Thursday, July 14, 2005
Don't Bunt With Two Strikes
In my last email from my friend Greg, he told me about a statement that was at the bottom of a manual that was sent to him by our good friend Randy Wray. The manual is being used by the good folks from Virginia and Long Beach that are going to Mexico to build a home. The statement read, "Don’t bunt with two strikes."
That statement took me back to the summer of 2000. My son Steven was 10 years old and his All-Star Team had made to the Florida State Finals as one of 4 teams. We arguably had the best 9 and 10 year old team in the state that year but sometimes the best team doesn’t always win as was the case with us.
We lost our first game of the State Tournament 6 to 5 after being up 5 to 0 in the 3rd inning. In the loser bracket game, we were down 3 to 2 with 2 outs in the top of the last inning. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd and my son Steven was up to bat. The pitcher got 2 quick strikes on Steven and it looked like our State Tournament was over. On the next pitch with the infield playing back since everyone knows that you "don’t bunt with 2 strikes, Steven squared around to bunt! It surprised me, his mother, everyone in the stands, and most importantly, the team in the field. Steven laid down this bunt from "Hades" down the 3rd base line and legs out an infield single bringing in the tying run.
We couldn’t push another run across and in the bottom of the last inning our opponent drove in the winning run thus ending our State Tournament. After the game I asked the Manager who was coaching 3rd, what possessed him to bunt Steven with 2 outs and 2 strikes? I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, "I knew it was "Hero or Zero" time so I decided to roll the dice." For a while he and Steven were "heroes" and not "zeroes." I guess you sometimes have to "bunt with 2 strikes" in life.
That statement took me back to the summer of 2000. My son Steven was 10 years old and his All-Star Team had made to the Florida State Finals as one of 4 teams. We arguably had the best 9 and 10 year old team in the state that year but sometimes the best team doesn’t always win as was the case with us.
We lost our first game of the State Tournament 6 to 5 after being up 5 to 0 in the 3rd inning. In the loser bracket game, we were down 3 to 2 with 2 outs in the top of the last inning. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd and my son Steven was up to bat. The pitcher got 2 quick strikes on Steven and it looked like our State Tournament was over. On the next pitch with the infield playing back since everyone knows that you "don’t bunt with 2 strikes, Steven squared around to bunt! It surprised me, his mother, everyone in the stands, and most importantly, the team in the field. Steven laid down this bunt from "Hades" down the 3rd base line and legs out an infield single bringing in the tying run.
We couldn’t push another run across and in the bottom of the last inning our opponent drove in the winning run thus ending our State Tournament. After the game I asked the Manager who was coaching 3rd, what possessed him to bunt Steven with 2 outs and 2 strikes? I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, "I knew it was "Hero or Zero" time so I decided to roll the dice." For a while he and Steven were "heroes" and not "zeroes." I guess you sometimes have to "bunt with 2 strikes" in life.
