Wednesday, May. 04, 2005
Great mood, posted at 7:28 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm not sure if I could be in a better mood than I am right now.First off, we just clobbered the other school 7-2. It was a great game, one that felt fun on so many levels that it reminded me why I love coaching so much. Two of my seniors had AP tests that took them out of the action, so I started a 9th grader at second base and my backup catcher in right field. Both came through. I pinch hit a kid in a key spot with runners on second and third, and he hit a two-run RBI single through the left side of the infield that made me look like a genius. I benched a kid for not running out a grounder to pitcher, and he responded with maturity. I pulled my pitcher with two outs in the last inning even though he begged me not to, but I could tell he was tired and had just walked three. The next guy closed it out on three pitches. Lots of strategy, lots of kids contributing, lots of fun.
It is all the more sweeter because this team beat us a couple of weeks ago in the last inning. The coach is a jerk and it's nice to beat them. Speaking of asshole coaches, we are playing our big rival on Friday. They're a better team than us, but if we play a great game and they play a shitty game, we can beat them. That's not going to be my motivational speech, don't worry. But we have a chance. They're undefeated against city teams, and their coach is a class A jerk, and I'd love to get this victory on Friday for the kids. In my four years at the school, we've never beat them.
I'm also feeling a lot of love at school right now. I was stressing about Friday's big field trip and asked the principal for help. She went around and requested that a bunch of my colleagues attend the field trip. I had already done so, but her urging got them to do it. So now I have 12 chaperones going. In addition, I have a parent who is organizing a brigade of ten parents to also attend the field trip. I just spoke with her and she's 100% in my corner. It's always nice when it feels like people are coming onto your side to help you.
To top it all off, a kid wrote me a letter today in which he called me the only male he's ever looked up to, that I couldn't possibly understand how much I've meant to him and how sorry he is that he hasn't lived up yet to all I know he can be. It was "Bobby." Gosh, I love that kid.