welcome back, welcome back

"There's something I noticed this week. You left the game, but the game didn't leave you."
-TM

The week at Cooperstown was thrilling to say the least. I have long records of what happened up there, but I'm going to briefly condense it. Opening ceremonies were cancelled on Saturday because of inclement weather. The tent at the park where everyone eats and hangs out almost blew over. The ceremonies began at 8:30 on Sunday morning. Lou, the founder of Dreams Park, gave his usual speech about life in general. He may be an ignorant guy that clears 5 million a year from this thing, but he is right about a few things. First, life is a lot like baseball. There are up days and down days and the best we can hope for is to somehow end up over .500 when all is said and done. Also, his remarks about having dreams were much appreciated. Basically, he summed it up as saying something to the effect of this: "Even if you strike out, eight batters later the dream is alive again." How true is that? How many times have you made a mistake and then are given a second, third, or fourth chance to fix things? Enough about Lou though. Our team, the West Jefferson Hills Wildcats, qualified for the final 5 out of 96 teams in a team competition called around the horn. It's one of the four skill competitions and the only one where the whole team has to be involved for the team to win. In the finals, we had the lowest time and we got the trophy. It was a great feeling to beat out 95 other teams to get there. Also, greg lost the race around the bases by 2 hundreths of a second. Our first game was at 4:00 pm against Brookfield. They were a team of 11 year olds that put up a pretty decent fight, but we eventually won the game 3-0. The rest of the first round was ups and downs, and eventually we finished 5-2, losing to mudville(AAU team from washington) and south san francisco(where one kid hit 2 homers to kill us). My brother pitched 2 games and was 2-0. He hit about .333 with a walk off grand slam in the last game. I'm not going to go into the details of every game, but you can find them at cooperstowndreamspark.com

In the playoff round, things got interesting. We got two byes and played at 6:00 pm against the utah eagles. We won that game 15-0 and we were ready for the next game. It was to be at 8:00 pm against the st. petersburg stingers from florida. To sum it up, they were the most obnoxious, second class team that I've ever seen. They swore at our coaches, threw at our players, punched our players, and yelled obscurities at our fans. They were supposed to be the #4 team in all of florida, but we gave them a little taste of pittsburgh baseball. In the first inning, greg hit a grand slam. I've never cheered louder in my life. It was cruise control from there on. Greg schneider threw one of the greatest games I have ever seen in my life. It reminded me of how great baseball is. He had 12 K's and no-hit them to shut them up. It's not the way that the game should be played, but it's incredibly satisfying to beat a team that is pompous.

Thursday morning, our run in the tournament ended. We were outclassed by the #1 team in the country, the central florida sun dogs. They were simply a better team, and they were classy about winning as well. It was a final of 11-5, but my brother did have a solo home run over the scoreboard as a last hoorah of sorts. He hit it so far that it went into some desolate marsh in cooperstown. I guess a part of all of us will always be in that field, or that marsh at least.

The rest of the ceremonies were uneventful, just a lot of picture taking and saying goodbyes. I could only smile as we pulled out of dreams park for perhaps the last time ever. The northern Kaatskill mountains dotted the terrain, but the image of those fields will stay in my memory for the rest of time.

I'll leave you with a song by Kenny Rogers. There's a twist to the song, and maybe you'll pick it up.

The Greatest
By: Kenny Rogers

Little boy in a baseball hat stands in the field with his ball and bat
Says, "I am the greatest player of them all"
Puts his bat on his shoulder and he tosses up his ball.
And the ball goes up and the ball comes down,
Swings his bat all the way around
The world so still you can hear the sound, the baseball falls to the ground.
Now the little boy doesn't say a word, picks up his ball he is undeterred.
Says, "I am the greatest that there has ever been"
And he grits his teeth and he tries again.
And the ball goes up and the ball comes down,
Swings his bat all the way around
The world so still you can hear the sound, the baseball falls to the ground.
He makes no excuses he shows no fear
He just closes his eyes and listens to the cheers.
Little boy he adjusts his hat, picks up his ball, stares at his bat
Says "I am the greatest when the game is on the line"
And he gives his all one last time.
And the ball goes up and the moon so bright
Swings his bat with all his might
The world's as still as still can be, the baseball falls
And that's strike three.
Now it's suppertime and his momma calls, little boy starts home with his bat and ball.
Says, "I am the greatest, that is a fact, But even I didn't know I could pitch like that!"
Says, "I am the greatest, that is understood, But even I didn't know I could pitch that good!"

mh