Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2004
My Right Fielder is a Runaway, posted at 11:43 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I didn't turn in my grades today. Just flat out couldn't find time to do them, and didn't tell anyone. I've never done that before. I hope no one notices that I slip them in tomorrow morning.Two interesting developments today:
Got a call from the guidance counselor in my classroom today about a baseball player. He's a great kid, one of my all time favorite students who doesn't have much in terms of baseball skills but is respectful, bright, earnest, and funny. I had him as a freshmen, and I remember him as one of the most inspiring students for me during that tumultuous first year of teaching. I remember writing an entry about him once back then, but I just checked and didn't have time to scour the entries for it. Anyhow, the guidance counselor asks me if I'd seen him. Yes, I had. He's been to practice and our game this week. The guidance counselor informs me that he ran away from home over the weekend and hadn't been to classes. Shit. This is the last kid you'd possibly expect this from. I tracked him down seventh period, and he was in class, and the guidance counselor had found him by then. Apparently it was a mother/father thing - he and his mom got in a fight, and she yelled at him, "Get out of this house." He took it literally, and went to stay at dad's place. I don't know why the mom wouldn't know that. The counselor says he's really angry. He didn't give me that impression - he even chuckled when I asked "You promise?" after he said he was alright - but this is also totally out of what I understood his character to be. The other weird thing is that he has to visit his P.O. this Thursday, and I have no idea why he would have to do that, what sort of trouble he got himself into.
He transferred out of our school after 9th grade, and returned this year for 11th grade. Maybe he got into trouble at that other school. Still, it's a complete shocker. I pulled him aside, made sure he was okay - made him promise, like I said - then gave him my cell phone number and told him that if ever needed anything (I repeated "anything" twice), to give me a call. I hope everything will be okay.
I've got this sort of fantasy that once my baseball season is over, I'm going to start taking kids to Orioles games just for fun, non-school related. This kid will be one of those I invite.
The other thing that happened today was the best athlete on the baseball team didn't show up again for practice. He's a good kid, and it disappoints me. He missed two practices last week, so I didn't play him on Monday. It obviously didn't faze him, because he didn't show up again. He's got a major case of senioritis, which is a bummer because he's one of the school's best athletes and he's ending his high school athletic career on a bad note. At this point in our 0-4 season, I'm more concerned with my young players picking up bad habits from the seniors than I am about winning the city championship. I haven't given up, but I've got to think about the future.
It's off to bed. I woke up early, had a great practice, and accomplished a lot today. I'm ready to sink into my bed.