It's 9AM

Your Favorite Song is playing

May 02, 2023

I thought 9 hours at the ball fields was a long day

Until we spent 12

How some people choose to spend their weekends watching 11-year-olds struggle and learn and battle and fail and when is sometimes beyond me.

Until we lived it.

Saturday morning it was raining

A lot

2 inches almost.

This is on top of an already wet spring where our little part of Arkansas has received over 33 inches of rain so far since the New Year began.

It's wet

Ask me how I know?

Not because of gray rainy days because the weather has been nice enough to come at night most of the time

At least that's how it feels

I know it's wet because I can't mow the yard

Or rather I have only mowed once since warmer weather has made infrequent appearances during the false spring and pollening seasons

It has been too wet to mow and despite the excess of water the grass isn't growing as fast as I thought it might

That could also be because it has been dropping into the low 40s at night and the grass is like screw this cold and wet is no way to spend a spring

It is no way to play baseball either but sometimes we do

Except this past Saturday when they canceled the pool play on Saturday and moved everything to Sunday

A one-day tournament

Those of you have played softball or been softball parents know how a one-day tournament works

And even some of you would scoff at a 12-hour days and say I was only there for half the time of it what it should be normally

I count myself lucky

Still 12 hours is a long day spent sitting and standing in the sun cheering the boys on

And winning

Winning makes it all worthwhile, I think

My advice to any of our boys on this turning twelve year old team?

Have fun.

Have fun at bat

Have fun in the field

Smile

Of course I also remind them that winning is fun too.

Probably the most fun

Especially if you saw them come from behind a six run deficit to win with a walk off in the sixth inning after time expired.

It was pretty damn exciting

I try as I can to find teachable moments

not to be annoying but to sort of give number 10 opportunities where he can learn what I think it means to be a man

One of his teammates was not having a good game and struck out for the third time that day

He put on a big pair of Oakleys while he stood in the dugout and was visibly upset frustration tears streaming down his face.

This age doesn’t just wear emotions on their sleeves.

I called 10 over to the gate and reminded him that his number one job was to contribute to the team

and sometimes that meant going to a buddy who is feeling down about himself and frustrated with his performance and reminding him

Letting him know you are there for him and that you know exactly how he's feeling because you struck out too

We can blame the umpires for an extra wide Zone

We can blame the other coaches for being what can only be described as dirty players because coaches shouldn't be chattering at pitchers and coaches shouldn't be harassing other team players on third base

But those are things that we don't worry about

We worry about the man next to us

Or woman

Because our job when you're on the team is to make sure we are all pulling together

Performing together and working together to have that fun

That win

Our very young coach who has been invited to try out for the Savannah Banana's says some things I like

Focus on the win at bat

Focus on the winning the inning

If you win the at bat and you win the inning you have a really good shot at winning the game

So I look for the little W's all throughout the day or days

And I highlight them

Focus on the behavior you want to get

Sunday for our 12-hour day the Sun was shining the wind was blowing and it was warm and beautiful

The ball fields are in a sports complex that was built in a cow pasture next to a giant strawberry farm

A band of Pines separate the Strawberry Fields from the ball fields and one of the most beautiful songs you will ever hear is the wind as it blows through the leaves between the fields.

I could listen to that song all day long.

Another win for the day

Maybe the biggest.

9AM

It's 9AM

Your Favorite Song is playing

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