End of an era...

No one likes for good things to end, but as the saying goes "all good things must come to an end". And unfortunately, our All Star season has come to an end. After probably 50-60 hours of practice, several team building parties and 5 amazing games over the last (nearly) 4 weeks, the 10/11 team is officially done.

If we had won on Saturday, we would be playing tonight for the District Championship. That's how close we were. Instead, tonight, we will be watching our Juniors play in their Semi Final round. The best part (beside that I will be the official scorekeeper) it is being held at Tucson Electric Park (home to Spring Training teams...for now) and I get to sit inside the booth! A silver lining!

Ok, ok, I'll tell you about the game!

Park? Far away park. Time? Decent. 7pm. Weather? Hotter than you can imagine with no breeze. None. Between that and the adrenalin, it was not good. Game start time? Was actually 8pm because someone failed to secure umpires (let me point out it is NOT the responsibility of the teams playing or the park hosting it. I will leave it at that.).

The game started a bit on the crazy side. This particular park is a hitters park. The outfield slopes down to the fence so if a ball is missed, it just picks up speed and continues for what seems like several miles. Especially if you are the outfielder who is in charge of chasing it. In the first inning - there were 3 home runs. THREE BOMBS - PAST the fence, never a doubt home runs! These are 10 and 11 year olds - hitting 220+ foot home runs. 1 for us. 2 for them. Things settled in and after 4 innings it was 6 to 3 US (all 3 of their runs were solo home runs...crazy!). The boys held them until the bottom of the 6th and then the other team tied it up.

The 6th and 7th innings were very emotional for our kids and fans. I will not go into too much detail. I firmly believe that these kids won as a team and lost as a team. Never once has a finger been pointed by any of our players, parents or fans. They are just that way, and that is what made this so hard. We have played on 'finger pointing' teams, and this team was just special.

In the bottom of the 7th, the other team scored a run with 2 outs. It was on an error - 1 of only 2 made by our boys that night. The game they played was amazing and beyond outstanding. The truly deserved to be in the Championship game, but it was not their destiny.

The pain my heart felt for the boys that night was crushing. The tears they shed leaves a lump in my throat. Many of these boys I have known for a very long time, and some I just met this All Star season. Loosing a game you led, must be the worst way to loose. It has to be. Their faces said it all.

There are things in life you will never forget. For this All Star team - it will be one of those things! For Alec, it is his dream and would trade absolutely nothing for the opportunity to play on the All Star team.

Alec's stats for the night - 5 at bats - 2 singles, a fly out, a ground out, a walk and 1 RBI.