Caleb turns 11 years old today! I cannot believe how quickly time has flown. I remember the day of his birth so vividly!
One of my favorite moments for us together this past year was our during baseball season. I was the manager of Caleb’s little league Astros. When we were 0-3, Art who was one of our coaches and who is also one of my best friends said: “Morale is low. I don’t think the kids can take another loss.” After pausing for a moment, he added: “I don’t think I can take another loss.”
When we were struggling with a 1-8 record, I gave the kids a pre-game speech where I challenged them with the following: “We all face disappointment. Who we become depends on how we respond.” Immediately one of the kids named Miguel said: “Can I pitch?”
We finished the regular season 5-3 beating 4 of the teams that had beaten us earlier in the season. Facing the hated Yankees (Yankees should be hated in any baseball division), we were trailing 2-0 in what would probably be our last at-bat. We had the bottom of the order coming up. The first two kids were batting with .150 avg. Trevor hit a triple and then Caleb got a hit. The next 5 kids had not gotten a hit all season, Josh and then Carlos each got a hit getting our score to 3-2. Thinking he had just knocked in the winning run (not realizing that there was still time for another inning to start) Carlos started running towards the dugout only to be called out for leaving the basepath. After two quick outs, the Yankees came up to bat with a chance to regain the lead and win the game.
We put in our 9 year old closer (in our league which included some 11 and 12 year old kids) named Artie. He pitched amazingly well to get the save, and we won the game! It was an amazing night and a great season! That is just one of our many great memories together from this past year.
Happy Birthday, Caleb!
