What will bring the next injury?

I only managed to make it to one Brave’s game this week. We won 8-7 over St. Louis Park. I believe they were state-level competitors or something big like that last year. 

Chaz, the new guy, pitched the first 7 innings. For those of you who don’t know, Chaz (whose last name I can’t remember) is an assistant coach over at MSU Mankato. Baseball fans may identify him as the only person they don’t recognize on the field.

Blake Nelson, manager, made sure to warn him (after a couple innings of talking to me) that I am the newspaper. Good for me, he doesn’t really know what that means because he’s a west coast guy. He’s also the same age as I am, 25. 

You couldn’t tell from watching, but Chaz hadn’t played baseball for more than a year; prior to Friday’s game, he hadn’t pitched/started on the mound in three or four years. 

He played in college, I believe in Missouri, and his dad actually coached him. 

So there’s your back story. If you want to know more, talk to him. Based on my conversation with him, he lives and breathes baseball. You can find him at a ballpark. 

I almost didn’t attend Friday’s game because I wasn’t feeling well. That afternoon, though,, I opened my phone to a very kind message from Nikki Benson (one of Blair Nelson’s daughters) complimenting my last article about baseball. That gave me the motivation to tough it out despite being under the weather. 

Thinking back to Friday’s game, and then missing Monday’s game, I was reminded of some of my experiences playing through injury.

My sophomore year I was pitching batting practice in New Richland. I wasn’t standing all the way behind the net, and, well, you only learn that lesson once. The ball felt like it was in slow motion as it came towards my left eye. I only had time to tilt my head down slightly. Pure reflex. The doctor later told me that it probably saved my eye. 

The ball went off my eye-brow. What happened next felt like something a little out of a movie. Blood went everywhere. I went to the ground, and people came running. 

It didn’t hurt all that much, and I made jokes as folks wrapped my entire head.

A trip to the emergency room and 7 stitches later, we were on our way home. The funniest part of this was when we arrived home. We still had a landline at the time and there was a message waiting for us on the machine. 

“Jim, I’m calling to inform you that your son has been struck in the face with a baseball….”

My dad and I both burst out laughing. 

A week later, with seven stitches still above my eye, I pitched a complete game shutout in Mankato. Dad nicknamed that game the 7-stitch shutout. 

Freshman year we were playing softball in gym class. The same classmate who later batted a ball into my face was rounding third while I was running home to cover the plate. I took the throw, applied the tag, and, well, my hand was forced backwards. 

Within a few hours my one hand occupied the same space as two normally would. I had a baseball game that night. 

I won’t embellish. I tried to play, tried to warm up, but I couldn’t put a baseball glove on and couldn’t hold a bat. So I missed that game, but remember playing later that week. (With the help of many, many Tylenol.)

I don’t recall ever missing a single baseball game due to illness. Until, well, now. I’m thankful the team is good, so, really, the only one losing out is me. It feels really, really good to be back in a dugout, wearing a uniform, and playing. That said, I look forward to being at more games, but as my dad advised me when I started, my health should come first. (Although it still feels like an excuse.) 

As for my week of newsing. I felt like I was playing teacher all week. I went to the city council meeting with Amelia and helped her write the article. It’s one thing to do something for so long (entering year 11 newsing) and it’s another to teach it. 

Fast forward to this week: I sent Amelia down to the courthouse to find a court complaint. Although she came back empty handed, she did figure out how to find the desired information online–that is, she found the website, and then I figured out how to navigate the website. 

Teamwork at its best. 

I couldn’t decide between these quotes this week, so I’m going with three:

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." – Napolean Hill

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." – Booker T. Washington

"None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." – Mother Teresa