Road Trips, Rock and Roll and Karma

Sometimes I hold my breath at the ballgame. It isn’t an intentional thing like we did when we were kids to see who could do it the longest. It is a kind of gasping ‘afraid to exhale’ kind of thing until I see the end result and only then am I allowed to breath. I do it when Ryan Daniels is about to run out of the batter’s box. I have full confidence he can hit the ball, it’s the running I struggle with. I hold my breath until he reaches first and pray to God he doesn’t make the turn because I might black out before he makes it to second. And then, God forbid, if he does what he did last week and actually slides into second I almost have to call EMS for the mask. I also hold my breath when there is a long fly ball to left or right center, in the split moment when Cole gets a bead on it and bolts into action like a wild horse getting to it before it drops, once the ball is safely in his glove I exhale. Now I have started holding my breath when Aldrich bats because I expect it to go over the wall almost every time so I don’t get to breathe until it does. This Saturday I was holding my breath a lot, for different reasons. Tensions were high, players were yelling at players, umpires were yelling at coaches, coaches were yelling at players and at one point I found myself firmly planted between two Davidson men who decided they were going to stand right next to our dugout out yelling for their players and against ours. For the most part, I keep my redneck tendencies in check but when it gets personal about our boys I tend to get a little personal also. I really didn’t have to do much, just plant myself right between them and bring out my Tennessee State Awarded cheerleading voice and those loyal fans disbursed within minutes. It’s nice to be Southern where we do things with good taste and decorum but let the record show if that hadn’t worked I had the redneck plan in my pocket.

I know I wrote a blog last year about the “players being bigger than the mojo” but I guess I will have to retract that one after this weekend. As I implied we did not have our best game on Saturday, some might say the wheels fell off the bus. The loss wasn’t huge but I am pretty sure the loss was not made in such a way the coaches and players could accept. If everyone plays their best game and gets beat you can say they were just better than us but we all knew this was not the case.

One of our best hitters (who will remain nameless) let it be known that he had done a poor job tipping his waitress after breakfast Saturday morning because he only had one dollar left over. His five dining partner jokingly gave him a hard time about how karma was going to come back on him and he should have tipped that girl better. Well he didn’t think much more of it until he got to the field and went one, two, three, four, at bats with no hits. This NEVER happens to this kid. He was sure without a doubt Karma had worked its’ horrible magic and that’s why he didn’t get a hit. When we arrived back at the hotel after dinner there he stood in the parking lot, all cleaned up, after he had walked back to the breakfast restaurant to explain to the waitress why he hadn’t left her a tip earlier and that he now was making it up to her with $5.00 instead of $2.00. He was very sincere when he explained to me that he was getting his good karma back. I know he had some questions when he went hitless his first two at bats (and I’m going to admit I held my breath until he finally connected). So for those players who may possibly be in a slump right now here is another player’s advise – tip your waitress- and tip her well. Hey who am I to question the karma! I’m going to start tipping better and see if that helps Cole.



I just want to say a little something about road trips. Sometimes they can be really hard on you but I profess to be the Queen of the Road trip (self appointed title of course) and thought I might share with you a few things that can make or break a trip. (Since we have Alabama looming ahead).

1. Don’t allow any whiners in the car. If you have a whiner that you cannot leave at home then they must develop a very bad cough upon entering the car to which any good mother should immediately administer the maximum amount of Nyquil allowable. Hilary was not the best car traveler and she was in her 20’s before she figured out that Nyquil wasn’t a preventative for car sickness. Ahh, such peaceful trips we had with that fiery redhead.

2. You must bring your own food and it must be high quality and not have any gaseous creating ingredients. There is nothing worse than being trapped in a car with someone having a gaseous ‘event’. Never a good thing.

3. This is the most important of ALL-you must have good music. Absolutely the most important part of the trip. Pandora has changed our lives in the car. We are blessed in that both Ted and I are old Rock & Rollers and doubly blessed that we can find all our favorite music on Pandora. So now we are ‘rocking’ down the highway and singing the songs (when we remember the lyrics) and loving our life.

I hope you have taken away some valuable lessons from this week’s blog:

1. Don’t hold your breath too long or you’ll black out and miss the next play

2. Tip your waitress WELL

3. And make the road trip the best ever with the right music, people, and food and you too will love every baseball trip.

See you at the field.

Next Game is Wednesday, March 16th at 5:00.

Trudy

Seven Wins Isn’t a Season But it is a Great Start

We have seven games under our belt and seven W’s on the scorecard. No one else in the Southern Conference can say that at the moment but I have watched enough baseball to know that everything can change in one weekend. We had so much preseason hype that I was getting worried about the start. I’m not saying we don’t deserve it or that I don’t believe it I’m just saying I was ready for those boys to get the show on the road. When Cole was named preseason Southern Conference Player of the Year I was so proud I thought I was going to explode and the day after the paper published I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. It was time to start proving what we could do and you know what they say in golf it’s not about how you arrive but how you finish that matters and I just knew that was exactly what my son was thinking. Then we started and we came out of the shoot strong. I am seeing folks at the ball field that I haven’t seen in years. We have sold more season tickets than ever. Our right field enthusiasm is at an all time high on Friday nights. So someone else is believing the preseason hype and I’m glad!

I’m going to guess if you read this blog then you have an interest in CofC baseball so there are a couple of things I want to share with you. I had a conversation with a player this past weekend who told me he had never used his family passes because his family isn’t able to come (I’ve watched him for three years now). They live pretty far away and the travel is tough and expensive. I told him we were his family and that we were extremely proud of him, truthfully my heart ached a little after that conversation. Then I watched Ryan Daniels bat and remembered our first game last season when he broke his leg during the pregame warm ups. He’s back out there with a ruptured disc in his back and he hit a double. Who does that? Who has that much desire and drive to play through the pain just for an at bat? I want what he has! I want to love my job so much that there is nothing that will stand in my way, physically or mentally. I want to know what it feels like to be our right fielder, who, some might say was born with a handicap but who many believe will be an All American if he stays on the path he is on right now. I want to know how Jamie Holler and Rob Kral played the last season with major injuries, had surgeries and are back out there when most people would still be in rehab. You can’t teach this; this heart, this desire, this love of the game. This is the stuff of greatness. They don’t do this because of who is watching or because someone tells them to, they do it because it IS who they are. It’s in their DNA. They are winners and they won’t let anything stand in the way of that. So I’ll be out there again this season at every game because I believe in them. I’ll be their family, I’ll be their greatest fan, and they will all be my heroes.

We go to Jacksonville tomorrow then we have Coastal on Wednesday. This is a big week. Come out to Patriots Point and meet my heroes.



See you at the field,

Trudy

My Bittersweet Preseason

I’ve been thinking a lot about baseball this ‘preseason’. It’s weird because usually when Cole isn’t playing ball I don’t think about it much. I’m pretty busy taking care of all the projects I can complete in the ‘off season’.

This year has been an exception. It seems like I think about it A LOT; this final season, this senior year, this end of the big show in our little world. We moved this fall and while Cole will probably never really ‘live’ in our new house I couldn’t resist setting up his room again just as it has been for years. The walls are heavy with awards and plaques and all the dressers are covered in trophies. I lovingly unpacked the memories and thought about each award as I found a place for it, remembering where we were and the games leading up to the big event. There is a decade of memories in that room but there are so many more that weren’t engraved on a plaque but in our hearts and our minds and will be for years to come.

Last night we went to the College of Charleston basketball game and there on the jumbo-tron at half time flashed a picture of three of our baseball players (including my son) with an advertisement for the upcoming season. I’m not gonna lie, I almost cried. There they were, Matt Leeds, Rob Kral and Cole looking all serious and mean and I had to reflect on the differences from the first time I met them four years ago.

I ran into people at the game who stopped me to talk about this, the ‘last season’. How was Cole feeling about it, what were his plans after the season, what is his take on the team this year. First I need to say that if you know Cole well you know that these are all things he doesn’t talk about outside the team much. He’ll give you a one liner which usually contains the word fine but that’s about it. What I really wanted to say to those folks is this is so much more than a 2011 CofC Baseball Season. It is so much more than a senior year. We started traveling with this kid when he was eleven years old, as did most of the parents of players who play at this level. We have lived in hotel rooms and condos every spring and summer for the last ten years. We have rolled in to the driveway after midnight only to get up at 6:00 AM to go to work the next day more times than we can count and we wouldn’t trade a single dollar or moment we have sacrificed to live this life. So when you ask me how Cole feels about this possibly being his last season forgive me if I get a little teary eyed because it’s my last season too. One thing I know for sure is that you only get one shot to live in the moment. You get one chance to see the ball come off the bat for the winning hit, that drove in the go ahead run, at a midweek game, in the rain close to midnight and in that moment you get to see the bench clear and run to second base to lift up that freshman who made it happen (who happens to be your kid). We live our whole lives for moments like that. So, while this preseason is a little bitter sweet I know that at the end of the season (and I hope it is in Omaha) I will be sad that it is over but so glad I stayed for the ‘whole game’. If my son is fortunate enough to play one inning on another level I hope it is close enough for us to see that game too but at least I know I had one REALLY GOOD SEASON and I gave it all I had without any regrets.

See ya at the field.

Trudy

First game is Friday, February 18th

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

I've Never Liked Roller Coasters They Make Me Sick

I don’t even know how to begin to recap last week’s games. I mean I feel like I have been to the biggest amusement park ever and ridden the wildest roller coaster known to mankind. It was tremendous, there were moments when I thought I was going to throw up and moments when I was screaming and then there was the moment of let down when the ride was finished. Truly worth the ticket price but I wanted it to end differently. I know I can be a little selfish but at 2:30 AM on a Thursday night when my blood pressure was off the chart I’m just saying I REALLY wanted the win.

 

I wish there was a way to describe the looks on our faces when Coach Lee took Jose out of left field, brought in Jesse only to turn him into the FOURTH infielder leaving only TWO outfielders (are you still with me) after WCU loaded up the bases with no outs. I kept thinking to myself “Oh Coach Lee they are going to think you are a genius or they are going to think you are something else……and I didn’t even want to go there”. I mean I couldn’t even get my brain wrapped around what could possibly happen outside of covering the bunt when the batter slammed one straight away to left center. I hung my head and knew there was no way Cole was going to get to the ball but as crazy as it is he did AND GET THIS then he made the throw to the plate and the runner was out. FOR REAL, that really happened. I thought I was going to jump out on the field, no really, I really thought I was going to. It was the most amazing thing I have seen in college baseball. I was a crazy woman, I just kept jumping up and down screaming I love that kid, I love that kid and when I looked around everyone else was jumping up and down screaming too. So at that point we were truly on the TOP of Space Mountain we went back down to the valley a couple more times and as crazy as it sounds we ran this same play again in the 11th (I think), four infielders and two outfielders and AGAIN instead of bunting their batter hit a long fly ball to center field, (I mean really how many times can a girl go to the TOP of Space Mountain in one night and continue to live) Cole caught it and started to make the throw and guess what-no runner-they didn’t send him from third. Now that, my friends, is respect. You know how this story ends by now. The ride on Space Mountain made me a little sick and kept me up most of the night thinking about different plays and opportunities but hey it’s baseball and it is what it is and one thing was for sure Thursday night you got your money’s worth and then some. My sister tried to leave three times. Both those teams played their hearts out and for the first time ever and after almost five hours of baseball I would have been satisfied for it to end in a tie. I can’t believe I am saying those words but both teams deserved a win after that night. My hat goes off to Coach Lee for coming up with the play and having the confidence in his team to pull it off.

A huge, huge thanks for the celebration that the Cliffords hosted on Friday night. If Dave decides he doesn’t want to paddle board anymore I’m pretty sure he could open a rib shack because I would certainly be there a couple times a week. The food was awesome and the company great. It is so nice to get to know the parents and the great sense of family we have developed for this team.

So it looks like we are off to Myrtle Beach. The bracket won’t be easy, NC State first and I am sure those Coastal Chickens (I think their proper name is Chanticleer) are going to be gunning for us like never before. We need fans folks. I mean really, unlike ever before we need fans. They will be out in thousands to support Coastal and they are tough fans to contend with so please, please come to Myrtle Beach. It’s not that far. Hey maybe we can have a tailgate if we can make it work. So come on lets follows these boys all the way. You know what the name of this blog is don’t you……that’s right

COFC ON THE ROAD TO OMAHA. Well we have just started up the first road now let’s get this convoy moving (ok I too, thought that was corny)

See you at the field.

I Hope They Had the Time of Their Life

I’m not exactly sure what it cost to have our Seniors’ jerseys framed for the ceremony yesterday but without a doubt it was worth every penny. I watched as each player walked out and tried to picture where they would be in five years as the Green Day song, Time of Your Life played over and over in my head. I’m lucky enough to say that every one of those players (with one exception) has had dinner at my house. I know more about some than others but I know this about ALL of them, they made the 2010 Cougar Baseball Program a TEAM.


My son has played on teams that have had great players and we have had the discussion that baseball is a ‘team of individual athletes’ but at the end of the day it takes the whole team to win the game. You can have the long ball hitters who lead all the stats but if they aren’t willing to lay down the sac bunt are they really part of the team or are they just ego driven individuals who happen to be playing a team sport? I’ve never experienced a team ‘huddle’ and couldn’t tell you who the ‘captain’ is per se but you don’t have to hear what they are saying to know that these young men are leading the charge.

I’m not sure that any of them read this blog and it really doesn’t matter because they each hold a special place in my heart and I will always remember them and hope that our paths cross again. I wish for them great success in life. I hope they remember all the terrific people who have contributed to their career and that each of them give something back to their community. I hope they pass on their knowledge of the game and help coach another young boy someday. I hope they all find jobs they are passionate about and that they experience unconditional love. But more than anything, I ‘hope they had the time of their life’.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

So this week I have felt like the girl who was left at home when everyone else went to the party. The stomach flu put me on the disabled list for Tuesday’s game at Coastal (which has always been one of my favorite games of the season). I couldn’t believe I was going to have to miss this one. I mean really, the Chanticleers were ranked 4th in the nation (what is a chanticleer anyway-some kind of chicken) and we ALWAYS rally up for the competition. It was being held at the minor league stadium in Myrtle Beach and the best I could do was feel sorry for myself and wave goodbye to Ted as he pulled out for the game. He’s a great guy and everything but even he wouldn’t miss this game to sit home with the sick wife. He made sure I had some ginger ale and then booked it down Highway 17. I proceeded to mope around until the game came on the radio. Let me say I have new found respect for the folks who have to stay home and listen to the games on the radio. I’m pretty sure if I had had to watch the bobble dolls roll around the bases I might have thrown my laptop out the window so at least I had the benefit of live audio. That said, I found it very annoying and SORELY missed Tony Ciuffo. I mean he was the best with the color commentating and statistical analysis and I’m not gonna lie he gave me a personal shout out a time or two which was awesome. I wish I could tell you my perspective of the game from the stands but I guess you’ll have to read the box scores. I can tell you we beat those chickens again and it was a beautiful thing even from where I was sitting.

Wish I could say the same for the game against Wilmington. I was home again, the commentating was much better (I listened to the broadcast from UNCW) but we gave it away in the bottom of the ninth.

I do want to give a shout out to a couple of players who seem to be peaking at exactly the right time. Jamie Holler’s bat is coming to life and has had hits at critical points in the last couple of games and Dre Watts seems to be the man of all positions right now. One game you see him at the plate and the next on the mound and he’s doing a good job at both.

Next week I intend to ATTEND the games but in the meantime here are my top ten benefits for listening to the game from the comfort of your home:

10. Food is free.

9. You don’t have to sit next to any hecklers.

8. You don’t have to ride for hours in the car.

7. You can wear your pajamas.

6. You can curse at the radio and no one will think less of you.

5. You can watch the USC vs. FL game at the same time on TV.

4. You can text endlessly with Allisyn Miller for another perspective.

3. You can go straight to bed when the game is over if you want to.

2. You won’t get sunburned.

AND the #1 benefit to watching the game from home when you have the stomach flu is………………………………………….drum roll please………………………………

1. The bathroom is just down the hall.

Southern Conference play starts next week at Joe Riley Stadium.

See you at the field.