LIFE LESSONS FROM A TOUGH LOSS IN BASEBALL

My son’s team lost a heartbreak in their playoff game last night. It’s never easy when you have a bunch of kids that play their hearts out all season and then, in a playoff game they keep the opposing team scoreless until the end. That’s right, they lost on a walk-off.  That not only stinks, it stings like hell.  I didn’t look at the team celebrating. I looked at our boys immediately and yes they looked crushed. It was truly a heartbreak.

I remember seeing this quote from Jered Weaver in the paper once and I’ll put it here for you to read because it fits in this instance:

"Just losing a game is bitter, but a one-run game is a little more bitter."

That says it all.  Anytime you lose by 1 run, whether it be Luis Gonzalez vs. Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter vs. Byung-Hyun Kim or Aaron Boone vs. Tim Wakefield, there is a feeling  so enormous on both sides, it consumes you.

It’s literally the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat at that moment.  It doesn’t matter if you’re 30 or 9 years old, the feeling is the same.  You know you need to tip your hat to the other team but it’s the last thing you want to do.  But I have to say, that’s exactly what our team did.  At the end of that playoff loss last night they lined up, did their routine “good game” hand slap with the winning team and stood taller at that moment then before the game started. 

These kids impressed me so much this season.  I think the coaches felt it more than the kids last night, because they don’t realize it, but these kids grew so much this season.  So many of these kids contributed throughout  the season, some unexpected at times, but those moments just became greater and the team molded into 1 right before our eyes.

It was a good run for a bunch of kids that started out as a group of individuals and ended last night losing, but they lost as champions.  That’s right, win or lose last night, that final score of 1-0 taught us all a valuable lesson… these kids may have lost that game, but they learned from it…and in my eyes, they’re winners.

Congrats to our kids this season. You showed more guts than us coaches ever could have imagined.  Stand tall… You are all champions never forget that.

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