5/20/2007

Bad News Bears Make Good

My sixth grade son is playing his last season of sports outside of school. In order to get the boys at our school ready, my husband compiled first a basketball team, now a baseball team. These are boys with a ton of confidence but negligible ability. Oh, a few here and there can hold their own, but for the most part, it is a matter of imagining their athleticism as quite different from what it really is.

So in basketball, they lost every game—but they beat the first place team in round one of the end of season tournament. You’d have thought they’d taken the NBA trophy! They next game, they received a trouncing. Then they moved to on—to little league baseball.

Yesterday they played their seeding games for the end of season area-wide tournament. They won both games, scoring 11 runs in one game, 12 in the other. After the second game, my husband gathered his team and asked, “When did the aliens come in and replace the team that’s played for me all season?”

And it was true. While they did win a couple of games this season, they mostly looked like the Bad News Bears. Remember? They had some pitching, but little else? Their efforts in the field were simply a series of blunders? (I won’t compare the two coaches. Needless to say, my husband doesn’t resemble Walter Mattheau’s character in the least!)

So suddenly our team finds itself catapulted into the quarter-final game. Yes, they may lose today. They may lose badly. But they will arrive at the game with two incredible wins to remember.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid it will only feed their overactive 12-year-old egos.

3 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

So, we'll be waiting for some good news! Which I suppose could come in either case (winning or losing). There's always something good to be found, isn't there...

Richard L. Mabry, MD said...

Still waiting to hear news of "your" game. Kay and I made the trek to Flower Mound last night for our grandson's City Championship nine-and-under baseball game. Connor's team won in extra innings after he drove in three runs with a triple (thanks to Grandpa's batting tip). We were thrilled for him and his team, but felt so bad for the losers. Even at this age, and with good "everybody plays/let's enjoy this" coaching, it's serious business to the kids. Why must there be losers in order to have winners?

Anne Mateer said...

Alas, it happened as I predicted (do I know these boys or what?) While my son pitched well (five strikeouts in three innings, no walks, and a put out at first), the boys in the field couldn't put their hands on hit balls. You could see the confusion all over their faces as their personal greatnesses faltered.

They lost 14-5, but being in the quarter-final game really was a victory in itself.