Inside the Cupboard
As I’m writing this Cupboard, I’m looking over the one written over the weekend and half-heartedly laughing to myself. I worked extra hard this past week to hopefully catch up and that included writing my Cupboard prior to the 11th hour, something I thought would please Alan not to have to ask for it five minutes before he has to ship the paper.
So why am I sitting at my computer at 5:30 in the morning on ‘B’ section print day? Well . . . that’s just me in a nutshell. Hard as I try, some things I just can’t let go and this is one of those things I can’t let go.
Summer is coming in like a hurricane, faster than the speed of lightning. Summer is a time for athletic programs to start their rebuild, building teams minus graduating seniors and welcoming rising players. Whether it’s a five-man team, an 11-man team or any number in between, it takes time for a team to mesh, to trust the player is going to come through in a crunch. I had the experience recently of hearing a young coach-pitch player in the catching position tell his coach why he opted to go solo on an out.
Earlier in the game, he picked up a ball hit in front of home plate and threw it to first base but the first baseman dropped it so the player was safe. In a repeat at bat with another batter, the ball landed very close to the same spot. The young catcher picked up the ball, ran the player down and tagged him out.
As he reached the dugout, the coach said, “Nice play Johnny but you could have thrown the ball and not had to run so fast.” Out of the mouths of babe, “Coach I did that last time and he dropped the ball, so I did it myself!” That’s where the trust in your teammates becomes essential. Now, back at the ranch.
There was an altercation for lack of a more what some would consider politically correct word Monday night at a local game. I wasn’t there in person (I was still writing sports at the midnight hour). I was made aware of it by folks on both sides of the story. I was pleasantly surprised at how close in detail the opposite sides were in the telling the story.
Bottom line, what started out as something simple escalated rather quickly and with cooler heads prevailing it ended just as quickly. Am I talking around the ‘incident’ – not really. I say all that to say this – kids are going to be kids.
It is each coach’s job to keep the peace, the cooler head and diplomacy. This can’t be stressed enough over the next few months in preparation for the 2026-2027 school year and that’s the way it is from Inside the Cupboard.
