The Bullpen Gospels

I'd wondered all year how the power of baseball should be wielded. And now I knew. Baseball doesn't have any intrinsic power. It only has what people give to it. For some the man who plays is a superhero, and he can do great things. For some, the man who plays is an obstacle who must get out of the way. Is baseball as important as food, knowledge, care, or a dry pair of boots? Is it as important as some of the things that pass us by in everyday life? I don't think so. Can it inspire, motivate, and call us to do something greater than ourselves? Absolutely. The burden of the player isn't to achieve greatness, but to give the feeling of it to everyone he encounters. It was wrong of me even to try to separate life and the game. They were intertwined, meant to be, one affecting the other, one teaching the other, even when the mixture occasionally blows up.

*an excerpt from the book

The Bullpen Gospels

Dirk Hayhurst

the catharsis of losing

Losing is a strange animal. Where winning keeps you on a high, losing takes you to all sorts of different places. After the initial shock and frustration of yesterday's loss I sat there dazed and confused, thinking about many different things. This one did not sit well with me. Of course I thought about what if a few different things had gone our way, but more than that I thought about how losing is so much different than winning.

Losing it seems, can me more of a cathartic experience than winning. Amidst the disappoint it can clear your head and relieve the pressure of expectations. Sure, you still wrestle with the "what if's" but those fade and you are brought back to ground zero. Less is expected of you when you lose. Anyone who has ever competed can relate. Granted, anyone who has ever competed also welcomes the expectations winning brings, it can be how you deal with losing that makes you a winner.

The challenge with losing when you are older is that it seems to sting a little more because you know that your window of opportunity is slowly closing. You can't play forever. What were once tears when you were a kid when you lost, are now replaced with a gamut of emotions - frustration, disappointment, sadness, reflection, questioning...I could go on and on. I am well aware that being in the Canadian Little League Championships even as a coach might be the closest I get to realizing a childhood dream of playing in the Little League World Series. Will not making it there hurt? Yes. But win or lose, I will remember this one week forever.

3rd place sucks

The phrase "you can't win them all" is small consolation when you grow accustomed to winning. "Losing sucks" is more befitting I think.

This past weekend we were in Windsor and things didn't go so well for us. We set out with a goal to win this tournament and that didn't happen. And in the process our 22 game winning streak came to an end. Granted, it became a 23 game unbeaten streak after a comeback tie, but still. That comeback was certainly fun to be a part of. We scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th, highlighted by Anthony Marzenek's game tying homerun. It was over after that, though, after a loss in the semi finals.

If there is a positive to be taken from the weekend, it was the way the team bounced back in the consolation game with another win over High Park. With that we had to settle for a 3rd place finish. It certainly wasn't the desired outcome, but it's nice to go into the Canadian Championships next weekend on a winning note.

It's funny how teams response to us has changed over the past few months. Two months ago, we were just another team on the other side of the diamond. Now we are that team - the Ancaster Cardinals that are going to the Canadian Championships. Teams know about us. They look out for us and want to beat us. And the boys are now relishing in that role as top dogs. I think they now understand just how good a team they are. I know this because, to a man...errr young man, none of them were happy with our result. They know that while you certainly can't win them all, losing always sucks!

Next stop the Canadian Championships!

record to date: 27 W, 4 L, 1 T

Victory - A Double Edged Sword

Baseball is a game of cliches - he's pitching a gem; he's swinging a hot bat; he was out by a mile - you get the idea. It seems there is no phrase that hasn't been coined to make the casual fan say 'huh?' and die hard say 'ah gotcha" all in one breath. Today, though, I offer you a cliche stolen from life's long list of coloqualisms - There are two sides to every coin.

It's been a week now since our win in the District Championships and while the boys deserve all the credit in the world for their accomplishments, the other day I started thinking what of those young men on the other side of the diamond. Those on the losing side. Yes, I may have had my fun in previous posts with our victories over High Park, but I trust you gather I mean no ill will toward them. They competed just as hard as our team, it just so happened that on on one night in July the baseball gods were on our side.

Unfortunately for them, their Little League experience may always be coloured by that loss. Some may never play baseball again beyond this year and that one game may very well be what they remember. Hopefully not, because they were a deserving winner too, but such is the case in sport. There must be a winner and a loser. And that is why victory is often a double edged sword - one team walks away with fond memories, the other with the sting of defeat.

In previous posts I have lamented my one chance to win this tournament many years ago. I look back now on my time playing with nothing but great memories and better stories, but for awhile I'm sure that this loss will sting a little for those boys from High Park. History may say the Ancaster Cardinals won 3-0 over High Park. What it won't tell you though is just how hard they made us work for that victory. Hold your heads high boys, we were very appreciative of the competition you gave us.

record to date: 23 W, 3 L