Day 242: How To Lose Gracefully: Taught By 8 Year Olds

We had a tough fall ball season. 

Out of I think 15 games, Calen's Rivercats won 1. ONE. And tied one which can be taken as a win. So two. 

The beauty of fall ball is that there's only four teams, and all teams enter into playoffs regardless of record. They play double elimination, and tonight was our game 2 MUST win playoff game. 

But they lost. Again. 

It's tough to show up to every game and knowing that you're basically going to lose every time. But these boys showed up every night ready to play, and worked their little butts off. Because they love to play the game. 

And that's all that matters isn't it?

2016 Fall Ball Rivercats. From bottom left: Matthew, Devon, Caden, Michael, Lucas. Top Left: Calen, Phinn, Brandon, Kenny

After the Rivercats were (unsurprisingly) eliminated tonight, we went out to Mary's Pizza Shack with his teammates Matthew (who he's played fall ball with two consecutive seasons now) and Caden and their families to celebrate the season. Not to celebrate losing every day, but to celebrate learning work ethic, sportsmanship, and how to lose gracefully. And that's the whole point of putting kids in athletics, anyways. 

They didn't hang their heads because they lost. They were absolutely insane with laughter, making jokes and acting crazy to the point that we had to cut off sugar intakes, and just having a great time. To hell with the season. They just came to play the game and that's all that matters to them. 

Maybe we adults should take a lesson from these 7 and 8 year olds. 

Celebrating baseball with Caden and Matthew, pizza style. 

Absolute sugar-rush madness. Who cares if they were eliminated

I'm proud of these boys. They work hard and have serious heart, and that's all we can ask of them. 

Until spring, baseball. We can't wait to come back. 

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