West Cocoa Chat

At around 5 today, Steven asked me to go to our High School field to hit him some grounders. For a guy who has been running a 5k every other day lately, hitting some grounders sounded like easy duty, yes? Well it wasn’t and I almost hate to admit the part that hurt the worst. I’ll give you a hint – think of “Allstate.” Yes, they were the “Good hands people” but as for me, let’s just say I belong with the “soft hands people.” Yes, blisters in several places after hitting 100 grounders to the boy.

The best part of the afternoon was being with Steven along with Ryan, Bret, and his brother Brian. They came down to the field and ended up throwing “BP” to each other. I took my blisters to the outfield and was able to use my “legs” to make a few plays for a 49-year-old guy.

I don’t know about all of you but as for me, I seem to know when my “mind’s eye” takes a snapshot that is going to make an indelible mark on my memory. Today that snap-shot consisted of looking through the backstop behind home-plate and seeing Steven’s name still written on our lineup board in the lead-off position. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.

Speaking of history, we were speaking of history, yes? Any way, I want to progress to the very next game following the Winter Park Game. The next game was against another perennial 6A power from Orlando, University H.S. The good news was that Steven hit a leadoff home run against UHS. This gave him a “Tiger-slam” type “hitting for the cycle as he had hit a single, double, and a triple the night before.

The bad news was that we lost as our pitchers issued a veritable plethora of walks to UHS batters. Steven’s performance solidified his position as our leadoff batter. It was a good time and the beginning of much vindication for the previous 2 years of confidence shattering coaching. More to come. Thanks for reading.

// posted by cwinwc @ 7:42 PM