Okay, so we had our first Middle School Baseball game of the season yesterday, an up and down affair that we were able to pull out in extra innings, 10-8. We played a shocking 8 innings, which I have never played in 5 years of middle school coaching - games are usually 6 innings, or 7 if the score is close and we can get it in before the visiting team has to get on the bus home. Before the game, as we were waiting for the ump to show up (a common occurrence in middle school baseball), the tottering old man coach gave me his lineup card and let me know that a few of his kids had never played "organized" baseball before. This isn't a rare situation among teams that are comprised of 6th and 7th graders, and I let him know that we had a few of those players as well. Then he said that when one of those players came up, he would roll his fist over from the third base coaches' box. He proceeded to show me how exactly he would roll his fist over. I nodded and replied with a firm "Sounds good," holding back my obvious questions of "Why?", "Is that necessary in any way?", and "How old are you, old man?". I still can't conceive what I would gain from this, or what he expected me to do upon seeing the presumably inconspicuous Fist Roll. Do I signal to my tiny 6th grade pitcher to take it easy on him? Hold back on his 34 MPH heater? Do I intentionally walk these kids out of pity? Is it just to let me know, coach to coach, that if one of these kids does something completely and totally embarrassing on the field, like run to third base after making contact, or shitting his pants in the batter's box, that it is completely out of his hands? This kid's never played organized ball before! Strangely enough, I got so wrapped up in the game that I never even peered over to the coaches' box to see if he was indeed doing this.What made this even more odd was that while The Old Man was clearly the de facto coach, wearing the official team windbreaker and cap, there was another younger middle-aged man, in an unusual business casual sweater, that seemed to be doing most of the coaching. The Old Man was silent, clearly preferring to communicate with everyone through subtle hand gestures, while the Sweater Man was very vocal, calling out encouragement and instruction to kids during and after every play. I wasn't introduced to this man, but I did notice him playing catch with one of my players during warm ups, which I thought was odd. Our best guess is that Vocal Sweater Man was a parent and assistant coach, but needless to say, I didn't like him.
Me: Any idea who that guy is?
My Other Coach: A parent? I saw him raking leaves with the Old Man when we got here.
Me: Yeah, that was weird. Not one of our guys' parents, right?
My Other Coach: I don't think so. Have you seen our batting helmets?
Me: Oh shit.
So somehow, after bringing all of the equipment up from the equipment room, our guys forgot everything in front of the school - nothing made it on to the bus. Both Varsity and JV were without batting helmets, but fortunately a couple of kids had their own catcher's gear. We ended up sharing helmets with the other team, which the Old Man took in stride. He'd clearly seen it all before. "What? Okay."
Anyway, we started out strong, taking an early 7-1 lead going into the bottom of the third. It looked like a blow-out in the making but some porous defense led to a huge rally by the home team on a boatload of unearned runs, and we found ourselves tied 8-8 going into the 7th, the final inning. Amazingly both teams went scoreless, so we decided to play the 8th, even though it was way past the time we were supposed to call the game and get back on the bus. It was our first game of only a 6-game season, and there was no way I was letting it go down as a tie to the Vocal Sweater and his Old Man.
It should be noted that earlier in the game I saw Vocal Sweater Guy make a move that I have never seen as a middle school coach. He intentionally walked my number 3 hitter, TWICE!, both times with no one on base! Can you believe this guy?!? This kid is a 7th grader who, thanks to the large number of guys on our team, will probably end up playing a total of only 3 games this season, and you are going to intentionally walk him in the third inning with no one on base??? That's just shitty. I can maybe see if it was late in the game, and first base was open, and it was clearly a strategic move going for a win. But this was just an asshole move. Granted, he hit a homerun in his first at-bat, but since their catcher couldn't throw anyone out anyway, within two more pitches he was on third base. So, basically, you're conceding a triple, just so the kid doesn't make your team play defense. I was pretty pissed.
So we manage to put up two runs in the top of the 8th and hold the other team scoreless in the bottom half, allowing us to escape with a 10-8 win. It was a big relief, and the guys were able to enjoy the long bus ride home on 90/94. I would have given the Vocal Sweater Guy an added squeeze in our post game handshake, but he disappeared among the leaves, allowing the Old Man to remain the public face of the franchise. Very strange. Just remember: We'll see you bastards again on May 7th.
BaeRating on Game 1: A-
BaeRating on Intentionally Walking in JV Middle School Baseball With Nobody on Base: F-
