I have never been part of a baseball game that was 25-0 before our game on Saturday. It was a really hard thing to deal with. I felt horrible for the pitchers on the mound. It felt like innings would never end. I couldn’t find the words to give our team hope. I looked into the eyes of kids who were in the middle of a whipping and I had nothing to offer. It was the worst experience I have had on a baseball diamond.

The day started out great. Every Vellano player within 100 miles was at the Challenger game. It was so great to see their generosity of spirit and the joy they felt as they shared their passion for baseball with the kids from challenger. Often times coaching has meant addressing a team bully, breaking up a cliche, or stopping a thoughtless kid from taunting a team mate after an error of bad performance. This has never been the case with this Vellano team. Through all of the heartbreaking losses, and disappointments our kids have been like brothers to each other. It is a really special group of boys.

The transition from Challengers to being beat up 25-0 with stands full with the players, coaches and fans for the 4 o’clock game was overwhelming.

So at the end of this I have a few “resolutions.”

We should have a big party at the end of this season to celebrate the end of our “Season from Newark ( I can’t say HE77 this is G-rated)
We should have the most aggresive off season ever. Coming to 2011 with 11 very motivated athletes
We should have our own definition of sportmanship that lets us play hard without demoralizing our opponents
I should express my respect and admiration for players and parents who took this experience without being broken by it

To the parents that rail against the opposing coaches… They were certainly within their rights to pitch their best against us. There were no rules of the game broken, and it was all very legal. I have heard you say that you would never do that, and I concur. We can win games and not lose our sense of compassion. Right now those are decisions we don’t have to wrestle with. That is our first order of business.

Our best recourse is to get better at playing and coaching baseball. We have the power to say “Never Again” ourselves. I think we can thank the folks in the other dugout for providing us with the right kind of motivation.