Between the Lines

Poignant moments often catch you by surprise. Like a storm's intensity, the kindness of others, or the flight from calm to anger and back again.

I am part of a group that signed up for a fundraiser related to the Beast of the East baseball tournament. The group is planning a trip to Europe next summer and the kids and parents would work to host games at St. Clairsville's Memorial Park and earn whatever funds we might through parking, concessions, and helping to sell Beast of the East T-shirts.

 

Here is what I learned:

• Never doubt the ability of any person to complain. Our kids and parents were accosted by people not wanting to pay $2 for parking even after we explained our fundraising efforts. $2.
• The manager of Memorial Park took every opportunity to lash out at our volunteers for any and every reason (real or contrived) that he could. It takes a big man to be demeaning, or not. Our group of volunteers represented our community extremely well. Our park manager, not so much.
• A group of committed individuals can overcome any obstacle. Sarah Steele provided the leadership and energy, all others chipped in like a well oiled machine.
• Jim Miller of Yorkville is a kind, caring, helpful man that took time to empower our team of volunteers, lift them up, and continually provide support. An excellent leader.
• I learned quickly that our responsibilities would be much more than keeping the scorebook, selling concessions and t-shirts and asking for parking money. Day 1 Thursday morning started at 6 a.m. with preparing the field for play. Fortunately Jim Miller was there to get things started and my son Aaron took ownership of the field. Aaron confided later in the day that he had no idea what to do, but he just did it. Amazing. Such leadership. And the way he stepped up took the edge off for all involved. He drug the field, lined the field, repaired the field, chased foul balls to recover the good baseballs, and even handled the coin flips and start times / end times for the games. In short, he did whatever it took to get the job done. Impressive.
• And our volunteers stepped up in every way possible. It became apparent early on that the fundraising would not be as lucrative as hoped, but the volunteers kept working. Kept selling, kept laughing, kept lifting. Life lessons for all.
• And the Perkins family can represent! All participated except Kelsey but she was out of town and I'm sure she would have if she could have.

• Friday night came the storm. A horrible derecho came through St. Clairsville and much of the country. We had trees down and power outages. When we got to the field Saturday morning at 6 am the black tarp attached to the backstop had been torn down and the center field fencing had been bent backward but the force of the winds. The infield was a mess with large puddles (lakes?) at each base. Our volunteers worked and we started our games late but caught up on time throughout the day. Incredible.
• I learned what a "derecho" was.
• As fate would have it the championship game for our bracket had to be called due to darkness and impending weather. The very unfortunate part was that the rules required reverting back to the previous completed inning, when the home team was in the lead, even though the visitors mounted a rally to take the lead. When it became apparent that someone could get hurt and there was no way to get through the final inning, I headed to the field to deliver the news, not knowing what backlash I might get from the coaches. As I walked I noted my 15 year old son Aaron again stepping up. He walked in step with me to home plate to meet the umpires and the coaches. As you would suspect the visiting coach was not too happy with my decision but he did understand the situation. To say that he handled the situation with class would be an understatement. Calm, then angry, then back to understanding. Very impressive. As were both teams and all involved.

• Despite the occasional negative folks we encountered, we met many very nice individuals. Our team of volunteers managed to enjoy the 15 hour days (for some) and less than optimal working conditions with the storms and oppressive heat.

Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

 

Like a storm's intensity, the kindness of others, or the flight from calm to anger and back again, sometimes we surprise ourselves when we stay between the lines.