More Than A Game: It’s Just About… Life

They say it’s only a game. Except they are wrong.

On one sun-kissed Saturday afternoon I watched the girl I love, play the game I love and strike out a batter with the bases loaded, then run off the field with a smile brighter than that sun.

Don’t tell me it’s just a game.

Emily was part of a team named Wolfpack. And because of these 13 girls, for nearly the past three months of my life, I got to experience what it’s like to live just a little bit more.

I’ve coached in the Lutherville-Timonium Rec Girls Softball League for five years now, but this year was a little different. This year we came within one game of going to the Championship. More importantly this year, I watched a group of 11-13 year-old girls play their hearts out, cheer their hearts out, and in the process make a lot of hearts just a little bit bigger.

Me & the “Pack” (Coach Greg had to miss picture day)

Don’t tell me it’s just a game.

I’m sure if you ask my other coach Greg Kallaur, he would say the same. These girls are special. From the moment I watched them play catch at our first practice, then drive softballs all over the field, you knew it would be different. These girls knew how to play. From the very first game, when they all started chanting, clapping, singing and cheering each other on, you knew it would be different.

We started off with a bang, winning our first game of the season in formidable fashion and I thought it might be easy. But this is softball and nothing is easy, it’s not supposed to be. We had ups and downs during the course of the season, a bunch of rainouts and make-up games, but one thing stayed the same, these girls came to play and loved being a team. I loved watching them. I loved working out the line-ups, I loved hearing them chant, I loved watching them hit, field and flourish. Because in the end game that’s what it’s really all about. These young ladies are still just that, young, just about to be, or already in their early teens and still finding their way in the world. There might be nothing like being part of a team to help ground you, help you grow and help you know that life will be just like this, if you want to accomplish great things in life, your dream will need a team.

Coach Greg & the “Pack”

The Wolfpack did great things. They got hot at the end of the season and rolled on into the playoffs. Five days ago I coached a see-saw game that saw our opposition score a crucial run in the top of the seventh-inning (we only play 7) and tie the game. Except we were the home team. And in our final at bat, and with a runner on 3rd, our 3rd baseman Stephanie hit a shot up the middle so perfect I can still see it in my mind, whistling through the air and landing in the outfield. A walk-off win. That game was so exciting and that hit was so good and so clean the umpire from that game was still talking about it last night, three days after it happened, as we prepared for our semi-final round.

So many of the girls had big moments. Our normal shortstop Abbi, taking a turn in right field and snagging a hard-hit line drive.  Our first baseman Rebecca, stretching out to snatch another throw. Ellie, who stepped up one day to catch 7 straight innings of a game. Audrey hitting a triple to clear the bases. Julia sliding into second base in a big, big game. Emma, Erin and Anne Marie coming into their own and getting huge base hits at crucial moments. Becca stepping up and hitting a scorching line drive down the left field line in our semi-final game, her biggest hit of the season. Alexandra, pitching three straight innings in what turned out to be our final victory and our biggest win of the year (more on that in just a moment). And then Corinne, our #1 draft pick. What a force. She opened nearly ever game on the mound and then closed it out in similar fashion. And to watch her swing a bat, it’s poetry in motion.

Don’t tell me it’s just a game.

Our season ended last night in the semi-final round, one game away from the Championship. It’s sad, but it’s OK. Because it wasn’t really our biggest game of the year. No, that one came the day before, when we faced the Gators, the team with the best record in the league. We had a mediocre record, finishing in 7th place out of 10 teams. But remember, we got hot in the playoffs. And on paper this looked like the biggest mismatch of the post-season. But that’s why you play the game.

They say in sports when you are the underdog, all you ask for is an opportunity. The Wolfpack took advantage of every opportunity and we won it, in convincing fashion, with a courageous extended pitching performance from Alexandra in the middle innings. And then players and a big crowd of their enthusiastic parents looked on as Corinne shut down the Gators in their final at-bat, catching a pop-up just off the mound to end it.

Time to rush the field. Time to relish in the excitement that can only come from the feeling of David beating Goliath.

Don’t tell me it’s just a game.

To the Wolfpack, the girls, their parents, who helped out in so many ways, from warming up pitchers, to assisting in practices, to keeping score, to so many of them showing up in support of their daughters, it’s a season I won’t ever forget. Many of the girls will move up to a new age bracket next year, so the team won’t be the same, it never is. But that’s OK. Don’t be sad because it’s over, smile because it happened. We happened. Thank you Wolfpack, thank you.

And thank you to my daughter Emily.  I helped give you life and you enrich mine every day, watching you on that field, and those one-to-one car rides to and from practices, are truly some of the great joys of my life.  It’s you who helps make me feel like a winner every day.

Don’t tell me it’s just a game.

 

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Mark

Mark Brodinsky, Author, Blogger, Financial Services

The #1 Amazon Best-Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story

www.spouses-story.com, www.amazon.com/author/markbrodinsky

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Thank you, Mark