West Cocoa Chat

Hero! That’s right, in the space of 1 day the ever fickle fortune of baseball smiled upon Steven last night! Our game with Eau Gallie went 9 (normal length for H.S. ball is 7) innings last night. In the top of the 5th inning with a runner of 2nd, Steven hit a double bringing in the first run of the game. Eau Gallie came back and tied it up 1 to 1. At the end of the 7th inning the score was tied 2 to 2. Then in the top of the 9th and with 2 men aboard, Steven launched a 2 RBI triple into left center-field! It was a moment that this amateur / Dad / announcer had been waiting to say over the P.A., “..and Steven Walker drives in 2 go-ahead runs for the Tigers!” The smile on his face, the fist pumping, the coaches and players slapping him on the butt, well, you can’t put a price on experiences like that.

The best comment I heard was from a fellow Dad who said after the game, “I know why your son wears his uniform baggy. It hides the fact that he is so “jacked.” These guys have no idea how much power Steven has." Now for you folks who don’t speak the “Southern West Cocoa” dialect, “jacked” would mean "lots of muscles, strong, buffed out like." I don’t believe anyone has used the word “jacked” to ever describe me.

So, we’re in the 3rd place game today and then we fly out to Chattanooga tomorrow morning. Hopefully after a 2 hour drive we’ll hook up with our youth group and take in Winterfest. Have a good weekend family and feel free to use the term “jacked” when describing your favorite West Cocoa blogger.

I want to say thanks for the complements in my previous post about my weight loss. Knowing how the mind of our good friend the “Ex-Rev,” (http://gregengland.com/) works, I’m sure he would ask, “Will you do a blog when you gain the weight back?” I hope I don’t have to or as our WW Leader so often says, “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.”

Now, I know all of you know the maddening effects of “good news / bad news.” I’ve heard some describe it’s effects in the analogy of seeing your Mother-in-law drive over the cliff in your new Lexus. Some we’ll go so far as to illustrate with a joke.

Imagine a German WW2 Prison Camp housing American prisoners. It’s been months and months without showers for our boys. Finally one morning at roll car, the Commandant announces, “Prisoners, I have good news and bad news. The good news is there will be a change of underwear for all American prisoners.”

Cheers go us from the POW’s. Then the Commandant says, “The bad news is that Prisoner number one will change underwear with Prisoner number two, Prisoner number two will change underwear with Prisoner number three, and so on.”

We had good news / good news / bad news / good news last night.
Good news: We were able to play our game last night.

Good News: Steven sacrificed in the go ahead run with a deep drive to center-field. Made the score 2 to 1.

Bad News: Steven was brought in to pitch in the 6th inning with the bases loaded and two outs. His first pitch although it was outside was left a bit too high. The six foot / 4 inch batter hit a backside grand-slam! With the wind blowing out of leftfield it was the only place in the ball park that a ball would fly out. To say that Steven was disappointed was an understatement. He ended up retiring the side and then retired Trinity in the 7th in order but the damage was down. It’s nice having a Coach who was a former pitcher. He told Steven to keep his head up. Pitchers know that sometimes the batter makes a better swing than your pitch. You have to forget it and move on. Hey, that sounds like good advice for life, yes?

As you could expect the boy was down when he came home. We tried to lighten things with a funny story about 2 of my students that I’ll post later and then one of my famous as I’ll call it now, a “No-No Vanilla Milk Shake.”

Oh, the good news, looks like we’ll fly out Saturday morning for the lovely berg of Chattanooga, Tennessee. We’ll arrive around 9am and then make the 2 hour drive to Gatlinburg to take in most of Winterfest, a first for Steven. We play again tonight. Have a good day family.