Eternal Kids

[DOUGHBOYS]

Calvin Coolidge was our 30th President. My favorite President. He was cheap, or shall we say thrifty, both in personal life and as a President. There was no National Debt when he left office. I don't remember which party he belonged to, and don't care.
He was President before parties dominated a President's actions.
Coolidge lost a son at a young age. Later in his life,Coolidge consoled a grieving father who had also lost a son early in life by saying, "Both boys, by the grace of God, will be boys through eternity".
I think about that any time somebody loses a loved one too soon in life.
I thought about it after Sandy Hook.
I think about it now. I think about it now not because I am not losing a child or know another child that has died. I think about it because I'm losing part of the child in me.

My high school baseball coach is close to death. He was almost like another father for me. We would talk seemingly forever about baseball, but I know if I get too mushy this will lead to oblivion, so let me tell you a couple of stories...

I'm sure that you fellas come from high schools or towns or cities that have 'territories'. A place where one school or town or city wants to be considered better than the other school, town, or city. When this happens, umpire bias begins.
We lived in such an element. Every sports team from our area knew that in traveling to Durango, our teams may not get a fair shake.
To make a long story a little shorter, a Durango kid hit a ball that rolled way beyond our outfielders. In his haste around the bases, he failed to touch even one of them. Our coach, Mr Fanning, called time and grouped the infielders, pitcher, and catcher on the mound.
He said, "Did anybody see anything unusual?"
Playing shortstop, I went out for the cutoff and did not know the runner had failed to touch a base.
He looked at the pitcher, "Instead of kicking at the dirt, you could have been helping your team!"
The pitcher looked at him puzzled.
Mr. Fanning turned to the catcher, "Same goes for you, instead of picking up your mask and walking towards the mound, you could have been helping your team!"
We all looked at him wondering.
"Fellas, the kid that hit that ball missed every base. We've got to be alert out here!
Do you fellas remember how to appeal a runner?"
We nodded.
"Good, let's appeal first base, if the umpire signals safe, start going around to each base.
If we don't get the call, don't complain, we're in Durango and it's hard to find an honest man in Durango."

We appealed first, the base umpire signaled safe.
We appealed second, same umpire, same call.
We appealed third, same umpire same call.
By now, the home crowd and Durango's team was jeering at us. Calling us names and giving us whatfor for the appeals.
We appealed home plate. The home plate umpire took off his mask and raised his right arm.
The Durango crowd went nuts.
It was the third out and we ran off the field to our bench.
Mr. Fanning didn't crow about finding an honest man. He didn't laugh or pat himself on the back for watching that kid around the bases.
He gathered us in a group and told us that baseball was a team sport and that any player on the field or on the bench who had opportunity to watch that runner should be ashamed of themselves for not helping the team.
The smiles and laughter on our faces turned to shame and regret. We knew he was right.
I look back on that time as one of the greatest teaching moments I had in life.
That no matter how dire something looks either on the field or in life, there is something we can do to help our team or family.

We played in a State Playoff game against a team from Denver. Whenever we traveled the close to 300 miles to get to Denver, we looked at it as David traveling to Goliath's place.
We read stories about the Denver players in the Rocky Mountain News. They barely knew we existed.
Again, making a long story shorter...
I was pitching that game. We were winning 1-0 in the sixth inning. I beat out an infield hit and in doing so, I felt my hamstring pull crossing first base. It hurt like a son of a bitch. But, I couldn't grimace or limp. I knew that in doing so that I may be taken out of the game. It wasn't because I thought I was better than anybody else. It was because we were a two-pitcher team and our other pitcher had thrown the whole game the day before and our emergency pitcher was, just that, an emergency pitcher. I died on first base thankful I didn't have to run the bases.
Taking the mound, I shortened my lead leg toward home plate in warm ups to get used to my owwwie.
I walked the first hitter. I was ok with that. I thought pitching out of the stretch would naturally shorten that step towards home. The next kid bunted and I felt my hammy worsen as I got off the mound to field the bunt and throw him out.
I walked the next kid with the renewed pain.
Then got a little lucky as the next kid went down on strikes. I was relying more on a curve now, because I knew I had lost miles off my fast ball.
Two out and two on and the kid that I had read so much about in the Rocky Mountain News was up.
I had struck him out with a high heater earlier.
Then he had lined a single off me the last time up.
I threw a curve. He watched it bend over the plate for a strike.
I threw another curve, again, he watched it bend over for a strike.
My catcher signaled for another curve. I shook him off.
I wanted to put a fast ball by him.
I had three memories of what happened next.
The first was the ball sailing towards the plate.
The second was the ball sailing over the left field fence.
The third was Mr. Fanning coming out to the mound.
I had tears in my eyes.
He said, "How's your leg?"
I wondered how he knew. I mumbled, "It's ok."
He said, "Y'know, Danny, I don't blame you for not telling me. Heck, I would have done the same".
"But, JUDAS PRIEST, Danny! HOW COULD YOU THROW A HITTER LIKE THAT A PITCH LIKE THAT WITH AN 0-2 COUNT?"

There is no better place for eternal kids to play than on a baseball field.
Maybe they'll come out of the corn as seen in 'Field of Dreams'
Or maybe on a sandlot, where kids dreamed of being a Major Leaguer.
They'll need leadership and guidance.
Sometime in the near, near future there'll be somebody joining those 'eternal boys' that President Coolidge spoke of. Somebody that'll coach them to be better ball players. And not only to be better ball players, but to think as they're playing the game and be the best teammate that they can be.
This lesson carries over to life experiences as well.
Most of us have probably had a coach or positive influence such as this.
We were lucky.
And those eternal kids will share our good fortune.

[smokin_gun]

Dough
That brought a huge smile to my face as i thought back about memories of some of my past coaches. And hoping that years from now my son will be able to do the same as he looks back on the life lessons learned on and around the baseball field.