That Dowdle Kid

The past few baseball seasons have been rough on Seth.  He just hasn't been able to become a part of a good team.  And when I say good, I'm not referring to wins and losses.  I am talking more about a team and that includes the coaches.

The past 2 seasons have been better because he did have a coach that cared.  But, we weren't blessed with many kids with any athletic ability.  Most of his team mates will find success in music, school or other areas but it won't be baseball.

This past season had a lot of ups and downs and some drama as well.  The boys did get a win, got a chance to play on the little league field at Rangers' Ballpark and went to a Rough Riders game as a team.  But, we had some tough losses as well.  The last 2 games were tough losses because the boys had started playing well and had been competitive in their games but the last 2 they got beat worse than they probably should have.  The boys seemed to have quit.

Seth took this hard but during the games he was one of the few that kept trying and was playing the game tge way it should have been played.  I couldn't have been more proud of him.

While all of this is going on Chase's team is going undefeated and taking 1st place in their division.

All of this has left us contemplating what we would do with Seth and his team for next season.  We have been praying about direction and wisdom.

(I know, this is a long story but it is going somewhere)

Last night was the end of the season awards where Chase was getting his 1st place trophy.  I knew this was going to be hard on Seth and we talked about him cheering loudly for Chase because there will be a day when Chase will be cheering for Seth's success.  And he did this including taking video of the trophy presentation.

Later that evening we get a call from the mother of one of Seth's teammates and one of Seth's best friends.

She recounted a story where the coach from on of those teams that beat us badly in our last 2 games came up to congratulate her son on his season.  He was mistaken by what team he was on but when they cleared it up, he remembered our team.  The mother then reached out to the coach and said they were considering switching teams and asked if he had any openings.  He indicated he might and even asked her son if he wanted to play in an upcoming tournament with his team.

He then went on to say that there was another kid he would be interested in having on his team.  He said I would like to have that "Dowdle kid, I think he was #18."

I don't know who this meant more to, Shelley and myself or Seth.