Another Gut Check and I Took BP Yesterday

I talk a lot about how most of our kids won’t ever make a dollar playing baseball. In fact, most of our kids won’t even play in college. Today’s email highlights how important it is to focus on LIFE as well as baseball, and how that remains important as our kids get older.

In September I wrote a piece and recorded a podcast titled My Oldest Son Turns 18 Today: What I Would Have Done Differently.

While there are things I would have done differently, I can’t go back and change any of them. None of us can. I can however do them differently with my younger son, and I can keep talking to you about them in hopes you’ll get it right the first time.

Also, no matter what the situation or what we’ve done, it’s never too late to start being intentional now. TODAY!

I did that yesterday, and I am so thankful I did!

As many of you know, my oldest son is a senior in high school. He’s not going to be playing baseball in college, and has decided to pursue a degree in Engineering.

As exciting as that is, the reality of baseball coming to an end for him (and us) is setting in.

His high school team has had one heck of a year, and is preparing to enter the first round of the Tennessee state playoffs Saturday. They’re 29-4 on the season, and it’s been a fun team to watch.

It’s also been bittersweet for us. Our son is the only senior on the team this season, so it’s been special in so many ways. On the other hand (no pun intended), he’s battled multiple injuries during his final season.

He broke his hand in the first game of the season and missed 5 weeks. After returning to play for a couple weeks, he broke his thumb on the same hand sliding into third.

Fortunately, the doctor is allowing him to play through the pain these last couple of weeks. He’s not able to swing, but he’s playing center field and being DH’ed for. (The injured thumb is on his glove hand, and he’s able to catch and throw fine)

It’s been a bummer for him, but he’s handled it well and continues to stay positive.

Wednesday night the head coach sent a message to the parents.

I really didn’t have time for that. With everything else going on this week surrounding both kid’s activities, graduation, my work, preparing for an out of town trip, etc, I didn’t have time to break away for an hour. And I almost didn’t.

Our older son doesn’t ask for much. He’s not big on us being too involved (Our younger son is the opposite - funny how that works). I honestly expected him to not care whether I came or not.

When he got home from taking his exam yesterday he asked me if I thought I might be able to make it to practice.

💥 Boom! There’s that gut check I wrote and talked about in one of my very first episodes. Life is busy and hard, but what’s really important? I just assumed he wouldn’t care, and he went out of his way to ask.

I finished up my work, rescheduled my younger son’s hitting lesson, and headed to the school. Look at all these dads that showed up:

Everyone got to throw, took a couple of rounds of BP, and many laughs were had by all! At one point I thought the trainer may run out of ice for all of us (not really, but we joked about it).

The point is, out of this entire high school season where we’ve won 29 games, captured a region championship, and are headed to the state tournament, the most fun day of the season was an hour of kids and their dads playing a little catch, hitting some balls, and just having fun with each other.

For that one hour, it’s like nothing else in the world even mattered.

Kudos to Coach Lance Rorex at Silverdale Baptist Academy for getting it right. He is intentional in everything he does, and it’s no accident he’s having a successful first season at the school.

As you go through the weekend, remember what’s really important, and enjoy the time you have with your young son. It will be over before you know it!