Monday, April 27, 2009

Winning Isn't Everything But...

My husband coaches Jack's little league baseball team. The team has grown from 10 players to 15. Parents want their kids to be on this team. It is a fun team. John is a great coach that cares about the kids more than he cares about winning. He wants to see the kids try their best, respect their teammates, be safe, and have fun doing it. He says "Winning isn't everything, but trying to win is."

The kids won their first game. It was a definite confidence builder for the team and the coaches. Jack made a great play at second, catching a fly ball to rob a player of a hit. As the ball was heading toward him in the air, I had a Charlie Brown moment, picturing him dropping the ball and feeling like crud the rest of the game and night. But he didn't drop it. He caught it and got a big round of applause from the stands and his team.

After the game, I congratulated him on his catch.

"Yeah," he said. "My eyes were closed so I wasn't sure if I caught it."

I should tell John to remind the kids to keep their eyes open during the game.

So now that they've won a game, after a few seasons of playing together with most of the same players and winning only by forfeit, we'll see what they do with it. If John starts making the weak hitters in the line-up step into the pitches ala Mr. Buttermaker, we'll know he's lost sight of his motto.

4 comments:

peepaw/peeps said...

H:
That sure was an exciting game. What a great catch by Jack as he hit the base at the same time the ball hit his glove. Even more memorable he said he had his eyes closed. A circus catch by the ringmaster!The team has improved, John is a coach with integrity and the kids have fun and won game 1 a good start to the season. Go Tigers
Peace
Paul

Texasholly said...

OMG! That is the cutest ever. That is how I play baseball too...

Loth said...

Don't tell them to keep their eyes open! Keeping them closed is clearly working!!

Shan Nan said...

That is Hilarious and Awsome all rolled into one! I Love what John says to those little Patoonias...All of them. What a Great encourageing Motto! Sorry i missed it though. GO TEAM!!!!!!! P.S. My spelling is far from correct, but Hev normally figures out what i mean...Luv u Sista:)