Proud Dad!

[Dutch]

My oldest son, 14, started high school this year here in Germany and traditionally that usually has meant no varsity or junior varsity baseball. As a 14-year old freshman, he counted on another year of "youth sports" which is a weak overseas military equivalent of stateside little league and juniors baseball (where I coached 10-12 year olds). Those leagues have good intentions and are very much needed over here, but when you are in high school, I think most kids want to try and play V and JV when available.

As luck would have it, the few American schools (Department of Defense funded) left in Europe*, the administrators, coaches and sports enthusiasts got together and built high school baseball from scratch. I think it's an amazing feat (and long overdue). 10 teams located in Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Belgium will participate this year.

* there used to be dozens of schools back in the 80's and before and I thought high school baseball was around back then, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I am generally proud of my kids in all aspects of life--except their inability to get decent haircuts--they are respectful, get good grades, and mostly stay out of trouble. I am not one to normally boast or brag, but for this occassion, I'll make an exception.

Last month, Michael, age 14, tried out for this new varsity baseball team at Kaiserslautern High School. The coach instantly grabbed 11 seniors and juniors for his team. That left 4 slots for 35 sophomore/freshman kids to try out for. Michael, a tall (6') freshman showed the coach enough pitching and hitting to be selected as one of the four recruits. That was a good day for him in and by itself. When we learned about that, I cautioned Michael that with all the Seniors and Juniors (and goattees and beards!), he could expect to ride the bench a lot. He normally pitched, but I worked a bit with him on his outfield play to make sure he was ready if he got the call to play outfield. A quality senior could hit a ball 300 feet without even thinking about it. A lot different than the kids he was facing in the 13-15 year old league a year before.

A couple of days before opening day, the word came down that three of the K-town players wouldn't play due to poor grades. That included the top two pitchers that the team was practicing and preparing to go with as starters during the opening day double header!

The coach told Michael that he would be pressed into action as K-towns starting pitcher for this inaugural event! Michael was both excited and extremely nervous.

As he takes the mound, you can see just how nervous he is and he starts by pushing the ball to the strikezone and the top of the lineup from Bitburg High School eat him alive. And the end of the top of the first, it's 4-0 Bitburg.

He looked, quite frankly, pretty horrible and you could hear plenty of parents grumbling about this gangly 14-year old freshman starting this important game. It was a pretty nerve wracking experience for me, so I could only imagine how he felt out there on that pitchers mound. He looked pretty frustrated, but while Michael can get nervous, he's a pretty tough kid. He's also very good at dealing with adversity. So he hung in there, got a couple of outs with the help of the seniors behind him and he finally escaped the inning.

His pitching was much better in the 2nd and 3rd innings and he became more comfortable knowing that the seniors and juniors behind him weren't looking to *kill* him, in fact, they were vocally supporting him and telling him to keep throwing strikes so the ball can be put in play so they could *help* him (by making defensive plays). By the 4th and 5th innings, Michael was throwing his best stuff and getting a couple of strikeouts for his effort. In the 6th though, he looked absolutely gassed and was replaced after only getting one out and then allowing a triple. The 2nd game's starting pitcher came in for relief, walked two batters to intentionally to load the bases, and then sealed the deal with a strikeout and a groundout.

I don't know how much Michael will pitch this year when the seniors come back from academic suspension, but all in all, it turned out to be one of those amazing days that he will remember forever. And got a pretty good life lesson out of the deal as well after getting his ass handed to him in the 1st inning!

Anyway, I had to share this with ya'll, so you don't think all I ever get excited about is foreign policy, corruption in the media, and FOF MP.

Here's the article in the Stars & Stripes that covered the event.

K-town, Bitburg split debut doubleheader
European H.S. baseball: K-town, Bitburg split debut doubleheader | Stars and Stripes

In their first DODDS-Europe high school baseball games, Western Region rivals Kaiserslautern and Bitburg split a doubleheader Saturday at Kaiserslautern.

Christian Randolph came on in relief of starter Michael Cossaboom with one out in the top of the sixth and final inning, and retired the side to give Kaiserslutern a 7-6 victory in the opener. Bitburg came back from an 8-1 deficit in the second game to claim a 10-9 verdict in the nightcap, according to K-town coach Tom Burriss. Both teams pushed across two runs in their final at-bats to nail down their victories, Burris said.

K-town, which got two-hit efforts from James Bailey and Randolph, scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the 7-6 lead and make a winner of Cossaboom, a right-hander who struck out five and walked just one in 5 1/3 innings.

[JediKooter]

Hey, that's awesome Dutch! Thanks for sharing.

To be 14 and be in the spotlight like that, I'd be nervous as heck too. Sounds like he got those early inning jitters out of the way and finished strong.

[CamEdwards]

Very cool!

[Poli]

"Boom" goes the dynamite.

Mr. Boras is on line one.

[Cringer]

Good stuff Dutch.

[PackerFanatic]

Very cool!

[Marc Vaughan]

Congrats - very cool

[MizzouRah]

That is what life is all about... well.. at least part of it.

When my kid makes a play in soccer, I always say to the other coaches, "that's my kid".

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Cossaboom. Cool last name too!

Can the kid hit with some power?

[JonInMiddleGA]

[BYU 14]

Very cool Dutch, please keep us updated as the season progresses.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by M GO BLUE!!!

Cossaboom. Cool last name too!

Can the kid hit with some power?

Needs more bp/steak dinners. (he did go 1 for 3 with a hit to short LF)

Thanks for all the comments, if anything else interesting happens, I'll definately pass it along.

[Karlifornia]

That's great, Dutch. Show him some tapes of Tim Lincecum, and then tell him he's got 3 inches and probably at least 25 pounds on him. Keep us updated.

[flere-imsaho]

CHEER!!!!