Take me out to the ballgame!

And since Minor Ball started after I last posted, here’s an update.

CareBear is playing again this year. Rhi is doing really well, and emotionally handling the letdowns (strike outs and out-at-firsts) much better.

The team in entirety is amazing. They’ve lost only one league game, and that was the very first of the year. The girls have wiped the diamonds since then, except for a tournament where the teams are slightly more advanced and the pitching is faster. Not that that one pitcher was any good – she kept hitting our girls. Ok, mostly Rhi and Care. Mostly Rhi. But she “took it for the team” as she put it, and some of those hits would have had me bawling. That’s my girl; chin up, temper in check and ready to face the next pitch.

The last tournament they played in was this past Saturday, and they won every game. All three, and by quite a gap in the scores too.

It amazes me how utterly disrespectful some coaches are. In league play, there has been one extremely arrogant and hostile outburst from a pair of opposing coaches, and the parents. The ump made a good call on their team, and it was one he’d called on our girls too. It was a fair call – and not only that – those damn coaches had made sure he’d called it on us! When this went on for several minutes, one of our coaches went over and told the ump to give it to them. That’s when one of their parents said the team didn’t need the charity. What is that teaching those girls, who stood right there, listening???

Frankly, that is pathetic. At least have the decency to teach the team you coach some sportsmanship and lose gracefully. I mean, come on; the girls won’t learn it if you don’t show it. Take a look at our coaches, ladies. They may be guys, but out of all the coaches I’ve watched in the last two years – they’re the best in this league. Our girls have compassion, team spirit and don’t rub their wins in the faces of those that have lost. And they take their losses as a learning experience, and a way to practice good sportsmanship.

As a final thought, here’s something for ya’ll to think about. At the last tournament, our girls sat and cheered on one of the teams they’d played and won, during that team’s final game. Who was the opposing team? One of the teams where the coaches and the players fought against ump calls and showed bad sportsmanship in their loss. The team our girls cheered for enjoyed themselves, you could see that…they weren’t just there to “beat the other team”. They were there to play.

And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?