A WINNING SEASON
The term perfect is used too loosely I think. Perfect day, a perfect love, a perfect whatever. It is only outdone by the word amazing. And yet, every so often - very rarely often - there does happen some experience that justifies the epithet of perfect. Such was my 12 year old son's perfect baseball autumn season.
Mike has been playing baseball since we moved to Westchester County when he was five years old. He began his baseball career like thousands or is it millions of other little kids first playing T ball as his nervous and excited parents watched intently hoping he would get a hit and run the bases without feeling that he was doing something he hated doing. No need to worry he loved playing basball from the first swing of the bat. This was in marked contrast to his hating soccer which reached his and our nadir the day he refused to go on the soccor field and we shamefully dragged him to play until his tears convinced us that this was not going to be his favorite sport of all time.
The year after T Ball was uneasy for me as I found it difficult to accept how a 6 or was it 7 year old child could or should have to play baseball with a hardball and not a soft ball the way I did when I was that age. Yet once again I over personalized my distress while he was apparently enjoying every minute hitting and running the bases.
The following years are a blur. Little league here we come. Spring tryouts were nerve racking. But Milke always optimistic took them all with the cliche "grain of salt" and each year picked high on the list of kids chosen to make up the rosters of the little league teams of the season of the year in question.
Initially his favorite position was being a catcher which lasted until the day when we bought him alll of the standard equipment. HIs love affair for that position I think ended the moment he was invited to pitch. That was true love.
I tried my best to be the traditional good father and let him throw the ball what seemed like hours in our back yard. But I am an old father (presentl 70 going on 71) and I must admit that my stamina was not exactly Yankee material. But his father's realistic limitations or not Mike started throwing baseballs against the stone wall in the side yard. And it appeared that each year his speed, velocity, and accuracy increased notably.
In his 9th year he was thought by an ex minor league baseball coach to have real talent as a pitcher. This nice man took Mike under his wing and guided him to the point that in a playoff game at the end of a summer season although Mike's team had only won one game out of 12 they nearly won the whole championship because Mike pitched nearly a no hit game except for one 'lucky' homerun. But what a game - what a finish! What a great learning experience.
Then trying out got increasingly more serious. He was selected for the B team last year instead of the A team. We were told that politics entered into the selection. However, no mind he became a star pitcher on the B team and went on to have a 12 and 2 winning season.
This past fall he was finally selected to be a member of the super duper A team. And what a season he and his team mates had. His team Thunder - truly lived up to their name as they crushed the oppostion weekend after weekend. They amassed a 13 wins to nothing before they were to play the two game playoff for the championship. They won the 14th game handily. Now there was only one game to go for the championship and a perfect fall season. And Mike was scheduled to start as the pitcher on record.
Along with great feidling and hitting Mike pitched a brilliant 5 of 7 innings game allowing no runs to come in. The final score was 12 to 6. Thunder finished victorious with a perfect season under their belt. Now he is on track to be an official team member of the 8th grade modified team in his junior high.
He keeps promising us that when he becomes a Yankee he will buy my wife and I a new house. I am beginning to think that if the progression from T ball to now is any indicator of future success we had better consider where my wife and I would like to live once we move into our new home.
I know I sound like a typical proud father showing off his talented son. But the facts are the facts. This kid has it and it wouldn't surprise me if one day he is outfitted in a pin stripe baseball uniform.
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