Just like the home run in this picture, the baseball season is now gone. As in over, and I have to admit that none of the Jolleys are too sad that it's over. My son isn't because it was a tough season for him, his team didn't win a game the entire month of May. As a matter of fact, this picture kind of sums up my son's season perfectly, right down to the mismatched socks. Me, I'm happy because we'll get at least a couple of nights a week back to have dinner together as a family. Now we just need softball to end and we'll be back to some semblance of normal around here.
Anyway during the game, I was absolutely thrilled to see the coach of the other team discipline one of his players purely for sportsmanship reasons. He had a player that slammed his bat on the plate after a strikeout. He quietly told him not to do that again so when it happened again, he promptly benched the kid for the next inning while making it perfectly clear that it had nothing to do with the player striking out. We have had this coach before (he's actually one of our neighbors) and I have always been really happy with his emphasis on teamwork and sportsmanship. In fact, he always seems to strike the perfect balance of competitive fire and sportsmanship, his teams want to win but only if they can do it the right way. Actually his own kids are some of the best sports that I have encountered in my years of watching sports (their mom deserves a lot of credit for this too). They are always quick with a smile, a hand up or a "good game".
It also made me realize (again!) that I'm so lucky that my husband and I are the same page about these types of things. On the ride home, we didn't spend any time lamenting the blowout loss or the fact that the season was over. Instead we spent the time talking about how impressed we were with that particular sequence of events.
Anyway during the game, I was absolutely thrilled to see the coach of the other team discipline one of his players purely for sportsmanship reasons. He had a player that slammed his bat on the plate after a strikeout. He quietly told him not to do that again so when it happened again, he promptly benched the kid for the next inning while making it perfectly clear that it had nothing to do with the player striking out. We have had this coach before (he's actually one of our neighbors) and I have always been really happy with his emphasis on teamwork and sportsmanship. In fact, he always seems to strike the perfect balance of competitive fire and sportsmanship, his teams want to win but only if they can do it the right way. Actually his own kids are some of the best sports that I have encountered in my years of watching sports (their mom deserves a lot of credit for this too). They are always quick with a smile, a hand up or a "good game".
It also made me realize (again!) that I'm so lucky that my husband and I are the same page about these types of things. On the ride home, we didn't spend any time lamenting the blowout loss or the fact that the season was over. Instead we spent the time talking about how impressed we were with that particular sequence of events.
