Bosc wrote:
Granderson! Throws out the winning run at home and then hits the walk-off. What a signing he's been so far.
Reminds me of one of my good game memories from baseball growing up. This one season I had a coach who just played me in the outfield and sat me and never gave me a chance to do anything and this is house league. Wasn't having fun at all. My Mom absolutely lit into him one night seeing how miserable I was. I knew what kind of player I was and I wasn't trying to pitch or play shortstop all the time or something. So he finally started to give me a chance.
Anyways, one night I think we were tied and there was a guy on third with one out. Batter hits a one-hopper to me at first, I step on the bag and throw it home for the double-play. Bottom of the inning I knocked in the winning run with the bases loaded. Felt vindicated for the crappy season.
A few years later, I had another awful coach and I wasn't having fun anymore so I quit. And I still love to play when I have the opportunity, which hardly comes up.
Youth sports coaches often don't realize the impact they can have on a kid's entire life. I quit baseball because my coach was an asshole to me, blaming me for every loss, every run against, etc.... I still love my father, but he made me hate baseball.
But afterwards, whenever he'd give me shit about being a weird kid, into punk rock and skateboarding, I'd remind him there were no coaches in either of those, and it was his fault I was into them. I can laugh about it now, but I was serious back then, and there's quite a lot of truth to it.