This was the last ballgame for the Storm.  We are a T Ball team playing in our small town.  Ages four to six is the designated limit for the league.  It sure seems like we had more than our share of the younger ages than the older.  I got involved at the request of a church member against my better judgment.  Sometimes your better judgment is not always the best idea to follow.  The last few weeks were a blast for me being around these kids.  My title was coach but you learn fast that is a bit of a stretch.  Maybe some can coach kids that young but my task was to go along for the ride.  

Now please know these children did get better at their baseball skills.  I can say they were much better at the end of the season than at the start.  As far as I'm concerned that is enough for these guys and gals.  Just getting them to use their glove was a minor victory.  We only had a few run the wrong way upon hitting the ball off the tee.  We won some games and lost some games.  My guess is none of them will ever remember their record.  My hope is the recall how much fun the game can be.

Some of our children do have some talent for baseball.  There are others who have a very long way to go.  Latrell was one of my favorites.  He is about as tall as he is round.  I kept telling him that he was going to get some big hits if he got better.   Latrell is always smiling or laughing about something.  A good time is wherever he is at the moment.  Tonight he came to bat when I realized he would be the last hitter of the inning no matter what. I walked over to him to tell him to keep running when he hit the ball no matter what.  He gave the bat a mighty swing to hit the ball.  The other team actually threw him out but I told him to keep running.  No one was sure what to do.  He rounded second with all the speed he has to head to third.  I then told him to keep going to home plate. He charged down the baseline on a mission.  He heard me yell slide as he neared the final base.  Now he did not really score a run but he ran determined to do something special.  The small crowd of parents and relatives all cheered and clapped as he touched home plate.  He looked around to make sure his mother got a photo or a video of the triumphant journey around the bases.  No one was more excited than me that he ran for a "home run."  He is my guy.

Ever wonder why we stop cheering each other on as we go through life?  Most of our efforts seem as if aimed to tear down rather than build up.  Encouragement seems foreign to our modern world.  We can do all sorts of stuff on computers or even phones but we cannot look past our interests to build up another person.  I often wonder how different our world would be if we helped others be better by our encouraging life.  Who knows that would happen in others around us should we live that way.  I do know how the world is when we don't cheer others to greatness.  Take a look around.

Bro. Trey