Clutch (The Yin & Yang of the Universe)

My nephew is 8 and doesn’t turn 9 until September. He plays on the town travel team for 9U. He’s the youngest guy on the team and it’s quite competitive as there was a real cutdown this year. We have been playing every week. He got a new bat that was 2 inches longer and yet only a half ounce heavier. That has radically altered his hitting; adding power and giving him reach, middle out. He’s now attacking high ball and tomahawking them and just killing everything. Last week he lined out twice and was bummed. The last time up, he pressed and had a rare strikeout, off a kid he can normally handle. He got passed over on a game ball on the day he hit his 2 bombs and he was hurt by that. He has been benched on defense more and more and he has been hurt by that.

So yesterday, in a tight ballgame with Upper Saddle River, his uncle, the 3rd base coach, sends a kid home in a tie game and gets the kid thrown out by 10 feet. Hole crawling time. Game stays tied 2 more innings into the bottom of the 6th–the last inning.

They walk our best kid. He steals second. Our other best kid K’s. He’s the cleanup hitter. His grandpa had died that morning and we didn’t expect him to play but he did and he pitched a great inning in the scoreless duel. He’s the only 9 year old I’ve ever seen hit a ball over the fence in a game (last week) and yet he K’s.

The 5 hitter is a good little hitter with a fast bat but he K’s against their left handed close. More and more I’m seeing coaches save one good kid to pitch the 6th. You’re likely to see their weakest guys in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings and then see a dominant kid again, late. This was the deal.

I don’t dare steal the kid on second down to 3rd and get him thrown out, and thank God that there haven’t really been any passed balls where I’d have to sweat. Now my nephew is up. 2 outs. Winning run on second. He drove in one of our 4 runs in the first, being the only kid to square up the fast kid who started the game.

He takes a ball. Takes a nice strike. 1-1. While I don’t like him letting a good pitch go, I don’t like the first ball hitting he’s been doing lately, so I’m ok. I’m just praying for no passed balls, because I don’t want to have to try a steal of third. And the 9 year old on second is aggressive and may try it on his own (he has in the past).

Ball in the dirt. 2-1. Ball over his head, no swing. 3-1. I have a hunch now that the kid is going to get one over. I’ve told my nephew to get angry in the big spot. Not to get shy. Use the frustration of the coach passing you over for a game ball or mention; use the frustration of the benchings and the lineouts; use it to get mad and take it out on the ball. “You’re in control”, I say, “but you’re mad too and you’re quick”.

He gets the bat head out on the next swing and hits a line drive over third. I watch it for 20 feet before deciding that it’s well over the 3rd baseman’s head and I start yelling and windmilling for Phil on 2nd to score. He’s motoring. The ball was down the line but I knew off the bat it’d be just fair and it was. It lands down 20 feet past third. The winning run is easily plated and my nephew cruises into 2nd with a double and immediately comes off the bag as he knows it’s a walk-off. The ump then signals that as well and the kids mob him and he gets his game ball, no question. The coach even picks him up at one point, which is quite out of character. My little buddy cracked open the game with 2 outs in the last inning! Awesome.

His dad was in the hospital earlier in the week, but got out and attended the game, as did his mom. His dad took camcorder footage of it and we got pizza and took it back to grandma’s house and watched it over and over. Here he is taking a still photo of a paused frame of “the moment”. Well have to figure out how to upload this to the pc and perhaps I can post it.

Here’s my still photo of the TV and that moment, frozen in time. That’s me making like Leo Durocher coaching 3rd, just under the pause (captain’s bars) at the top right. My nephew has just connected and the ball is rebounding off his bat. You know, watching the kid’s swing last night made me realize just what a nice swing he has. He’s picture perfect. Level and hips turning at the right moment and everything. Thank God for all of it.

And you know, it isn’t lost on me and it wasn’t lost on my nephew that if I hadn’t have sent the kid and gotten him thrown out at home, the whole situation wouldn’t have come up.  We wouldn’t have batted in the home 6th.  So you can look at it two ways: He got me off the hook with the base hit; or I inadvertently set the whole thing in motion with my blunder.  There was a beautiful yin and yang to the baseball universe (and the bigger one) yesterday.  Someone was looking out for us.