Friday, Mar. 05, 2004
The cuts have come, posted at 8:15 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today was grueling, and I'm a big wimp. I have 26 kids on the team. 26! That's six more than have ever been on the baseball team at once. I'm not sure if my decision is okay, but I hope it is. I'm such a softie. I just couldn't cut any more than the 12 I cut. 26 is three times as many players that can play at once, and there is probably ten players that will never get into a game at all.The cutting conversations were pretty tough. A lot of somewhat embellished "You remind me of me when I was in high school," since I was cut from my baseball team in the 10th grade. Most of the kids knew, I think. No one cried. I felt like it, though. Amongst the cuts were AH, one of my favorite students two years ago, who I cut last year and has some good speed and a quick and easy grin but very little baseball skills. I also cut TM, who is friendly and not a terrible athlete and the principal's next door neighbor.
I'm also feeling a little guilty about the kids I kept. The last two spots on the roster are players whose skills aren't much different from the kids I cut, but I just really like them as people and think they'll be positive influences on the bench, even if they don't get into the bench. I also was harshly honest with kids, to the point where one young man wouldn't make eye contact with me the rest of practice. He's a senior - and I did decide not to cut any seniors (except one) - and I told him that I'm not seeing much, if any playing time for him this year, unless I see some differences in practice in his hitting and fielding. I told him he almost didn't make the team. He didn't like that very much, I guess. Hopefully it'll piss him off and he'll play better.
But it was a long day. I didn't like to do what I did. We need a JV team; it's pretty ridiculous that we don't have one after three years in a row cutting double digits worth of kids. But this is the first year I've done it, so it's weighing on me pretty heavy right now. I guess it's a part of life, but it's not a good one.