Funny Guy Friday... I got no place else to go...

     This past Tuesday, I found myself somewhere where I did not want to be. It was 4:00 p.m. and I was sitting at a place with which I was very familiar, but at this time, I felt completely out of place. I had been at this location on a daily basis for more than ten years, but on this day, it felt odd----especially at 4:00 p.m. I felt lonely, sad and depressed. The place felt dark and cold---I was fidgety and uncomfortable. I was sad and confused, and I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt completley helpless---like Richard Gere in the movie Officer and a Gentleman when he cries out, "I got no place else to go!!! I got no place else to go!!!"  Where was I at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, you ask? I was sitting at my desk at work, and not out coaching baseball.
     Unfortunately, we had lost at the Maryland State Little League Tournament, and the season is now concluded---I had nothing to do. Well, I guess I could have done some of the work that had piled up on my desk over the past five weeks, as I would leave at 3:30 every day to make it to a practice, a game or a meeting about baseball, but that isn't fun. I suppose I could have made some phone calls to try to get some cases settled and get some money in this month---that is fun--- but I just didn't feel like it. I suppose I could have gotten better prepared for the trial that I had starting the next day, but that wasn't really challenging. What would have been challenging, and what I had been thinking about for weeks, was the clever excuse that I was going to concoct to continue this trial in the event that we were still playing. The only thing that I could come up with was the truth, and I had the right Judge---a baseball fan who has season tickets to the Nationals. He would have understood, and he would have found a way to accommodate me. Alas, it was not meant to be. Now I had to have my stupid trial.
   For the past five weeks, I had left work early to get to a baseball field to practice or play. I had had a steady diet of hot dogs, sunflower seeds and gatorade. I had changed clothes in my car, in porta-potties and in the parking lot---usually with my wife as a lookout---for the past month. (By the way, changing clothes in a porta-potty is not an easy thing to do. You have to figure out a way to keep your clothes and your feet off of the floor, which is why I typically opted for the parking lot and the lookout---although that did not always work out as on one occasion, my lovely wife got upset with something that I said and walked away from her post, literally leaving me with my pants down.)
   Anyway, I had agonized over which kid to play and how much to play them. Who to pitch, catch and what order do I bat them. My wife thinks that I would wake up in the middle of the night because of work. I am embarrased to tell her it was because I was worried about our outfield, our infield, our hitting or our pitching. The particular worry depended on who did poorly in practice that day.
    We blew through Districts and ran into much stiffer competiton at the State Tournament---not unexpected. With the exception of one game, we played, and coached, pretty well. However, in that one game, our first loss, we all managed to make a lot of mistakes in one inning, causing a lot of runs to score, and causing one coach to have one very sleepless night. Not to worry, when I finally made it to breakfast in the hotel the next day, I was reminded---by a good friend--- that it would have been a closer game if I didn't screw up in that one inning. Thanks pal, make that two or three sleepless nights.
    Although we lost, it was really a great experience. The kids were thrown together after competing against each other in our own Little League. Thirteen kids that were selected by their coaches to participate on an All-Star team. Some of the kids I had known, some I hadn't. As we went through the practices and the games, I think that they, too, had a good experience. I also think that they all became better players. I know that they were all good kids. They were always respectful of the coaches and responsive to what we were trying to do, and more importantly, they were always respectful to each other. They came together very nicely as a team, and never blamed each other when things went bad.
    Although, there was one exchange during a pitching change in the game that we played poorly that struck me as funny. As the new pitcher was warming up, I was chatting with our third baseman.
    "Patrick, we are hitting terribly, we are fielding terribly and we are coaching terribly, what do you have to say about that?"  
   "Coach, I just got in the game, I haven't done anything wrong yet!" 
   "It's early Patrick, you have time," I said with as much encouragement as I could muster.
   This exchange drew a smile from the umpire who was standing next to us eavesdropping on our conversation. It also drew the only smile that I was to have during that game.
    After our second loss, and after being eliminated, we got back to our car, and it would not start. Like my little team, my car was out of gas! The tournament folks were more than happy to come to my aid and provide some gas that they had at the field for their tractor. While we waited, Cheryl had Matthew and Noah get out of our car and into a friend's car to stay cool. I walked over with the lady getting the gas and had an opportunity to speak with and thank some of the volunteers that ran a wonderful tournament.
    Once we got the gas, we were good to go. Cheryl got back in the car and we slowly started to pull out, heading for home, rehashing the game. Suddenly, there was a knock on the window, as we were leaving the parking lot. It was my friend, asking us if we wanted to take our boys with us. The boys weren't important, we had to figure out what went wrong during the game. Who knew, and frankly, who cared that they weren't in the car with us.
    In my conversations with the tournament director and the volunteers, I was happy to hear that they were all very complimentary of our team, our coaches and our parents. After being there for a few days, and seeing how some adults behave, it became clear that some teams, some coaches, and some parents lose sight of the reason why we are there in the first place. You definitely want to win---I definitely wanted to win---but there are limits.
   Let's just say that some people take it way too seriously. In fact, I bet some folks take it so seriously that they lose sleep over it. Others may even forget about the most important thing of all---like making sure that their kids make it into the car and get home from the tournament.
   All I can say is that those type of people are idiots.