Bits & Pieces

A Return To Normalcy

By Kim J. Harmon

First day of practice.

Oh man, I can’t tell you how much I like hearing that! With the Newtown High School football team opening practices on August 21 and the rest of the teams – volleyball, soccer, swimming, field hockey and cross country – getting back to work on August 26 it means, to me, that everything is returning to normal.

In my particular corner of this business – this newspaper business – the fall, winter and spring sports seasons create a virtual cornucopia of activity. Every single day – barring rain or snow, of course – there is something going on and every week the routine has become so, well, routine that I operate almost on auto-pilot.

But the summer – gee, summer is often wild and out of control. One day there may be nothing going on and the next day there are 12 things going on. And while during the rest of the year activity remains relatively close to home, if not at home, summer activity often takes me to far flung places like New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maryland (but not – gosh darn it – Virginia).

There is so much more to do and cover in the fall, winter and spring but somehow I can manage it. Summer is supposed to give people a chance to relax and charge their batteries but after the last few summers my batteries are drained by the end of August.

But that’s okay … because the first game of the year, whether it’s volleyball or soccer or field hockey – always gets me going again.

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Did you hear about this PONY league championship game in Bountiful, Utah?

It seems that this baseball league for nine- and 10-year-old kids was down to the final inning of its championship game between the Yankees and the Red Sox. The Yankees lead in the final frame with the Red Sox up, two outs, and a runner on third.

At the plate is the Sox best hitter.

On deck is the Sox worst hitter, a kid by the name of Romney Oaks who is still recovering from having a malignant tumor removed from his brain a few years ago.

The coach of the Yankees, Bob Farley, decides to walk the good hitter to get to Romney, who promptly struck out to end the game.

Now, the coach has received a great deal of criticism, including calls that he be fired from the league, for “going after” the weakest hitter. Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated and Dave Kindred of The Sporting News condemned the coach.

Why?

Sure, it’s supposed to be a fun league, an instructional league, a league where everybody gets to bat, teams can’t score more than four runs in an inning and there is no stealing until the ball crosses the plate.

But that doesn’t mean the coach shouldn’t teach his kids how to win. And sound baseball strategy tells you that with a runner on third, first base open, and the rest hitter at the plate you walk that hitter.

Come on, if you don’t want the coach teaching his kids strategy and how to win, then why in God’s name are you playing a championship game? We have become so afraid of our kids facing any adversity or the scary truth that there are other kids out there better than they are at baseball or football or math or science that we hand out trophies to everyone and try at all costs to avoid situations that might actually be learning experiences.

If I were in coach Farley’s position, I would probably do the same thing … but I would also be praying for Romney Oaks to get a base hit and if he did I would be cheering louder than everyone else.

Was it such a bad thing what coach Farley did? Well, the last paragraph in Reilly’s column said it all.

Romney Oaks woke up the next day and told his parents he was going to practice harder and maybe next time he would be the one the other team walked.