What I am seeing: The Last Pitch

Balancing life, work and baseball

“That was Mason’s last pitch in high school.”

Lisa Dougherty, Mason’s mom, said it matter of factly, but the statement was packed with emotion.

It was Mason’s last pitch, and it was a strike.

I was leaving our last high school game to take my daughter to her last night of swimming. Lisa was standing near the exit so that she could yell louder.

That was always my trick. When Jack was pitching, I liked to be away from everybody so I could yell at the ump for bad calls and the other players for bad plays, and nobody could hear me.

I stopped to watch Mason finish and watch the next pitcher, who turned out to be my son, Jack. He finished the game strong, striking 5 in the last two innings.

His last pitch of his high school season would also be a strike.

Jack and Mason made quite a team.

And as seniors, this would be their last game in high school.

As parents of high school seniors, there are a lot of lasts.

Last prom. Last class. Last exam. Last baseball game.

It is bittersweet. It’s long season and it completely consumes your family. When it is over you feel a sense of relief but you are also sad that it is over.

During the season, you want to make every game, even the ones in the rain and the crappy weather. Even the ones where you know your son is not going to play, which happens a lot if your son is a pitcher, like Mason and Jack.

Some players on Jack’s Gonzaga baseball team are going to play in college and others made the decision that they were going to focus on other things when they get to campus.

For Jack, he is going to play at Duke. He wouldn’t have gotten into a place like Duke without baseball. He is a good student, but to get into schools like Duke, you need more than good grades. You need an angle. And for him, that angle was baseball.

I think back to all the years, starting back in Little League, all the coaches, all the emotion, all the travel teams, all the staying in Marriotts ( I have Gold elite status because of it). Was it worth it? Damn straight it was.

And even if he didn’t play at Duke, even if he didn’t play baseball in college, it would have been worth it. Because it was a shared experience that we will always have together. And it was totally fun.

All the crazy coaches. All the crazy parents. All the terrible umpires. All the mentors and even some of the guys whose advice was less than stellar.

I am going write a book someday about this journey and I am going to call “True Confessions of a Baseball Dad.”

Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker, stirred up controversy when he gave a speech where he said that being a good parent was the most important job in the world (really not sure why that was controversial but whatever).

Butker is an NFL player, so he has some resources that many other people don’t have and his wife can afford to stay at home and focus on the kids.

For most of us, though, putting the time and commitment into raising successful children is a balancing act.

Most of us have to work, or example. I have done more than a few conference calls from the outfield as I watched Jack’s baseball games. I know parents who spend hours on the phone, pacing as they balance their business with their parenting. This is the world that many of us live in and we are doing the best that we can.

When you have more than one child, you have to balance the time and the emotional energy to be fair to all the kids.

I missed my son’s last pitch as a high school player because I had to pick up my daughter for her swim meet.

That’s okay. You can’t do everything.

Life is a balancing act.

You can’t always see the last pitch. But if you do, and your son is a pitcher, you hope their last pitch is a strike.