this time, wasn’t white anymore and was coming in about 80 MPH?
Well, Dale hit the cannon ball alright, and laced an opposite-field single to tie the game. At this time, all I was thinking about was the Cee Lo Green song…and the word Rochambeau after it (lol). The bench was going crazy, the fans were going crazy and the California Redwoods were starting to accept the fact that they might just lose.
Dale stole second with Dan at the plate. Dale, thinking it was a passed ball, tried stealing third and got thrown out. The thunder our fans exhibited was directed at the umpire for calling Dale out, but I simply told Dale that I don’t mind that he was aggressive because I told the team at the beginning of the season that I would never get on them for being aggressive. We can’t change the cards we are dealt, but we can change the way we play the hand, and we still had Dan up with two outs.
Dan walked, stole second base, and Mike followed Dan with a walk as well. Suddenly, their cannon was going haywire. On the pitch Mike walked on, Dan was actually stealing third and they threw down to get him. They were unsuccessful and I yelled for Mike to get into a run-down. Somehow, time-out was called when the third baseman had the ball (Dan never called it) and Mike had to retreat back to first. Nevertheless, Mike stole second on the first pitch, and we had the winning run on third and a decoy at second. We were a very-realistic passed ball away from winning the game and improving to 5-0. Timmy ended up striking out on a border-line pitch but we tied the game! We were taking Megatron to overtime!
They ended up getting an earned run and unearned run in the top of the eighth. When we came up to bat in the bottom half of the eighth, we were chasing two, but we were determined to put everything we had into getting this “W”. We might not have had a cannon like them, but we had a bunch of soldiers who went against the cannon with only a sword – their bat.
Alex was to lead off the inning and he grounded out to second. I was wowed by Alex’s at bat because he hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time this year and was still able to put the ball in play. I think the team saw that too and were fired up by it. Preston followed Alex by walking and stealing two bases. It was up to Owen to extend the game.
Owen simply amazes me. I’m convinced that if you told him to fly to the moon, he’d find a way to get it done. Owen tried to lay down another bunt but it went foul. The next pitch was called a strike. O was down 0-2 and we were losing our breath running up the hill trying to destroy the cannon.
The next two pitches were balls. O followed those pitches by fouling the next pitch off. The following pitch was a ball and O had worked the count full! The next pitch, O hit a single down the first base line! We were within one with the tying run – a speedster nonetheless in Owen – on first! O did it again! Calling him awesome would be an insult in my eyes. He’s way beyond awesome.
O ended up stealing second and the tying run was in scoring position with Adam, arguably the best hitter on the team, up at the dish! The whole army of Spartans was joining together going wild! Adam was down 0-2 before working the count to 2-2. Who was going to win out? The cannon or the solider?
Next pitch was a called third strike and Adam was visibly upset. Look, you should protect with two strikes and Adam knows that, but Adam has the Eye of the Tiger at the plate and I knew by his reaction that the pitch was most likely a ball. Whatever, our pocket kings lost out to pocket aces. How could I be upset about any of this? We went into battle with the odds stacked “high” against us and came within a stolen base of third from winning the game.
Even just writing this I’m still beyond excited. I’m just so proud of the team for the way they refused to lose. Maybe an “L” goes in the loss column, but honestly this was a victory. We play them again next Monday and believe me, we’ll want that game more than Steinbrenner wants another championship, but first we have three games this week that we need to take care of.
I’m at a loss for words to describe how Alex came in and totally changed the complexion of the game. It felt like Randy Johnson wouldn’t have been able to tame their bats. Like all of his teammates, Alex embraced the battle he was captain of and didn’t lead his troops into fire. As the team proved today, every superhero, villain, wonder of the world or ginormous creature has its kryptonite.
What I love about my team is that they know they are good but still want to be coached. I wouldn’t trade this trade for any team in the world. It would be too easy being the Rochambeau coach – and nothing against him at all – but he doesn’t have to teach anything. All he has to do is be there as a supervisor because his team is too talented and intimidates too many teams for him to have to “coach”.
As I said in Monday night’s email about the fan support we have received all season so far: Just want to thank everyone for coming out today and cheering us on. I can’t say enough about how great the fan support has been this year and how much the fans mean to us as a team. It’s so awesome to see a sea of yellow extend all the way to the sidelines. We truly have a “10th man” out on the field. Please keep it up!
The Spartans continue on today against Jockey Hollow. We need to take care of business!
-Matt-
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It’s been a few days since I’ve updated he here blog so you can probably guess what that means: the weather. Come on now, I’ve been good lately! I’ve given up my battle with the weather and learned to just laugh it off. As the previous sentence indicates, Wednesday’s showdown at Newtown will have to wait. Unfortunately, the game will not be rescheduled, but the good news is that we do have one game against them at home on Wednesday, May 25th.
It wasn’t all weather related, however, that baseball activities were cancelled. As I stated in my previous blog, Thursday’s practice was cancelled because I had to attend Honor’s Night at ND. That brings us to Friday…
A sunny and warm Friday is always a good sign on so many levels, never mind the fact that it’s Friday! Friday afternoon, we were to play Memorial, and the last time we played Memorial, well you all know what happened. I was a little worried – but not to the point where I lost sleep over it – about the team having two days off before a game. Actually, I thought it might be a good thing because I wanted to see how the team responded to a team they knew they should beat without me reminding them they had to bring their “A” game the day before.
When I arrived at the field on Friday, I remembered this conversation I had with myself and kept a laid-back demeanor all throughout pre-game activities. We did customary infield/outfield and if the fielder missed the ball, I didn’t get on him like I did to the team in the pre-game activities before the game against Bethel. From what I have seen from this team, they may have a “bad” practice, but that’s never carried over into a game. Because of that, there was no need to go all Chris Brown, GMA style on them, especially because they were playing a team who I believed, if we made a mistake here or there, we’d be strong enough to overcome it and win.
However, with that said, while Memorial was warming-up, I reminded the team to come out – to use the ever so cliché phrase that has appeared so many times on this blog – with their foot on the gas pedal. I told them not to take Memorial for granted and to take care of business from the get go. In my mind, I knew the team was going to, and I had my plan for the game all set out. Adam was going to start the game on the mound and pitch two innings. Chris was going to follow Adam in the third and fourth innings, and Alex was going to pitch the fifth.
While I should have learned from last game, no scenario that I go over in my head ever happens in a game. For the first time ever, I went against what I always tell the team to do – stay humble. I’m not afraid to admit it because it was a learning experience for me, but it will NEVER happen again. I don’t care if we’re playing Sister of the Poor. I will never take a win for granted again.
I wanted to stay away from Matty M. and Preston at all costs in this game because they have pitched a lot so far and we have four consecutive games starting on Monday. I wanted to start Adam because he’s the only pitcher that hasn’t pitched in a game so far this year. With that, Adam threw well in warm-ups and I knew my decision to start him was more than warranted.
Adam started the game off by walking the first batter on five pitches. I expected it might take him a batter or two to find the strike zone so I wasn’t at all worried. In fact, that was the only batter he walked the rest of the inning. Adam got the second batter to ground into a tailor-made double-play, but the ball was thrown into center field and Memorial had first and second with zero outs. The third batter unleashed a two-run double and we were down for the first time all year.
I was still rather calm after this and knew we hadn’t even come up to bat yet. It wasn’t until the fourth batter hit a ground ball that was booted and made it first and third with zero outs that I lost it. I called time-out and on my way out to the mound I demanded, “Everyone to the pitcher’s mound NOW”. When they all gathered around the mound, I ripped into them. I told them that they were doing exactly what I told them not to do (ironic because I was doing the same and I didn’t realize it until I reflected on the game) and that was taking Memorial for granted. I told them that they’re not even making the routine plays right now and I slammed the dirt on the pitcher’s mound with my hand. The team looked scared but judging by the reaction on their faces, I had no doubt they knew I meant business and understood what needed to be done.
Now that the outcome of the game has been settled, looking back on it, what happens next is rather funny. The next batter of the game hit a fly ball to Jeff and he dropped it. It’s funny because Jeff is a player who makes me laugh in a good way. He was the one who, after I yelled for him to steal in a scrimmage, didn’t steal! It was just funny because after I just lambasted the team about making an error, Jeff made one! This is not meant to single Jeff out in any way as it is meant to show everyone that while my blood may boil, I do know how to let things go and just laugh them off – just like I did with the weather!
When the top half of the first ended, we were down 4-0. I said what I needed to say to the team when I went out to the pitcher’s mound and I didn’t need to say anything else to them. I wasn’t going to carry on about what just happened because it would be going against what I tell the team to do – suck it up and move on. Coach Mark talked to them but I just stood in the background and let him have his moment with them. After all, here was a team that was averaging 16 runs a game coming up to bat.
As Memorial’s pitcher was warming up, Coach Greg, who I knew was going to be at the game late, sent me a text and asked me how Adam reacted to the news that he was going to start. I replied to his text that we were down 4-0. To make matters worse, for the first time all season, Adam didn’t lead off the game by getting on base. He hit a pop-fly behind home plate that was caught by the catcher. I’m not going to lie, I started to get nervous.
Anyhow, Matty M. reached on an error, Dale walked, Dan walked, and Mike walked to drive in a run. Timmy grounded into a fielder’s coach (Mike out at second) to make the score 4-2. With that, I received a text message from Coach Greg: 4-2, it read. Jeff hit a single to right field and drove in Dale to make it 4-3. With that, I received another text from Coach Greg that read: 4-3. All I could do at this point was laugh my @$$ off. Like I previously said, after I said my bit to the team on the pitcher’s mound, I never reminded them of that at any time the rest of the game. I was able to laugh it off and Coach Greg’s texts were helping me laugh off whatever I wasn’t able to laugh off before!
Since we didn’t take the lead and I knew we needed to shut them down, I brought Preston into the game in the top of the second. Adam was disappointed when he found out he wasn’t going back on the mound, but I assured him that he did a really good job and did what I asked, threw strikes, but I needed to shut them down so we could get the lead. I didn’t want to bring Preston into this game, but I had no choice. Preston had shut down Memorial previously, not to mention Bethel, and I knew he’d be the one to go to squash whatever momentum Memorial had.
True to form, Memorial went scoreless in the top on the second. We ended up scoring three runs in the bottom of the second to take a 6-4 lead, but not enough of a cushion to take Preston out. An RBI walk by Mike and a two-run single by Timmy accounted for the second inning runs.
In the top of the third, Memorial got a run after a single to third (in which Adam did his best impression of his sister who does gymnastics by doing a somersault trying to cut the ball off), stolen base, passed ball and a ground out. That was the only run they scored the remainder of the game. However, if we didn’t score enough in the bottom of the third, my entire game plan I thought of earlier would be thrown out. Up to this point, it had been altered, but not enough to throw it out the window completely. We ended up getting three more runs in the bottom of the third, but not enough of a cushion I was comfortable with to take my stopper out of the game. To show how deep our lineup is, Dylan’s single from the nine spot drove in two runs and Dylan himself came around to score on a passed ball making the score 9-5.
Preston was back on the mound for the top of the fourth and shut Memorial down. After the top half of the fourth, I told Preston he did a superb job, but he was done because I needed him for Monday. I made him ice his arm and he took a lap around the field. I had Matty M. and Chris warm-up with the scenario that if we blew the game open, Chris would be on the mound, but if it was still close, Matty M., my other stopper, would be on the mound. Nothing against putting Chris into a tight situation, but I haven’t seen enough of him on the mound to know how he’ll react in a close situation. Part of it was because up until this point, we hadn’t had a close game.
We ended up putting up a goose egg in the bottom half of the fourth and my decision was made: Matty was going on the hill…until he told me his arm was bothering him. By now, my entire plan was thrown out the window and while I hate doing this, I turned to Preston and asked if he could give me one more and he obliged. True to form, he shut Memorial down in the top of the fifth. At this point, I didn’t care if we didn’t score in the bottom half; Preston was done, even though he advised me he could continue, and Chris was going in.
It was 9-5 going into the bottom of the fifth and in no way did the term “mercy-rule” cross my mind. Sure enough, when it got to be 13-5 and we had the bases loaded, it crossed my mind that mercy-rule may be so. I yelled to Coach Greg to coach third while I went and started making changes to the lineup to get the subs into the game. I was able to pinch hit for Jeff in favor of Chris and Chris hit a groundball to third base that was overthrown to first base and two runs scored. I knew that was the game, but I was hoping the umpire didn’t just the subs could get an at bat. However, he knew the score and the game was over. Final score favored the good guys 15-5.
At the end of the day, I was proud of the fact that the team overcame adversity, as small at it was, and won. I think the team understood that no matter how bad you beat an opponent in a previous game, that doesn’t matter for an upcoming game. See Jet/Patriots playoff game. That’s going to be ever-so important going forward as we begin to see a repeat of teams in our schedule.
Monday begins a string of four games in four days. Of course, when a rainout wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, the forecast looks wonderful. Oh well, I’m not complaining. It will be a good challenge ahead!
Rochambeau is a really good team so we need your support on Monday,
-Matt-
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And so it continues, this so-called journey to be the best we can possibly be. That sounds like some Army catchphrase or something. Speaking of which, and not to get too political here, but I don’t condone killing, but in the case of Osama bin Laden, if given the opportunity, I would have pulled the trigger myself. I lost over one million of my fellow Americans on 9/11/01 (counting survivors who had their lives altered forever) – innocent Americans on that horrible day – and that irks the hell out of me. I view bin Laden as nothing more than a monster and when we are children and we think we see a monster, we run to mommy and daddy and tell them to “make the monster go away”. I take great pleasure in knowing that the last thing that monster saw on this planet was a bullet heading straight for his head.
Anyhow back to baseball. Like I ended my last blog with, Newtown doesn’t need any billing. In fact, on Monday when I mentioned the words “Newtown” and “good” in the same sentence, the team loves to remind me of the Memorial game and how I talked up how good Memorial was. Since then, every time I tell them that the team we are going to play is really, really good, they just nod their heads and say, “Just like Memorial, right?”
In the pre-practice huddle on Monday, I also told the team that – and this hasn’t been brought to my attention – but I probably haven’t praised them as much as they deserve so far. I let them know that I appreciate everything they’ve done so far and they’re doing a tremendous job. However, one of the best lines of advice I’ve ever heard (and was reinforced in the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch) is that the more someone compliments you, the more they are giving up on you. Compliments mean you believe a person has reached their optimum level. Granted, I will say a compliment is needed and is not always a bad thing, but when you keep riding the team and reminding them that they can do better, it shows them that they need to keep working to get to that optimum level, not so much as bestowing it upon them.
Another thing I have noticed in the three games we have played so far is that the outfielders have done nothing more then soaked up the sun and gotten some color. In other words, I think there was maybe one ball hit to the outfielders in the three games we have played this season. I’m not complaining about this, but I actually wondered, far-fetched I imagine, if the outfielders knew what to do if the ball was hit at/past/in front of them last game.
I would say for 45 minutes on Monday, I hit balls at/past/in front of the outfielders just to make sure they knew what it felt like for a ball to be hit to them. Personally, if a ball isn’t hit to the outfielders the rest of the year, I’d love it. It’s not because I don’t have confidence in the outfielders, believe me I do, but it would mean the opposing teams aren’t hitting our pitchers. It wasn’t until Tuesday’s practice where Dale had mentioned to me that it’s a good thing that we did this because upon further reflection, Dale, like me, finally took the blinders off and realized that nothing has been hit to the outfielders. We all know that’s going to change against Newtown.
After working with the outfielders, we did the team’s favorite drill of all time: situations. For whatever reason, they just love this drill. Me: “Guys, we’re only going to do this for 20 minutes and then hit.” Team: “Coach, we don’t need to hit.” After twenty minutes and we finish the last inning: Team: “Coach, can we go one more inning?” After we complete that last inning: Me: “You guys want to go one more inning?” Team: “YES coach!” After that last inning: Me: “OK guys, time to hit.” Team: “Coach, can we please just hit tomorrow? We’ve been hitting all year!” I guess the team is really buying into my motto of “pitching and defense”. I always thought baseball players preferred to hit, but I guess I’m wrong. Of course I caved in and let them keep going because how can you say no to defense? After all, it takes only one run to win a game.
At the end of practice, I picked Mike, Gunnar, Adam and Chris as the leaders for the next drill: a race around the bases and they could pick their teams. Two teams of four players each would go head-to-head around the bases once, one team starting at second, the other at home. Whoever won the first race would face the winning team of the second race. The two losing teams would also face off. I don’t remember who won, but I remembered who lost. We didn’t have enough players to have even teams unless I joined the fray and sure enough, the team that I was on lost. The punishment for losing was to run the farthest after the competition. I know what you’re thinking – Coach didn’t do this part! You betcha I did! I was part of the team that lost and I had to suffer the consequences with the rest of my team.
On Tuesday, I received an email from someone that angered me a great deal. There was something in that email that a Newtown coach said that angered me. He said that his team was really good and that our team was unlikely to beat them. As a Patriot fan, I know what this is: bulletin board material. I made sure I shared this bit of information with the team before practice. I hope it angered them more than it did me. Basically, the Newtown coach was saying he didn’t care how good we are because we’re not better than his team. I also texted that to the team on Tuesday night just to remind them that their skill was being questioned.
We also talked about entering a Tournament in the pre-practice huddle. I sent out an email to all parents last night explaining that situation. Which reminds me: THERE IS NO PRACTICE THIS THURSDAY, MAY 5TH. I have Honors Night here at ND that I need to be at. I wish I could get a haircut beforehand, but I can’t! Nine more wins!
Tuesday’s practice started off with the running drill again only this time I had the slowest team members (Alex, Cole, Matty G and Timmy) pick their teams. Also, all four teams were going to race at the same time, one team starting at first, one at second, one at third, one at home. I also forgot who won.
After that, we worked some more on getting the outfielders to move followed by more situations. I wasn’t even going to do situations in Tuesday’s practice because I wanted the team to have BP, especially because Tommy’s dad agreed to throw. However, I heard a lot of mumbling about doing situations so I asked the captains what they wanted to do and sure enough they picked situations!
Finally, at around 4:30, it was time to start hitting. I broke the team up into eight-on-eight, starters from last game versus subs. I told Tommy’s dad not to be afraid to throw hard and mix his pitches since that’s what the team is going to see against Newtown. I was only able to stay for the first two innings of this “game” since I had to be at my Little League game at 5:30, but the team hit Tommy’s dad pretty well. Not a lot of hits, but outside of maybe one strike-out, the rest of the balls were put in play, a good sign considering the kids view Tommy’s dad like MLB players view Nolan Ryan.
The forecast is looking pretty gray (pun-intended) for Wednesday but let’s hope the rain holds off. I would love for us to beat Newtown so much for the fact that “we’re not supposed to beat them”. Osama bin Laden vowed never to be found by the Americans. We all know what happened to him 8-).
Hope to see you all at Newtown, cheering as loud as possible,
-Matt-
P.S. Special thanks to Tommy’s dad for throwing to the team!
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You know those days when you hop out of bed feeling refreshed and can’t wait to attack the day ahead? Yeah, that’s how I felt at 5:45 a.m. on Friday. Whether that was a sign that the day ahead was going to be great or just because it was Friday, I didn’t know, but I liked the way I felt! I can’t remember too many times where I “felt great” at 5:45 a.m.
As I headed out for my 20 minute drive to work, the day was starting to shape up like Friday was going to be great. I checked the weather report Thursday before I went to bed and it said there was going to be clouds and early morning fog. However, at 6:15, the sun was shining and blinding!
Now, to get through the day was going to be tough. I’m usually super busy at work, but I couldn’t help but stare at the clock, and for the first time, be disinterested in getting work done. Keep in mind that I’m privileged to work at a job where I love going to and hate leaving – expect when I’m heading to baseball. A combination of the super-nice weather and topping it off with a baseball game suddenly made work feel like it was the burden to the day.
I tried, and for the most part succeeded, in not thinking too much about the game. I knew if I did, the day would have dragged longer than a tortoise dragging a boulder. Luckily we had a senior picnic at ND on Friday, so I was able to head outside for a bit to help pass the time.
Perhaps another part of the equation on why I wouldn’t let myself think of the game ahead was because the players effectively had three off-days in a row. Last time that happened, we had our worst practice of the season. Not being able to calm my nerves, I sent each player whose cell phone number I had a text message on Thursday afternoon that read, “Boys, you’ve effectively had three consecutive off-days in a row. Therefore, I expect your effort tomorrow to be better than any effort put forth so far. Please don’t let off the gas pedal tomorrow. I would hate for us to go in reverse because that would make Monday’s practice hard. Please pass this along so everyone is on the same page.” Call it threatening motivation or what not, I just hope it worked!
Finally, around 1:30, coach Greg texted me and asked me if I was ready. I couldn’t help it anymore and the last hour of work was spent going over how I thought the game would play out in my head. For a little bit of suspense, none of the scenarios I went over in my head happened in the game on Friday. Good or bad? Read on!
Which of these was the music going to be?
I left work at 2:20 and told myself walking out the door that I really hoped I heard good music on my drive. The last two times we had games and I listened to the radio, songs that I liked were blaring. I don’t necessarily want this to be a trend where how good/bad the team plays is based on songs I like/dislike, but it’s worked so far so I mine as well ride it while it’s lasting! Looking back on it, it was kind of funny trying to convince myself that this was actually a good song (even if I didn’t care for it) and hoping the radio would play it again just so I could prove to myself that I really did like it!
When I pulled into the “lack there-of a parking lot” at the field, I saw the majority of the team changing into their cleats surrounded by a group of females who must have been Great Oak students. Not a good sign 45 minutes before the game. To make matters worse, I took all the equipment out of the car and began carrying it to the field on my own. Not one player came over to help. “Oh boy, this three-day lay-off,” I thought. With that, halfway through my walk with all the equipment, I placed it down and raised my voice, “Here…and NOW!,” I yelled. Once the team got to me, I asked them how many players were on the team? They finally mumbled the number 16. Then, I asked them, “and how many of me is there?” They replied, “One”. I asked them, “Than if there is 16 of them and one of me, why was I the one carrying all the stuff?” They looked at each other like “good point Coach”.
Then, because I was so fired up, I asked them why they weren’t warming up yet. The majority’s response was because they just got to the field. I just shook my head and told them to hurry up because we were having practice before the game and for thirty minutes we worked on defense. After we finished pre-game activities, I called the team over and said, “Guys, when I ask you why you’re not warming up, don’t respond with ‘We just got down here’. Instead, even if you just got down here, say, ‘You’re right coach. We should have been warming up’. That shows me that you are ready to get out there and are not just making excuses to try and ‘please’ me.”
I liked what I saw from the team with their pre-game activities. Considering they had mauled a team on Tuesday and had two off-days in a row, they looked ready to go. Just how ready? Only time would tell!
Bethel arrived around 3:45. Because this is such a special group of kids, they remembered the Long River game where, upon arrival, we saw the Long River team just sitting around. When Bethel’s bus pulled in, my team apparently did not want Bethel to see us doing the same, and asked if they could throw some more. That was such an awesome moment because it showed me that this team was serious about showing Bethel how hard and how long they are willing to work! Still, however, as Bethel was walking in, I knew it was going to be a tough game. They had some very tall players and some of the Cal Ripken All-Stars on my team informed me that they beat Bethel six times in a row. I knew Bethel would be out for revenge.
For the first time this season, we were the home team so we didn’t have a chance to put runs on the board before we took the field. However, Matty M. rolled through the top of the first untouched. In a sense, because of Matty’s performance on the hill in the top of the first, we were coming up to bat before we played the field.
Adam, who continues to amaze me with his poise and demeanor, started off the bottom of the first down 0-2 (zero balls, two strikes). The Bethel pitcher was throwing harder than any pitcher we had seen so far, so Coach was a little nervous. Almost as if he was oblivious to having two-strikes, Adam threw out the manual of protecting with two-strikes and unleashed a mammoth shot to left-center (and I mean an absolute shot!). As he was rounding second, I yelled, “Three, three, three!” Bethel’s outfielder made a good relay to the short-stop and the short-stop fired a throw to the third baseman. All I could think of was Chris Berman’s, “We got a play at the plate (albeit was third base)!” The throw was a little up the line and Adam slid headfirst into the bag. The play was a lot closer than I anticipated and when it looked like the throw was going to beat Adam, I whispered an expletive to myself. “Safe!”, shouted the umpire with his arms extending like we was preparing for take off. Adam had beaten the tag on a bang-bang play (it was the correct call) and the bench erupted.
We ended up scoring three runs in the first, continuing our streak of three consecutive games with at least one first-inning run. Adam scored on a pass ball, while Dale walked, stole second and came around to score on Dan’s ground-ball to short-stop. Dan ended up being safe at first, stole second, the pitcher balked him to third and scored on Mike’s ground-out.
Matty was back on the hill for the top of the second and shut-out Bethel again. I was amazed because I know Matty is a helluva great pitcher, but Bethel looked too good to be over-matched the way they were. Turns out, it was Bethel’s first game so I know the second time we play them, they’re going to come out firing on all cylinders, like they started to do later in the game (will get to that).
In the bottom of the second, Dylan jumped on the first pitch and hit a ground ball to third. The third baseman booted the ball and the lead-off batter was aboard! Like I keep repeating on this blog and to the team – I don’t care if you make an out; just put the ball in play because the pressure immediately goes on the other team. That’s exactly what Dylan did. Preston, Gunnar and Owen all consecutively walked and would end up scoring, but not before Adam was up with them occupying their respective bases (until Cole, who was pinch-running for Preston scored on a pass ball). With runners at second and third, Adam hit another mammoth blast that landed foul by centimeters. He would end up striking out but not before wowing us again with his ability to hit the ball very far. Matt M. walked and Dan hit a vicious two-RBI line-drive single the opposite way. The Spartans were leading 8-0 after two.
Once the second inning ended, I walked over to Coach Greg and I was in awe. I couldn’t believe it. This was a very good Bethel team and we were having our way with them. All Coach Greg could do was smile and echo the way I was feeling. He said he knew we were good and he knew Bethel was good, but he never expected us to be handling them as easily as we were.
Matt was back on the hill for the top of the third and posted another “goose-egg” (a zero). Wow! Wow! Wow! We were rolling, like a well-oiled machine and Coach was loving every minute of it! I knew there was still plenty of baseball left and I wanted us to keep our foot on the accelerator because I believed it was only a matter of time before Bethel would put it together.
In the bottom of the third, Timmy led off with a double that shot off his bat and landed by the fence. Timmy, being the extra hitter so far in every game, has been nothing short of an amazing person. Here’s a kid who can’t even throw because his arm is bothering him, but has embraced his role of EH and just continues to rake and help the team. Dylan followed Timmy’s blast with a ground ball to third that he beat out (and Timmy advanced on the throw). We had first and third with one out and Preston, one of the best hitters on the team, was up. Preston got tied up on the pitch but, continuing the trend, put the ball in play and it ate up the second baseman. Owen and Adam walked, Matty M. singled and we were up 13-0 after three!
As good as the team was performing, I still was a little unsettled and had that thought in the back of my mind that Bethel was coming. In fact, when Matty M. was on second and no one was holding him on, I told him to steal. One of Bethel’s fans yelled from the crowd that it was 13-0! While true, I knew the score, 13 runs against Bethel felt like two. I knew they were more than talented enough to strike for 13 runs quickly.
I sent Matty back to the hill for the top of the fourth. He had thrown 50 pitches so far but he told me he felt fine. The fourth inning proved a lot tougher than the previous. Bethel’s first batter led off with a walk. The next two batters walked as well so Bethel had the bases loaded and no outs. That feeling of “Bethel is coming” was rearing its ugly head and it was time for a pitching change. While a highly unwelcoming situation to bring a new pitcher into, Preston welcomed the challenge. I explained to Preston the situation but you could tell he was totally unfazed. He just embraced the challenge ahead.
I can’t say enough about Preston’s poise and attitude on the mound. I know Preston is a complete gamer, but his ability to embrace the situation, even after throwing 50 pitches on Tuesday, was awesome. He ended up getting the second batter to pop-out and then induced a ground-ball to third base that could have been a double-play. We got out of the inning still up ten, a huge accomplishment pending how the inning started.
We would score one more in the bottom of the fourth before Preston retired the side in the top of the fifth, making the final score 14-3 in favor of the good guys. While we did end up mercy-ruling them the first time, I can guarantee you that won’t happen the second.
I sure missed a lot of information, but shout-outs to: Matty M. who continues to amaze with his ability to command the game on the mound and with the bat, Matty G. who missed a well-hit double by inches, Owen as he continues to wow me with his attitude and OBP, Tommy for hitting with the bases loaded and having a great at-bat, and many of the others that I missed!
After three games, we have outscored opponents by a whopping 41 runs! We have outscored them 48-7! Trust me, we are going to stay humble and ride this wave for as long as it takes us, which hopefully is to the end of the season.
The weather for Wednesday looks like a washout, but if not, we’re at Newtown. Newtown doesn’t need any billing. Everyone knows they have an indoor facility to train during the winter. To sum it up, we have our hands full on Wednesday.
Sorry to take up two hours of your time,
-Matt-
