Monday, June 2, 2008
What a Nite!
The Sunbirds suffered their first loss tonite and I almost got thrown from the game :) The girls put up a good fight but lost 10-14. It was a very stressful game all the way around. The first few innings they couldn't get their game going. It was like a different team had taken their place. Once they got into their groove the melee began.
The first two innings the pitcher for the other team was consistently violating some of the rules for pitching. I am not quite sure what it was because I don't know much about the rules. I did hear the coach trying to tell the ump and it had something to do with her feet/stance/pitch. I know that last time we faced this team she was doing the same thing and that ump corrected the problem. Not this ump! Coach even went as far as to tell him to go get the head ump and you could tell the guy was pissed. The head ump came over and sure enough coach was right. Nothing was done to correct the problem and I don't know what could have been done. They should have replayed the innings.
Shortly after that fiasco our pitcher,Kiana,went in to cover home and was waiting for the catcher to throw her the ball when the girl from the other team came tearing into home. Kiana put her arms in position to catch the ball and the girl got elbowed. Total accident. Kiana wasn't even watching her she was watching the catcher. Next thing you know the ump throws his mask to the ground and gets in Kiana's face with his finger and yells at her. He said,"I don't ever want to see you do that again! Do you hear me?!" Kiana had no clue what she did and neither did the rest of us. Coach ran over and the ump said that she threw an elbow on purpose. Not even the case. Kiana was sobbing back at the pitcher's mound. Some of the parents were mumbling things but they weren't being very loud about it. I decided to be loud about it. I was pissed. He had no right to treat or embarrass her like that when she did nothing wrong. I started yelling,"Unbelieveable! Are you kidding?! Don't yell at her like that! She didn't do anything wrong!" He apparently didn't like what I had to say and told me to sit down. I then told him to come sit me down. He then said that if I didn't that he was going to throw me out. Wrong thing for him to do - don't threaten me! I started to say something else but coach came over and tried to smooth things over. I couldn't believe that Kiana's dad,who is also a coach,didn't really say much other that for her to shake it off. She was a wreck! No one else would call the ump on it but me. I have a mouth and I'm certainly not afraid to use it. He's lucky that wasn't one of my girls because I would have tackled his ass. Jerk.
Kiana stuck it out and finished pitching the inning. I kept dropping comments just loud enough for the ump to hear me. I couldn't help it I was fired up. When she came into the dugout I called her over and gave her a hug. I told her not to let it get to her. She did nothing wrong and the ump was an idiot. I also told her that when she got back out there she should picture his face on the catcher's mitt and fire the ball right into the mitt. She laughed at that. I just wanted her to feel better.
I was so proud of the girls at the end of the game when they found out that they had lost. There was no whining or grumbling or even sour faces. They were smiling. They said a loss was ok. What an outstanding bunch of girls. I even heard one of the parents tell them that they didn't want to be like the Patriots - have an undefeated season and then blow it on the big one :) On the way home I told my girls that I was very proud of them for the way that they had acted when they lost. I told them you win some and you lose some. And it doesn't matter which you do as long as you do it gracefully and with class. And that is exactly how these girls do it. I was especially proud of Skylar when she said that it didn't matter if they won or not - all that mattered was that they could play the game. Well said kid!
It was quite a nite. During all of this I was going back and forth between games. All of the kids played tonite. I need to clone myself! Jordan's team got another win and Shae took out her coach. He pitched to her and she took a good swing and hit him with the ball. Poor guy - happens to him at least once a game. No more games until Saturday but I'm sure a few practices will be thrown in somewhere. What a nite!Labels: kids, sports
