I was cut from my high school baseball team. Three times!
The memory is still vivid of walking down the athletics hallway
to see the final freshman roster posted on the wall.
My name wasn’t there.
I scanned the list again. Still
not there.
Stunned, I turned and walked away thinking there must be
some mistake. The prior summer I was a player
on a 13 year old Babe Ruth all-star team that won the Illinois State Championship,
the Ohio Valley Regional Championship and made it all the way to the United
States Babe Ruth World Series.
Cut? Really? How could this happen? Well, it happened sophomore and junior year
too.
All of my friends made the team those years. I was left out. The distressing feeling of inadequacy is
brutal at any age but especially in your teenage years.
At the end of the school day, my friends and I would meet
at our adjacent lockers and collect our books.
They would eat orange slices and head to baseball. I would head home on the bus.
With baseball, it is not just bats and balls. It is the camaraderie on and off the field that
makes the game complete. I missed the solidarity
and team spirit that comes with playing sports.
Soon after we moved to Wilmette in the summer of 2006, I
could hear loud cheers and the pop of a ball across the street at Howard Park. I
walked over the see the 16” softball action and immediately knew I wanted to be
on a team.
I hung out at the park that year and the next summer to talk with players to try and join a team. No teams interested. High school feelings repeated.
In 2008, I was sulking about another softball season on the sidelines. It was Julie who
told me I should just start my own team. And with her help, I did just that.
We were not a good team.
In fact, we were lousy. But we liked
playing together and trying to get better.
We also enjoyed the postgame parties when kids, wives and families would
join us to tell stories and laugh together.
With softball, it is not just bats and balls. It is the camaraderie on and off the field
that makes the game complete. We all love
the solidarity and team spirit that comes with playing on or rooting for the
Cougars.
In my senior year of high school, I finally made the baseball
team. It was the best year with my
teammates. But it ended too quickly.
On Tuesday, this season, like every season, ended for the Cougars. But we never graduate. We just repeat our senior year.
Every year is the best year with the Cougars.
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Game Video
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The Cougars lost to Chicken Shack 10-4 in the second round of the playoffs.
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Game Pictures
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An enormous thank you to my family for taking pictures all year. I am so grateful to Julie, Miranda, and Charley for capturing memories every week.
