PASSING ON DREAMS

I'm not gonna lie.  I was taken by the piece that Steve Skinner wrote here on the pages of BYB the other day.  The piece was titled THE YANKEES NEED TO BE COMPLETE but it was more about his personal family... his kids growing up and some of the memories he had with them.  It was emotional... exactly what this website was founded on. I absolutely loved the piece and I hope you did too.  Now look...I have not personally met all of my writers yet. That's on me.  My personal life is very busy... insane actually, but my plan is to see every one of them and "hang".   I've met the lovely Erica Morales and of course... I've met Steve Skinner.  

Steve and I have been tight for a long, long time. We talk quite a bit, so much so that there was once a baseball off season 3 years back where he shipped me his son's baseball equipment because, "he'd grown out of it."  I didn't think about it then, but after I read his piece from last week, I realized, it was probably a hard thing to part with.  Little did Steve know what he did to a baseball community like mine.

This is one set of catching equipment.  I've used it for 3 seasons for my personal team.  It's been a staple for them. The catching helmet fits perfectly, and for 6th graders, the shin guards are perfect as well.  In fact, there have been games where my kids prefer our helmet over the town donation.  "Where's our helmet coach?" I remember one of my players asking me in June.  I thought, "My god, Steve's gotta know this, he'll love it."

The second set of equipment was donated to a younger group in our baseball program.  My buddy who runs the team does the same thing I do... making sure the kids are comfy in the equipment. He takes care of it every season, cleaning it up and making sure all the straps still work and all of that.  The third set is used by my little guys.  I'm not sure if my youngest sons will be catchers, but I have a hunch it will definitely help them along.

I just wanted to share this nugget.  As a coach for the past few years, I see happy kids and part of the reason is because a buddy of mine paid it forward.  I, in turn will one day do the same thing, because when I look around my area, and lacrosse starts to become the number 1 sport of the spring... it kills me.  Baseball has always been "the" spring sport.  Now kids are leaving in flocks for lacrosse. 

Not my players though.  Not my own children.  As long as there is Spring, there will always be baseball.  Alot of that has to do with Steve Skinner... a great dude who helped remind my community of that.

Let Matt know... there's a lot of happy kids by me... thanks to you guys.

 

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