THE Pitching Coach

TJ is an amazing Soccer player, starting at the age of five, he quickly developed mad foot skills and a real head for the game.

TJ, it turns out, is also quite good at Volleyball. Who knew?

What we all know for sure though, is that TJ sucks at baseball.

Oh, he can field the ball without any trouble, but when he goes up to bat? That's when the embarrassment begins.

Last year was the first time he played baseball, joining his buddies rec league. It didn't take him long to realize that, while he rocked at Soccer, he simply wasn't baseball material.

He refused to let me watch him play. In fact, all season, I was allowed to attend only ONE of his games, when my sister was in town. She and I went and as we sat on the bleachers watching him bat, she whispered critiques to me.

Her son, who was now grown, had been a very good baseball player. My sister's ex-husband had always coached his team, so she knew a whole lot more about the sport than I did.

After the game, she passed on some of her thoughts to TJ and he said, "That's exactly what my coach tells me too, but for some reason, I can't get it right."

Fast forward to this spring.

I was surprised when TJ mentioned that he was going to play baseball with his buddies again this year. Several weeks later I asked him when sign ups were and he said he'd missed them. His buddies had reminded him several times, but in typical TJ fashion, he didn't get around to communicating the dates and times to me.

Yesterday, he and his buddy were hanging out when I got home from running errands. His buddy is the star player and the pitcher on their team, his father is the commissioner of our local rec league.

"I imagine you're heartbroken that TJ isn't playing with you guys this year, huh?" I said to TJ's friend.

He smirked at me and said, "Well, since he's not gonna be playing he's gonna be our Pitching Coach."

"Pitching Coach? What the hell do you know about Pitching?" I said to TJ.

"Hey Mom, those who can't do, teach."

I shook my head and chuckled as I walked away and headed into my bedroom.

TJ worked today and came running into the house about 3:30, "I gotta get a quick shower and get suited up for the game."

"What game? What are you talking about?"

"Baseball! We have our first game today and I've gotta be there to coach the Pitchers!"

He ran a shower and I heard him banging around in his room. He came out in his baseball hat, dress pants and dress shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm all suited up, ready for the game."

I'm not sure when my son turned into the 'class clown'.

I asked if I could take a picture of him, and asked him to take my camera with him and get pictures of the guys faces when they saw their new Pitching Coach's uniform.

"Mom! Hurry up, I'm gonna be late!"

This is a terrible picture of him, but it's the best I could do. Needless to say, he doesn't look like any Pitching Coach I've ever seen: