Miss Becky's Blog

Baylor's Happiest Day

This is an e-mail message written to our family by Jason, the day after Ken/Smiley's heart attack ...

I thought we should all start feeling a little better today. Dad is in good hands and resting well. He should be home by Wednesday. I was reading Mom's email and thought I would go ahead and share Baylor's experience this weekend. I know Dad loved hearing about it.

Happiest Day of My Life. That's what Baylor said about May 6th.

To set the stage if I haven't already told you about his competitive baseball team here in Logan they have really struggled. In Maryland Baylor would have had to try-out to be on the 9 year old travel team and he would have made it and been a good player on a pretty good team.

Well here in Logan we show up for the first practice with this 9 year old travel team and I thought we stumbled into a t-ball team on accident. Nobody would play catch with Baylor because they all were afraid of how hard he throws. It's all perspective - he isn't a phenom - these kids just haven't played much ball.

Without too much detail that gives you the setting for this team. I should also add that while we are still struggling the boys are getting better and we have won 2 out of 10 games and were close in 2 others. In fact in our second game on Saturday we played a team that beat us 14 to 1 earlier in the year and this weekend we played them even most of the game until we gave up a big inning and lost by 6 runs.

That's the team experience. The personal side of this is that Baylor is the new kid in town and these guys on his team think he is a baseball phenom - which he isn't - and is going to win all these games for them. They have been good to him, but he has felt the pressure. Even the coaches expected a lot from him as a pitcher because he could throw so much better than the other boys.

But, he has not pitched much in his short career and not off of a pitching mound like they do in this league. So he has started slow. His first 3 starts he was only in for 2 innings each. The first time he really struggled. The second start (our other win) he did better, but still struggled. His 3rd start he actually pitched quite well for 2 innings, but we were getting killed because his defense behind him couldn't get any outs.

He really wants to be able to pitch and so he has worked on it a lot. He will ask me almost everyday - whether his team has had practice or not - to come out and catch for him.

Saturday, May 6th, Lundstrom Park in Logan - beautiful day and we are the first game of the day on the field so it is in great shape. We are playing the Bandits. A team from Farmington that is pretty good. In fact we lost to their 8 year old team - this is their 9 year old team so they have got to be favored to win.

If you think you don't like baseball, you haven't seen a game like this. Both teams played well and it was close all the way. Most of these games only go 3-4 innings because either the mercy rule is invoked or both teams are scoring so much the innings take a long time.

This game went to 6 innings because both teams were pitching and playing defense well. Baylor was throwing better than he ever had. Still too many walks, but way more strikes than he has thrown. In this league if he throws strikes he can get strike-outs or if he gets hit they are usually very playable ground balls.

We are the home team and start the 6th inning (and final inning) with the lead 3-2. 3 outs and we win and Baylor pitches his first complete game. He looks stronger than ever in striking out the first two batters. He gets the third batter to hit an easy grounder to third - one of those soft ones that isn't even going to make it to the infield dirt. Our third baseman comes charging in at it and runs right by it when trying to scoop it up.

I don't know if it was mental - knowing the game should have been over - or physical - just being tried from having thrown so many pitches, but Baylor couldn't keep it going and walked the next 3 batters. The coach brought in another pitcher to try to close it out, but before we got the third out the Bandits scored 3 runs.

What a great game he pitched. He either struck out or put-out (fielded balls hit to him) 12 of the 18 outs we got in that game. Even if we had lost I think he would have felt OK about his pitching. He should have felt great, but you can't feel great when you lose the lead in the last inning. When he came out I told him how well he had played and told him not to get down because he would still have a chance to help his team win.

So, it is the bottom of the last inning and we are now losing 5-3. First, batter gets on with a walk. Next batter gets a good hit and we now have 2 runners on. They advance to 2nd and 3rd on steals and the runner on 3rd scores on a past ball. 5-4.

The batter at the plate stikes out. The next batter walks and then steals second so we have 2nd and 3rd again. Our next batter hits a grounder to second which they take to first to get the out while our guys scores from 3rd. So, its 5-5 and 2 outs. If the inning ends the game is over as a tie, but a tie is not appealing with how hard they have worked on this game.

The next batter gets a walk giving us 1st and 3rd and bringing Baylor to the plate. Our guy on first steals 2nd. Baylor has the count at 2-2 and it really becomes a battle. Their pitcher fires a strike in there and Baylor fouls it off. Another good pitch and another foul ball. Another good pitch coming to the plate and this one Baylor is all over. Line drive to right-center driving in the winning runs!

The kids on the team charged him out on the infield and had a good celebration, but they did a good job not getting silly with it. The coaches got them together pretty quick to give the other team a cheer and shake their hands. While they are doing all the end of game stuff I am cleaning up our stuff getting ready to leave. Baylor is getting so much attention from everybody that I just stay back and let him enjoy it.

After a while people start drifting away and the dugout starts to empty. So I head in to give him my congratulations and what I got was a moment that is one of the happiest of my life. When Baylor saw me he literally jumped into my arms and said "Dad, did you see that!"

Baylor and I get along great, but he is getting to be big guy now and is more reserved with his displays of affection. This was like when he was a little guy and would come running when he saw me. It was such pure, innocent joy that he wanted so much to share with me. I told him I sure did and how awesome he played and how exciting it was that he got that chance to help his team one last time.

We obviously relived the game a lot that afternoon and it was at a reflective moment he looked at me and said, "This is the happiest day of my life." I could just feel the weight of the being the new kid and all the pressure being gone from his body. I was so happy for him.

That night as I tucked him into bed and we talked about it one more time I told him that as amazing as this day was, he will have better days. He had a hard time believing me, but we talked about what many happy days he has ahead of him in his life. Then I told him that I have made big plays for my team and I'd give every one of them back for that hug he gave me in the dugout.

With that experience and then having to take Dad to the hospital last night in a very distressed situation the gamut of life experiences has hit home this weekend. Thank God for those choice moments we get that can stay with us always. Those you can take with you. Get as many of them as you can!