End of Tournament

 

Winchester, MA poses for a team photo

The best thing, I suppose, is to just come home and move on.

It's not that it didn't happen but it's just best to move forward and enjoy the memories.

The Cal Ripken 11U New England Regional is over. Winchester, MA took the title over their in-state rival from Easton this afternoon in Oxford, CT.

The Sachems, as they're known, struck for four runs in the second inning and grabbed a 7-1 victory. They had outstanding pitching, defense, and timely hitting. I mean, that's baseball, isn't it...Suzyn?

And so the experience came to a quick end. It was very kind of Ken Smith, representing Cal Ripken baseball, to call me the "voice" of this event. It was also kind of the kids -- the athletes -- to cheer me. By name.

These experiences are wonderful and humbling. They're also quite sad when they're over.

There was a moment after I got off the air when I didn't know what to do. Were people going out to celebrate? Was everyone going home and collapsing? Should I just stay and hang out at the field?

Eventually, I started looking around and didn't see many familiar faces. The players were doing their thing and the families were just chatting.

As I was putting the equipment in my car, the Winchester coaches yelled their thank yous down to me and told me I'd be seeing them in Boston. They wanted to take me to a Yankees/Red Sox game, most likely so that I'd get shut down by the denizens of the Hub. In truth, I'd probably have a good time. I generally like Sox fans.

It's Queens that I might not survive.

But I appreciated the kind words and thoughts. After packing up, I walked back up near the snack shack before realizing it was probably time to go. I quietly stepped away, got in the car, and drove off.

A certain melancholy set in then. I've felt it after leaving Trumbull, North Providence, and Fredericksburg also.

The experience is over and who knows if such a thing will ever happen again? I truly struggle with the often temporary and/or transient nature of all of this. Have I mentioned I'd like to have a home base and then branch out from there? Not sure I've said that recently.

More to the point, as of now, my next call isn't until Sep 13, when Greenwich travels to West Haven. Thus, I feel sort of useless.

(Update: check the bottom of the post*)

As I wrote last night, I'm sort of worn out with the dangling carrots, none of which seem to be coming to fruition.

To that end, I saw the Pittsburgh Steelers officially hired Rob King as their new play-by-play announcer. I expected that all along, though I did throw my name in the ring. Honestly, it would have been nice to have at least earned an interview but it was not to be. I'll still be listening this fall, even if the rejection email I received today from "The Hiring Manager" was as cold as ice.

I don't blame the Steelers. It's just the nature of applying to something online.

So I made my way home with a hint of the blues following the conclusion of the game. It's just an empty feeling when it's all over. 

Thus, I came home and did laundry. I also continued to nibble away at setting up our apartment. We're getting closer.

I also set an appointment to visit Apple because, blast, my MacBook Air's USB ports aren't behaving. I'm sure that will be a reasonable price.

As of tomorrow, I have no games to call. Just games to do public address announcing on.

And it's time to probably start doing more depositions. And I'll be teaching a little at CSB.

I'd love for the fates to align for me to get a small vacation but that's not looking good. There's just too much to do. 

But let's not lose sight of what this is about. It's about thanking everyone who made their way to Oxford and who supported the kids as well as the broadcasts.

It starts with Brett Conner and then goes to Lou Fernandes and carries to all of the amazing people who fed me, brought me water, kept me on my toes, and made me laugh. Oxford Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken is a collection of amazing people.

It goes to the audience, which stretches from people who came from the "small world" category to new faces and friends. 

It goes to the umpires and other support people who facilitated the games and kept us on schedule, or close to it.

But it especially goes to the kids and coaches. There were kids who overwhelmed me by knowing that I was even there. A special note goes to Oliver Spear of Bethel, who waved to me every time he went to the plate, even after his team lost yesterday!

All of the games have been archived on the Robcasting showreel page on Mixlr and are downloadable at Archive.org

To an extent, it's easy to see why I'm a little bummed that it's over. But it's also easy to see what makes me keep doing these events. 

Also, I appreciate those who inquired about last night's post. It frankly makes me a little uncomfortable but I'm glad to know people care. That situation is, of course, unchanged, but so it goes. I chose to not respond to his stuff today.

Like so many other things, nothing will change. I exposed my soul last night in a moment of honesty and weakness and what for?

*Oh, and hang on. As I was writing, I had another request. We're just waiting for clearance to see if it's real but there might be something on the schedule next week. So, for now, we'll get back to the Renegades as we await more news. Check your local listings (my social media channels) for more.

So we'll hope for that next call and we'll hope for one of these situations to become true.

And we give profound thanks to Oxford for giving me a home for the week.

Congratulations to Winchester on the tournament championship.