The Little League Season is a long one.... for Coaches, parents, and even the kids, Usually by this time of year, as the Season is winding down, many of us are glad it's almost over. And then something really great happens.........
Last night my 9-10 year old team had a game in town. We were playing against one of the other 9-10 teams from town. The weather was very hot and the skies were full of ominous looking clouds.
Ten minutes until game time..... and each team had only (6) kids. Five minutes until game time and still only (6) kids each. So I talked to the other coach and we decided to rustle up a bunch of kids that were around the ball fields. On the field next to us, two of my friends had a game with their 5-8 year old teams(coach pitch). Only two kids showed up for the one team. So we went over and asked if some of the kids wanted to play with the big kids tonight. Man those little guys cheered at the chance. So we put three on my team and three on the other team.
The 7 & 8 year olds were nervous. I could see it all over them.... especially after my pitcher hit two kids right away in the first inning. but man were they excited. It was awesome to see those three litlte guys squeezed in between my big kids on the bench.
Well we were home team so we were in the field first.I put the one 8 year old at first base.... he's VERY good. Well my pitcher hit two kids and walked a kid to load the bases with one out. The best hitter on the other team is up and promptly hits a high pop-up to first base. No infield fly rule in this age group so I'm thinking "Oh sh*t!". Well that little guy drifts over, gets under the pop-up, puts up the glove and........ catches it!!!! Man you should have seen the smile on his face!!!! The parents from both teams went crazy!
Shortly after that we saw lightning off in the distance and called the kids into the dugouts. The feeling in both dugouts was electric. The wide eyed younger kids hanging out with the big kids, the big kids cheering the little kids on. One of the little kids even got to play an inning with his big brother that is on my team. They sat next to each other on the bench with big smiles on their aces. It was way cool.
It started pouring shortly after that but nobody really wanted to leave. We had to literally drag the kids to the cars.
When we got home my wife was kind of quiet (pretty unusual). Finally she made one very simple statement..... "Now that was fun tonight.... that's what Little League should always be like".
A simple but very profound statement.......... We can learn a Hell of a lot from kids.
