Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

I grew up in a home where sports were celebrated. All types, we were not single sport snobs. I grew up watching golf, wrestling, football, basketball, hockey, and baseball. My mom loves all sports and my grandparents were avid Hawkeye fans and fans of anything their grandkids participated in. My dad coached several different sports, everything from my T-ball teams to my brothers wrestling.

I can remember grown men coming up to my dad and telling him he was the best coach they ever had. I of course would stand a little taller, as if I had anything to do with it; I was proud of my dad and the obvious impact he had had on these men. As a grown, women and a mother of three, I am always looking for my dad’s input when it comes to the sports programs my kids are involved in or his opinion on different opportunities they have. My dad lives three hours away so any coaching opportunities he gets with my kids happen on vacations or special family holidays.

My dad gladly gave his gift of coaching to so many and I truly believe it was a gift. I have known a lot of coaches in my life and trust me, they are not all created equally!

About four years ago someone suggested a hitting coach by the name of John Maitland for my oldest son Jacob. It took me about a year to actually make the call and set up a lesson but once we had our first lesson my boys met with John weekly until this year right before Easter.

John would be the first one to admit he never really was a very good baseball player but he loved it. He was a student of the game. John loved the strategy, loved the odds of succeeding in a game of failure and loved to keep everything simple.

I will never forget the first time my son had a lesson in John’s basement, not a pretty or fancy set-up and I do remember being slightly fearful of where to sit! My son hit a few balls for John and John promptly told him where he was struggling and how he could help him improve his swing and batting average. And that is exactly what he did. You could see my son’s improvement in the batter’s box and on paper but what he gave Jacob that meant so much more to his mom, was the self confidence to believe in himself.

John was the first coach to ever spend quality one on one time with Jacob building into him. If you would have ever heard any of their conversations during a lesson you would say I’m crazy to think that, most of the lessons John was picking on the Cubs (my son’s favorite team), or Jacob’s lack of focus or the fact that he was wanted by the police in several counties….. some days it never ended….Jacob loved it and would try to plan ways he was going to “get” John, but somewhere in between all of the jokes and knocks on each other, John would say, “Now that was a nice swing and he would mean it.” And Jacob would soak it up.

I have always looked forward to the weekly lessons and my conversations with him. We would discuss everything from, his latest civil war find, the Kennedy assignation and crazy baseball parents. I will miss his advice, and sense of humor, but most of all I will miss his friendship. I don’t know if he ever realized what he gave to me as a parent when he gave Jacob his confidence in the batter’s box, he gave me confidence as a parent that even if only for a little while during a baseball game, I could relax and know my kid had found his swing.

John lost his battle with bone marrow cancer on June, 22nd 2010. He was an inspiring coach to hundreds of kids and their families. I once read what matters most in life isn’t the day you were born or the day you die, it is what you did during the dash in between those two days that matters most. Well done John and thank you.

With a weekend full of baseball it could be easy to get sidetracked or lost in all the really bad hot dogs and pretzels with cheese at the ball park and forget what this holiday weekend is all about. In a word, sacrifice. All of the soldiers, who have severed to protect my right to go and play baseball all weekend, or have block barbeque parties or protest the Memorial Day parades deserve my acknowledgement and thanks. These soldiers have sacrificed for me. They have given up time with their families, they have missed birthdays, Christmas, Easter, block parties, summer vacations, school programs, graduations, baptisms, funerals, first smiles, first steps, first heart breaks, kisses goodnight and bedtime prayers. Some have given the ultimate sacrifice, their lives; for me. For my freedom.

All of the freedoms that I never think about; I take most of these for granted everyday of my life. The freedom to attend a church of my choice, sending my children to a private school and blogging about whatever I want to blog about.

Thank you to the past, present and future soldiers who protect my freedoms. Thank you for the generations after me that you will continue to protect. Thank you for going when your country asked you to go. Thank you for the kind word to the child of foreign country that you protected and demonstrated exactly what our country is all about. Thank you to the soldiers who sit on the night watch while I sleep comfortably in my bed. Thank you to the soldier who hides silently, undetected from the enemy, just off our shores 365 days of the year. On this day, all of your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed and I want you to know that it is appreciated.

Dedicated to all the soldiers in my family:
Carlton Townsend, USN
George Swore, USN
Donald Kellerman, USA
Jeanette Kellerman, USAF
Joe Skaff, USN
Eli Skaff, USA
Amy Hunter, USAF
Al Naegle, USN
Michael Kellerman, USN

Have you ever been at a loss for words? Maybe a joy filled moment, a moment when you were awe struck or a time when fear or panic of saying the wrong thing paralyzed your vocal cords…

For those of you who don’t know me very well, being at a loss of words really isn’t typically a problem for me, until now.

My sons, Jacob and Noah, take hitting lessons from an amazing man. The technical knowledge he has is amazing and his ability to get my children to pay attention and do what he says can make me jealous some days!!

John conducts his lessons in his basement; it is not a fancy setup. He has hung a net in between his two by fours and tosses balls into the air for the boys to hit. Often his laundry is going and lots of “basement” stuff fills up most of the space….got the picture? But he has helped my boys with their hitting tremendously and more importantly there confidence.

I can honestly say in the 7 years that my boys have been actively involved in baseball he has been the one and the only (beside my husband and myself) who has truly invested in them. He cares about how they are doing, he gives them praise when they deserve it and helps them see and fix areas that they struggle with.

You may wonder what this has to do with me being at a loss for words.

John has a very rare form of bone marrow cancer that is terminal. He is on the bone marrow registry but his doctors have told him that a match is highly unlikely. His only brother, who could have been a donor, died a year before John got sick.

What’s keeping my mouth shut? I am not sure if John is a Christian.

I am stuck. I have witnessed and shared my faith with people. I try to live my life so that no one would be shocked to find out that I am a Christian, some days better than others. But I am stuck. I fear not having the right words, I fear offending him, and I fear turning him from God….

We have been commanded by God to share the gospel. I deeply care about him but know that our days with him are limited. I feel God urging me to speak up and my hearts desire is to speak. But I remain silent. I talk myself out of it, saying that it is too personal a subject. But after a hitting lesson with one of my sons, I feel devastated that I have not followed God’s urgings. It is like I am stuck in between who I used to be and who God wants me to be. I am trying to find that middle ground.

I have tried to think of different ways to “kinda” do it…leave a book talking about Christ and heaven “accidentally” at his home…or maybe talk about someone else…like this “friend” I have who is struggling with sharing her faith…ugh! For me, it seems there is no middle ground.  I do realize that John doesn’t need me or anyone else, like all of us what he needs is, Jesus.

I will share my faith with him. I am praying for courage and a heart that demonstrates God’s unconditional love for him. Why do I know I will do it? Because I am sharing this with you now. It makes it real. I feel it holds me accountable. And most importantly I have discussed it with my oldest son and I want to show him that even though I am fearful, I know and trust that God will give me the words. I will not stay caught in the middle.

What John chooses to do with the information is up to him but I will pray continually for him and for a miraculous healing!!!

Do you have a John in your life? Will you share your faith?

Mark 16:15 (NIV)
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.

So tired of the cold weather, so, I thought I would publish something I wrote last summer!!! Hope it helps us all feel a little warm for a while!!

I have been blessed to be the parent of multiple children, and am amazed how different each one of them can be. I am a mother of two boys and a girl. I happen to be the mother of a child who loves everybody, a child who wants to boss everybody and a ballerina. My oldest son Jacob, who loves everybody, recently, showed me what complete joy looks like.

I truly believe that every one of us has a deep desire to belong. I also believe we were designed that way purposefully. This desire is easier to see in some but it is still part of what makes us human. Jacob’s desire has always been unashamedly obvious.

As a preschooler he would always approach other children to play. If some other child wanted to join in a game he always welcomed an additional set of hands and legs to help build the fort or help chase down the bad guys. This desire to include everyone became a bit draining every year when we would try to make the birthday party invitation list…Even when we would threaten,” no sleepover if you choose to invite so many”, Jake always pushed for the option that allowed the most of his buddies to come. Have you ever found yourself saying “16 boys invited for a sleepover is ok because only about half will actually be able to make it” and then spent the next two weeks praying for an outbreak of strep at school?

Not all kids have the desire to include everyone. Jacob, as many kids do, has experienced his share of exclusion. It is a painful thing to watch and an even harder, to not intervene as a parent when your child is excluded. But the exclusions have never tempered his desire to include.

Jacob is 12 years old as I write this today and plays little league baseball. He is not the fastest. He is not the most agile and he spends a fair share of his time on the bench and or in the outfield. But he is part of a team and he loves it! A couple of weeks ago on an ordinary Tuesday night at the ballpark, an extraordinary thing happened.

Jacob hit a homerun. Not your ordinary run of the mill homerun, a GRAND SLAM. For those of you who don’t know, that is a bases loaded homerun! And somewhere in between my screams(and I do mean screams) of encouragement and realizing I may pee my pants if I don’t stop jumping up and down…I locked in on my child’s face as he rounded third base. This is what I saw…

Joy…pure joy. The kind of joy that starts at your toes and travels up your backside to the back of your neck, and up over the top of your head and like a wave crashes over your face. Joy, that if only for a moment, seems to make you float. Joy, that has no boundaries or disclaimers. Complete joy. Joy from a 12 year old boy, with the drop of his chin, and

a curl of his tongue into the side of his mouth, that says awe shucks, as he sees every one of his teammates jumping up and down on home plate waiting for him… he belongs.

It wasn’t so much the grand slam or the three run home run he hit later in the same game (ahem.. sorry just a proud mom) it was all of his teammates cheering and waiting to meet him at the plate. It is my favorite part of any homerun he has hit so far, when he rounds third base and looks towards home plate.

I believe that our God given desire to belong is what churns inside of all of us and that God uses that so that we will search Him out…that we will have the desire to know and to be fully known…and that when we have success in our lives I believe that the joy that God feels for every one of us looks a little like the joy on Jacobs face. I want that joy. I want to live my life in such a way that when I round third base and head home God will be standing, maybe even jumping up and down waiting for me and I will know I belong.

Romans 14:8 New Living Translation
“if we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”