All Seasons Must End

I have started writing this blog three times. It’s hard; I have a lot to say. My mind is spinning with emotional words, my heart aches, my fingers fly across the keyboard and then I hit delete wiping out an entire paragraph of what seems insignificant when it is committed to paper. The truth is I wasn’t ready, I didn’t prepare myself, I wasn’t finished and yet I have to accept that I saw some folks who meant A LOT to me for the very last time yesterday. There are young men that I have spent the last few years with that hopefully I will be able to follow through facebook or on the internet. But I know there will be some that will drop off my communication line and I will wonder about them as time goes by and I will never really know how their lives turned out. I can only say that the games this weekend made them better men. They will make decisions based on strength they know they have because they had to dig deep, they will not feel defeated because they know what it feels like to rally back time and again, they will have confidence because they have experienced losing a game when they were truly winners and they knew it.

I can’t begin to recap the emotional ebbs and tides we felt at the games. There is no way to illustrate on paper what we saw but I know this, I witnessed one of the best games in baseball history yesterday.

Now indulge me as I write an open letter to my son (and I suggest you do the same for your son if you are lucky enough to have one on this team). I’m not sure he will ever read it but someone who reads this will tell him that on the weekend of June 5th, 2010 I have never been prouder of him and probably not for the reasons you think.

Cole,

It’s hard to know what goes on in that head of yours sometimes because you are such a silent warrior. I wish I could live there, in your brain, for one game and know what you know and how you raise yourself to the level of competition that I have never experienced. I wish I could feel what you feel one time when you come across the plate knowing that you have brought your team closer to yet another victory. This weekend I wonder if you saw the tournament slipping through the team’s hands as you grabbed your teammate and held him back when I know you yourself probably wanted to charge the other team. I wonder if you felt like you had to personally stop the outrage so we could continue the charge. I was so proud of you in that moment. Certainly people would have understood if our team had left the dugout but nothing would have been gained and you clearly knew that. And when you hit the second home run on Sunday and started around the bases there was no big celebration or showboating, you merely took the bases, held up one finger and continued your pursuit of the victory. Then the game was over and we had clearly been robbed, the team did not want to leave the dugout and shake the other team’s hand but you lead the march. The newspaper asked you today what you thought of your performance and you replied that you would have gladly gone 0-5 with 5 strike outs for the win. Oh Cole, what a man you were this weekend! I have never been so proud of you.


Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful ride.


I love and respect you more than you will ever know.


Mom