Do you believe in the difficult things?
Having belief is one of those things that I am beginning to realize that maybe I am taking for granted. It is very difficult to describe. It is very difficult to explain the difference between being able to act as if you believe and actually believing. Let me try to explain with a true story.
While I was in college I was coaching a youth baseball team. This team consisted of 2nd and 3rd graders and was the first level above t-ball. Some call it coach-pitch, where the coaches lob easy to hit balls to their own players in order for them to get better at hitting the ball. In our league the players pitched the first three innings and the coaches pitched the last two.
That year, and every year before that, team McDonald’s was undefeated. Before the season started there was a draft, just like there is in pro baseball. The idea was to get as many players from your neighborhood or the friends of your kid that you were coaching, assuming that you were a parent. I was an older brother. Most of the dads sat in a classroom and browsed lightly through the list of players who had signed up. Picked a few that they knew and then just kind of went alphabetically down the list. Then there was the McDonald’s coaches.
McDonald’s sat over in the corner with papers upon papers of all the players. They had actually scouted the t-ball games and listed every player in order of how good they were and drafted accordingly. To put it in simple terms it took me about 30 seconds to make a pick and it would take a huddle of 4 grown men about 5-10 minutes to pick every round. It was a painful experience for everyone else. We just wanted to get it over with and get back home.
So of course McDonald’s was stacked. They had not lost a game in 4 or 5 years, and it looked like they would not lose a game this year. Every game was a blowout and many were called after the 3rd inning due to the mercy rule. They had nice clean uniforms with McDonald’s in the familiar red and yellow across the front, and their names on the back. Even their helmets were shinny new and red. They were a machine.
Our team? I don’t even remember our sponsor that year. We had generic yellow and blue uniforms with cheap white pants and a cheap mesh hat that was uncomfortable. Our batting helmets were the traditional dark blue, dirty, and warn. Our bats were few and far between and every year we hoped that some parent would go out and buy one that the rest of the team could use. It was a mismatch.
But somehow we were 3rd in a 12 team league and of course McDonald’s was first. The mid season showdown was upon us.
The night before I would sequester myself to my room and make out the lineup. I was still in college and came home for the summers so I was still living with my parents. Of course everyone on the roster had to play so through careful planning I would make sure that my best players were always on the field with my weaker players to give us a good balance. I would also make sure that I played my weaker players early and my better players later so that if we needed to we could hold off a late charge by the other team. I had a feeling about this lineup. I was confident. It wrote itself. I checked it over a few times, I counted everything up twice to make sure that everyone had at least their minimum playing time. We were ready.
I seem to remember that the game was on a Tuesday night. It was late in June and it was beautiful. The ball park was filled with parents and players and all 12 diamonds were in use. We were on the field that was furthest from the parking lot. A nice field in the corner of the complex with a nice shade tree over one dug out. Of course McDonald’s was already there with that dugout when I got there an hour before the game started. We sat starring directly into the sun.
As the game got closer we took the field and had our warm-up. Everyone on the roster showed up. I won’t lie I wanted a few players to miss the game, and it was actually rare that all the players showed up. We had a really good warm-up.
Just before the game started there was a little electricity in the air. Even though they were only 2nd and 3rd graders they knew what the game meant. They knew that the other team had not been beaten. They knew what the chances were. The parents definitely knew what was happening. They started to crowd the dugout to give last words of encouragement. It was a little too crowded for me so I took the whole team out to left field. We got out there just before the first batter was due up.
They sat around me, all those little eyes on a 20 year old. This is all I said. “You know what? I believe we can win”
I will never forget the look I got from them. I could tell every one of them believed. They only believed because I did. They all broke into a grin and we trotted back into the dug out.
The first inning we scored 2 runs against their best pitcher. I knew he was their best because they did not pull him. We ended the inning with two runners left on base.
Our ace pitched well and held them to one run. They hit the ball but we played well in the field and made outs. It was a victory in itself. That was the good news. The bad news was that we were now heading to the bottom of our order. McDonald’s bottom half was probably at least as good as our top half. Our bottom half very rarely produced any runs.
We started off with two straight hits. It was fantastic. We had no outs and the three worst batters up. Bang! Hit into the outfield drive in a run. Bang! Hit into the outfield another run. Our worst batter was up. I am not sure if he had a single hit all year. BANG! Right into right field. So hard that it went all the way to the fence. Everyone went crazy. Two more runs scored. My third base coach was so excited that he did not realize that he would be coming around and failed to tell him to stop. It looked as if my worst hitter would have an inside the park home run.
It was close but he was tagged out at home. The dugout emptied and the team mobbed him. 4 runs one out and we were back at the top of the line up. We had three more hits and scored two more runs. 6 runs against the top team. We were definitely believing. They went through three pitchers that inning. The rule was that one pitch in an inning counted and the players were only able to pitch one inning. They could not have many left could they?
They came back and scored 3 and it was now 8-4 I knew that if we were to win we would need to build a lead with the kids pitching. Once the coaches pitch everyone hits the ball so fielding is the premium. I knew that they could hit the ball.
They held us to one the next inning and they got two. It was 9-6 very high scoring in a normal game for kids pitch, and very very high scoring for any team against McDonald’s. Now it was Coach Pitch. We lobed them in nice and easy and teams frequently scored 6 and 7 runs an inning.
We scored 3. Their defense was better than I expected. They scored 6. We played well but they had runners on base and we had a double play at home plate to end the inning.
Score 12-12. We were getting nervous but there was no time that we felt like we might lose. We were also back to the top of our order.
We hit the ball all over the place. They were scrambling. One hit after another it was great. Our players were just running and the whole place was excited. I stole a glance at the McDonald’s dugout. It was a combination of disappointment and panic. I don’t think that they knew what to do.
We scored 5. It was now 17-12. A very high scoring game. You would think that the defenses were no good but it was a great game. There were very few errors and the pitchers really did not pitch bad, at least for that age. All you really hoped for was that your pitcher could get the ball over the plate so there would not be many walks. Both pitchers were doing so and the players were just hitting the ball all over the place. Right field, left field, up the middle. It was like watching a good semi-pro game. It was exciting.
My best moment came right now. As I said earlier I sat down and planned out my lineup and where every player would be at every inning. I could have changed things around that inning to make sure that we had our best players in the field…but I didn’t. I stuck with the lineup. They went into the field, all were confident. The first hitter pulled it right into right field. Remember the kid who never had a hit until this game? Yes you guessed it there he was. He stuck his glove into the air. The ball seemed to hang. His body twisted back away from the ball but he held his glove in place. The ball hit his glove and stuck there. He caught it. Me and the dads who were helping me as base coaches all gasped a huge sigh of relief. I stepped out of the dugout.
“Thats one” I said acting as if I knew he would catch it all the time.
They then went on to real off three straight hits, scoring two. It was 17-14. Getting close. Man on first. The kids never panicked.
The batter up hit one down the right field line. A ball that if fair would have certainly been an inside the park home run. There was no way my right fielder would have made the play even if he was a good fielder. Somehow the McDonald’s coaches had taught them to hit it to right field. A very difficult task even for pros. The next pitch was nice and easy. The batter drilled it to our second baseman. It was a catch-em-out, tag-em-out. A single handed double play. The game was over!
Our players stormed the field, it was if we won the championship. No team had beat them in at least 4 years. Until now.
The second best time came while I was walking back across all the other diamonds to the parking lot. We were on our way to get ice cream (of course). I was carrying our equipment bag and walking with a few of my players.
“What was the score?” one of the parents asked.
“17-14” I didn’t even have a chance to get it out of my mouth, one of my players spoke up.
“We won!”
“No way?” the parent exclaimed.
I just smiled and kept on walking. I knew what would happen behind me. It would be chaos. The whole summer baseball season was going to be turned upside down.
Now every team would think that they had a chance. Every team would know that McDonald’s was beatable. And we did it.
We did not win the Championship, we lost in the semi-finals. McDonald’s did win it all, and that was their only loss. But you know what? We were the ones to do it.
We did it not on superior players, certainly not superior coaching, we did it on belief. We thought we could win, and we believed we could win, and we won.
It was a magical moment that I will never forget.
