One Down One To Go

Adam's baseball season came to an end on Saturday when his team lost their second game of the double elimination tournament. It was a quick 2 and out and we're thankful for that. There were a lot of bad attitudes on the team and the chemistry just wasn't there.

Derek's team won their first game of the tournament on Friday night. It was an exciting atmosphere. There was a big contingent of relatives in town to cheer the team on. The game was back and forth. Derek's teammate, Chris, hit a "real" home run to put the team up 8-5. I say "real" because it actually went over the fence. There have been a number of error aided home runs this season, but this was the first ball to leave the field. The other team tied the game, but we prevailed in extra innings. At the beginning of the season one of the kids said something about hitting it over the fence and the coach said that it was unlikely, but that he would treat everyone to ice cream if anyone hit it over the fence. So we all went out for ice cream after the game.

On the way home Derek was telling us how Tommy, the best player on the team, used to be really nice to everyone, but now he's not. I told Derek that Tommy was just focused and that he's probably tired of the other kids not making plays when he's out there making plays. I was thinking that would be motivating information that Derek would internalize and use to reinforce his determination to make some plays and not let the rest of the team down, but instead he responded that maybe he didn't want to play next year. Arghh!

After the talk with Derek about making plays we fast forward to Saturday morning. My tennis team was playing in the second round of the ALTA tennis playoffs. We have a strong team and really think we can win the city championship at our level. In the playoffs we play best of 5 doubles matches. Typically, the 1st line or pairing on each team is the strongest and the 5th is the weakest. There are rules that limit the captains from "sandbagging" or stacking stronger players lower in the lineup. Our team went in thinking that we would take the 1st and 3rd lines and then hope to take one of the others. I play on the 1st line and we have not lost all season and neither have the 3rd line.

We were a little off from the start. The other team rushed the net relentlessly and put a lot of pressure on us, but we still managed to win the first set 6-4. My partner is the best player on the team, but has a weakness in that when adversity hits he can't seem to pull out of a tailspin once it starts. Usually we are the stronger team and are able to avoid the situation. However, on this day we could not get on the same page. He insists on blasting the ball whereas I'm more of a hit em' where they ain't guy, which infuriates my partner as he would rather I blast the ball as well, especially when things aren't going well for us. I just ignore his frustrations and just try to focus on making my shots and when I do everything usually takes care of itself. For me, the most important thing is sticking together as a team and helping your partner get comfortable with the shots he's comfortable making.

We lost 1-6 in the second and seemed to roll over after getting down the second break. I was frustrated with myself. We just couldn't seem to pick each other up. One of us would make a shot, but the other couldn't follow. I wasn't nervous, but I just couldn't get comfortable. Often times courts are slightly sloped for drainage purposes, but these courts were unusually sloped. Also, I'm sure the other team's rushing of the net was a factor, but I have a good topspin lob and the other players were not very tall so I was confident that I could lob them (much to my partner's consternation).

After the second set I was more pissed and ready to win the third. My partner replied that we were not going to win because the other team controlled the net. I just ignored his comment, but it was with that feeling of confidence and teamwork that we went into the third set. We lost 4-6. I've been trying to figure out how we lost, but it's all a blur. It was like watching your favorite football team that's been killing people all season with their high power offense lose a game to what looks to be an inferior team and worse not play the way they had been playing all season. You just can't figure out what happened to the team that looked so great in all the other games.

I definitely did not make the plays that I should of. Tommy (from Derek's baseball team) would not have been happy with me. But the most frustrating thing for me is that my partner and I are almost always stronger players than our opponents (at least at our B-2 ALTA level), but when we face a little adversity we can't pull together and overcome it. One of the guys on our team said it was like watching a train wreck...you could see it coming but there's nothing you could do to avoid it...there were no survivors.

I had to leave immediately after our match in order to meet everyone to celebrate Mother's Day with my Mom, so I didn't get to see the other matches. We won at 3's as expected, but our 2's lost in 3 sets after having 2 match points. Our 4's lost in straight sets after having multiple set points to win the 2nd set. One of our 4's has a great overhead and usually controls the match, but he estimated he only hit about 5 of his 30 overhead chances that day. Our 5's were winning and more than likely would have won. So, again, if we would have won at 1's we would have won.

I was despondent most of Saturday and kept reminding Helen that although I was interacting I was really, in the back of my mind, just rehashing the fact that I lost over and over. I didn't sleep well Saturday or Sunday night either because of recurring thoughts about the match. But somehow Helen doesn't share my sense of despondency. In fun, I accuse her of having moved on and not giving the loss the true respect that it deserves. She jokingly acts like it does matter to her. I jokingly tell her it's not like it's one of her work problems that can be just blown over as this is about my personal failure and sense of self worth. But I'm getting better - I swear.