The Double

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. 
They make mistakes, but they don't quit." 

-- Conrad Hilton


He turned and stood on second base, slapped his batting gloves together making a cloud of dust (they must teach this at the baseball camp) and got caught somewhere between a giant smile and a cool look of a vindication. He has struggled all year, having been one of the top players on his team for as long as he can remember, this year was different. It was the majors. The leader on his team has at least ten homers, two over the trees and first row of cars in left field. There's a six foot pitcher with a mustache on another team who throws 71 mph which looks like 95 from 46 feet. They also throw off speed and curve balls, Then there's great fielders and kids with rifles for arms, as well as playing on a beautiful field with lights. I think he found all this a little intimidating.

Baseball can be as cruel as it can be beautiful. Just ask chase outlay, Ryan Howard or Jimmy Rollins, all of whom have suffered long stretches of poor hitting.  It becomes more mental than physical, and it what's you up.

Having switched to lacrosse in high school, I found it completely different in this regard. If you have a bad game you press harder, you work harder, you increase your intensity. All these approaches give you focus, guts, and determination in lacrosse, and I imagine in soccer and football as well. In baseball they have the opposite effect. The more anxious you are, the more you press, the worse it gets.

I probably didn't help. I thought it would be a good time to l earn how to bunt, which may have distracted him from his hitting. So we got him some coaching sessions at a clinic called diamond dreams. He has been working with a pro who always tells me how well he's doing, but still no hits.

But last night he looked different at the plate. We sat in the bleachers which puts us very close to home and I could see that he looked different at the plate.  His bat was at a slightly different angle, he lifted his front foot slightly, and he had this "look" on his face. It was a look that you can sometimes see on a hitter's face even on TV, when you can just sense " he's going to get a hit". It's a look that is impossible to define but I know my father and brothers and most baseball fans can just see.

It was 3-2 us, two outs, fourth inning, man on second. We could use another run. Our starter was done. He looked at his first base coach, no take sign, swing away. We need a hit. Even when he swung and missed on a 1-0 fastball, he still had it. His body language said no worries, I got this. That's when I noticed he was using his big bat, a 31. I thought, man hes really confident tonight. He was choked up about 2" though and looked ready to hit. The next pitch was right down the middle, slightly outside, and his swing on it was perfect, as he went with it and drove it to to the opposite field, over the third baseman's head and down the line.

I watched him run hard and look up at his first base coach and even though his back was to me I could see his amazement to see the coach telling to go to second. It seemed like it took forever for him to get there I think because he just couldn't believe he was going to get a double. The run scored easily and we picked up a very important insurance run, which broke the Card's confidence and lifted ours. We went on to win the first game of the playoff 5-2 and Jordan's RBI double turned out to be a key hit and RBI.

The fact that he had a big hit was really nice, but what I was really impressed about has been his perseverance and refusal to give up. In fact, in the previous game his coach told the kid's not to get down if they mess up or strike out, and after Jordan struck out he came running to the bench with a smile, and one of his teammates yelled nice strikeout Jordan! So this hit was especially nice after the long drought. But I have been impressed with his heart and courage, and hope that it will stick with him when the going gets tough in life.

After the game, a big win on the way to a possible championship I put my arm around him and told him how proud I was. He said, " the old Jordan's back, Dad". What a great kid.