there's no crying in baseball

Tom Hanks coined a term that will forever live on in baseball lore. though it was meant as a joke in the movie, it is now said in all seriousness on baseball diamonds around the world. (at least in my experience) Baseball is not a game where crying is rewarded; you cant cry about a call and get a challenge from the booth, you cant flop on the ground and get the ball in your possession going the other way. you dont cry about a loss, you dont cry about striking out, its all part of the game and there is always another game tomorrow. baseball players dont roll around on the ground after getting hit or falling down; they get up, rub some dirt on it, and the game goes on. there is some major work to be done in this regard in the schools of Wistedt. Now i'm not going to lie and say that i never shed a tear on a baseball field when i was 8 or 9 years old but we were playing with a real ball and i never cried about striking out..in fact i got pretty used to it through my younger years. some of the kids in these schools are crying about getting hit in the leg with a tennis ball being thrown...no, tossed at maybe 15 mph. while they are rolling on the ground weeping, the teacher runs to the locker room and grabs a paper towel and soaks in with cold water (this seems to be the cure-all here in the schools.) and puts it on the spot where the ball hit. and they pout and run to the bench if they get out during a game. i try to explain that in baseball you fail 70% of the time, but this gets lost in translation and is drowned out by their sniffling and whimpering. I'm going to have to toughen these kids up a bit if they want to come play for the Farmers; i mean we are wild afterall.

I am proud to note however that i have seen marked improvement in these kids since we started 3 weeks ago. most are now able to catch and throw with some sense of grace and purpose and the scores of our games are not bound by the one-time-through-the-lineup-per-inning max that is was in the beginning. they are making three outs in an inning, some times even 3 up 3 down. they all know how to hold and swing a bat, they all need some work but thats not my purpose in the schools, im just introducing the game and trying to make it fun. we will work on the finer points when they join the team.

tomorrow actually starts our PlayBall program here in dohren. children from around the area come to us and we have a mini-camp of sorts and teach the game to the kids. we provide gloves and bats and all the equipment in this free introduction to the game. I passed out fliers at the school in Wistedt and they all seemed very excited to come so im hoping there is a good turn out. there are a few of these PlayBall days throughout the next few weeks, and after that each child has the opportunity to join the Wild Farmers youth teams or decide that they want to stick with soccer. we've already had 4 or 5 kids from the school come to a couple of the practices so i'm hoping that tomorrow brings a few more youngsters to the organization.

many of the bigger cities here in northern germany struggle to put together youth teams at all, there just isnt the desire by the kids or motivation by the adults to teach the game and coach a team. Our youth teams do very well however because the number of kids is high and we are sending people into the schools every year to introduce the game and get kids interested in the sport. this is what will make Dohren prosper in the future and guarantee the longevity of the Wild Farmers Organization; It is the work of people like Antje - who was recently recognized for her continued work with the schools and the PlayBall and Pitch, Hit, and Run programs - that is the root of their success and the key to their future in the sport of baseball. I applaud the Wild Farmers for keeping these kids off the soccer field and truely appreciate the opportunity they have afforded me in my effort to do the same.

Today at the school I realized just how out of shape i got in my 7 month layoff. My hamstrings were so tight that i was struggling just to pick up balls...most of you know that im not a very flexible guy anyway, so that coupled with the lactic acid build up -still there from sunday- made for a sore day. I havent had to run bases like i did this weekend in a very long time and im paying for it now. maybe i should have gotten that massage on saturday night on my hamstrings and not my shoulder. looks like extended stretching for this guy today.

A-Ron