A week ago, my run of coaching my daughter, Kelsey, in a Little League uniform came to an end.
As has been the case in the past many years, this season and the era closed on a ball field in Cecil County in District 5 All-Star play. Sad as it is, we always came up a game or two short of the title in this eight-year all-star run.
This 12-year/season journey began on the T-ball field at Stancill Park in 2000, when Kelsey was an attentive 5-year old and member of the Blue Rocks. I grabbed the team name Blue Rocks due to its former association with the Kansas City Royals, my still-favorite baseball team.
That's when Kelsey became tabbed with the number 5 and she's worn that number every year since on the softball field and was even lucky enough to land it as a freshman varsity player in high school. Whether she plays in college is yet to be decided, but if she does, I figure it's pretty unlikely number 5 will be available.
I remember those first days in T-ball, every player got the chance to play every position, every player got the chance to be the first batter of the game and Brenton Barnes was the only Blue Rock to drill one off the tee and into the parking lot.
One year of T-ball was all Kelsey needed, so coach pitch minor softball was up next for a three-year stint.
I know one season we were the Crocs and another the Blue Jays, but I just can't recall the third. It actually might have been the Ravens, but I really can't remember.
I do remember this, though. I recall Kelsey's best swing in the minors, on Field A at Stancill. I was doing the pitching and she drilled a line drive right past the right side of my head. The ball rolled all the way to the fence and she ended up with a double. I recall getting on her a bit as she could have had a triple, but she was watching the ball and not the base coach. She learned.
After three great years in the minors we jumped into the majors where we became part of the Decoys, the green and yellow clad quackers.
I remember Kelsey's first at bat resulting in a single and so it began. Success at the competitive level.
As a 9-year old, Kelsey experienced her first all-star games in Rising Sun. The best ball Kelsey hit at that level was a high drive to left field that was robbed out of the night sky by a glove stuck up in the air. Kelsey had the not-so dubious honor of making a second out in that same inning.
As a Decoy, Kelsey got her true taste of winning a championship.
In four quick years we were making the move to the junior/senior division and the Riptide, which ranged from ages 13 to 16. Two years ago, as a junior division all-star, Kelsey hit the best shot of her all-star career when she hit a high-booming blast off the base of the fence in straight-away center field at North East.
Kelsey had a few close calls with hitting a home run, but just never accomplished that feat.
While she didn't get that big hit, she got a number of others over the four-year stretch and those aided in the Riptide winning three straight division titles.
In our most recent and last all-star action, Kelsey atoned for that two outs in one inning so many years ago, by collecting two hits in one inning in a 15-5 win over North East.
There is one similarity to the playing career of Kelsey and that of myself. We each won four championships as a player with three coming consecutively in the senior division.
It's been a joy over the past 12 seasons and 12 years that have flown by. I will still be managing, Lord willing, but it won't be the same. Thanks, Kelsey, for helping me fulfill a dream and desire.