Thankfully, I kept my cool....

...last night was very frustrating. As many of you know, I'm coaching a Little League baseball team this year. My team is not quite as good as the team I had last year that went 15-3. In fact, I think our record will be the reverse of last year's record. Before you go questioning my coaching abilities, let me add that I have 4 kids who had never stepped on a baseball diamond in their life before this year and they are 9 years old. However, I'm not trying to make excuses. We've had a blast and my kids have learned a lot about the game of baseball.

Last night we played the Mets (one of the other TWO teams in our league...yes, I said TWO). We've played them 5 times prior to last night and beat them a couple weeks ago in the final inning. My kids played their hearts out the entire game, but the Mets scored three in the top half of the inning to go ahead by one. We had one more shot. In the most unlikely of scenarios, the Giants triumphantly scored 2 runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up by one -- one would think the game was in the bag because the time limit was creeping up on us. Well, supposedly, they got the last out of the inning seconds before the time limit. BOGUS!! To add icing to the cake, I was accused by the other coach of wanting the same treatment if it was me. I have news for him. I know how to win, but I also know how to lose and would not have done that to his team. My integrity is worth a little more to me than losing it out on a baseball diamond coaching YOUTH baseball. You probably know where this story is going. The Mets came back and scored 4 in the top of the "last" inning and ended up beating us by 1. Arghh...I was so frustrated -- mainly for my kids who played so hard.

Here is my take:

As I said before, my integrity as a person is much more valuable than a Little League baseball game. I'm a very competitive person, but my ultimate goal this season is to teach my kids how to play the game and play it with good sportsmanship. We are not out there to win a world title and last time I checked I'm not sweating a contract extension for millions of dollars at the end of the season. I'd rather lose every game than win under bad sportsmanship.

I was proud of my kids last night. They played as a team and they never quit and that is all that I can ask.