There's nothing more exciting than being apart of a walk-off, no matter the level of baseball. It's something you'll never forget because moments like that create the type of joy that doesn't come around very often. The joy is the type where hugging the person next to you, no matter who they are, becomes something that is okay to do. The moment seems to go by so fast and your mind loses control of how you celebrate.
For any little leaguer, this is one of their first experiences of triumph in their young lives. This is the type of stuff that doesn't happen often in soccer, football, or basketball. Baseball is the one sport that regularly hands out this type of emotion.
The video at the top was shot by Omar Gonzalez (@OmarInTheOF) better known for being one of the residents of section 149 at the Coliseum and one of the biggest A's fans there is. I'm in there as well with my crazy awkward rally cap that Sam Ligosky (@samligosky) talked me into wearing. Lastly, there's the woman who invited me to this game, Vanessa Demske (@vdemske). We were all there for "The Champ" who is the son of Omar Gutierrez who also happens to be the manager of the team (@omar01). The Champ's team was in a do or die elimination game in his little league season and we decided to make the journey from all over the Bay Area to the South Bay where the big game was taking place.
During the game, the four of us reminisced about our days in little league, and how could we not? At one point, that was us out there and little league is something you don't forget about. That's what inspired tonight's post. I felt I should expand on my reminiscing of my days as a little leaguer.
The Champ's game ended up being a nail biting contest with base runners coming at a premium. As you can see from the video at the top, the game ended in the bottom of 7th with a walk-off single. Lots of excitement poured through everyone there especially from the kids.
It brought me back to a few times, speaking from the perspective of Coach Omar, I was immediately brought back to my days during my junior year of high school where I coached a soccer team around the same age and saw the same emotions on Omar's face that I had a few years back. There's something about coaching a team for several months and teaching them the fundamentals of the game and at the end of the year, finally seeing it all come together. It makes you feel real warm inside. As long as the parents aren't hounding you about playing, it's about as fun as it gets. And judging by Coach Omar's remarks about having a total of 9 pitchers on his team, I'd say that's far from a problem.
The first thing I saw when I got to the diamond was myself out there on the field, little Wes back in the day. I always found that as a kid learning the fundamentals and finally "figuring it out" on the field was one of the most gratifying things as a kid. It really taught you good lessons for life on how to master something, which is why team sports is such a great thing for kids.
I take you back to when I was 12 years old. My team was in last place in the standings and we knew we were up against it playing the league leaders. The game started off not so well, since our ace pitcher gave up a 2-run jack when he threw his change-up that never worked. We were still hanging in there though, and that's what we were happy about. The opposition let us hang around and we had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 6th. Down by two runs, I came up to the plate with two outs in the inning and honestly, I was just trying to get on base since we desperately needed base runners. I ended up drawing a 5 pitch walk.
What made this game so big for myself personally was that the opposing team's coach was my former coach who I absolutely hated for many reasons. I can honestly say he was the only coach I hated. It had everything to do with how he constantly favored his son who sucked the whole season and held me down while I had a big season as soon as I made the adjustment to the competition. Ironically, his son was batting 3rd in the order that day and ended up doing nothing, as usual.
Sitting on first base, I was just hoping we could get to the only guy on our team who could hit one out at any given time and he was two batters away from me. The next batter hit a fly ball to the outfield, but somehow the outfielder made a fielding error on the play which must've been a case of nerves or something because at that level, lazy fly balls to the outfield were usually put away, but not this one. I hustled over to third on the play since I was running on contact. Then came the next hitter, a kid who had been slumping over the past several weeks and was definitely "due" for a big hit. Everyone knew he had the power to knock one out but since he hadn't done it, there was plenty of doubt. He took one pitch over the plate for a strike, but the next pitch he took a big swing on it and it connected, I took one look at it and everyone on that field knew it was gone, we had won the game on a walk-off home run.
While touching home plate, I remember jumping up and down and going absolutely insane. As the home run hero touched home plate we mobbed him and it was the best feeling I can remember. It was such a joy for so many reasons and even in a season that was not a good season, team-wise, that game was a good way to look back on the season. That year ended up being a big year as I ended up making the All-Star team that season and absolutely loving every minute of it.
A's fans often bring up the saying, "How can you not be romantic about baseball?" and it's so true. Stuff like that is something you just can't make up and it still sends chills up my spine to this day. If you're ever invited to see a little league game, I definitely recommend it. If you played little league in the past, you will immediately remember what being a kid was like and I think that's always worth it.
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