Just your basic mid-week game. No streaming video today so I clicked on the stats link to follow Kyle and the Redhawks as they take on Penn State at home in Oxford, Ohio. A true field of dreams.
As I clicked from the stats page to my email, to an open document the pings started rolling in on imessage…Kansas has pulled out of the NCAA tourney. Wait, now NCAA has cancelled March madness – THIS is madness. It’s bottom of the 3rd in Miami and the Hawks are down 1-0.
Then a message from Jack…their team bus has turned around mid-trip to Pepperdine for their weekend series. What? The games are off. Kyle’s up in Oxford. A single to right! An alert on twitter: MLB Spring training is cancelled. What? THIS is madness…say it ain’t so!
Click over to the game happening in Oxford – could this be the only baseball game happening in the USA today? Miami pulls ahead in the 5th it’s 3-1 go Redhawks!
Another text from Jack – their college baseball season is suspended. The disbelief, disappointment confusion is palpable even via text message. I click over to twitter – NCAA has cancelled all championships and spring sports. Slowly it becomes clear: this happening – this is the last baseball game. The boys in Oxford have no idea – they’re just playing a ball game.
The seniors have no idea that they quite likely playing the last game of their baseball career.
The last baseball game. You know it’s coming. For those of us on the bleachers and those on the field you know it’s a gift to get to keep playing and watching your kid through high school, then college…maybe you make it to the next level but at some point – it’s the last game. For our part, we thought – well, it’s quite likely this May – maybe they’ll stretch it to the spring tourney. Travel plans are in place to take in as many in person as possible…soak it up, the end will come. Soak it up.
Kyle’s up again, bottom of the 8th – another single! Thank God – because we know what he doesn’t – that was likely his last at bat. Because this is not just a mid-week game. This is the twilight zone, this is no longer baseball season, no longer college basketball tourney season, no longer spring training season – it’s “Corona Virus season.” Kyle’s waved home! Miami stretches the lead to 4-1!
The heartache is real, it’s physical. These athletes – these kids – have not known a day without thinking about their sport. It’s a workout, a practice, hitting, planning meals, fitting in homework, sleep, social life – it ALL revolves around the game. The beautiful game. The last game.
Miami wins! Final 5-1! Game 1 of a 3 game series, that won’t be played out. As I gaze at the final on the stats page I can see it in my mind’s eye as clear as it was last week – the team is high-fiving, criss-crossing the pitchers mound shaking the other team’s hands, then, routine as ever, heading to the outfield to hear from coach. It’s the post-game talk they could have not imagined. The one they are not ready to hear. The one they will never be ready to hear. How do you tell them? How can you prepare for the last game?
I click off the screen. A short while later my phone rings and Kyle’s image pops up. Please, please say it ain’t so.
Tales From The Bleachers 