By Kyle Dinwiddie, PRC Blogger
Sometimes life can be disappointing and not work out the way you think it will. It is easy to get frustrated and angry, but feeling sorry for yourself and getting bitter hurts only you in the end.
Last fall my family and I were at a sporting event in a nearby city when we came across a booth for challenger baseball. Challenger baseball is a league for people with disabilities. The man in the booth described an amazing baseball experience including a lot of support with volunteers to be baseball helpers. The games for the challenger league were on Thursday nights beginning in May and going through the end of June.
How perfect! I already play baseball for the Miracle League on Friday nights during that same time. Baseball season always seems to go by so fast. I have always wished that it was longer so I would be able to play more.
Signing up for challenger baseball would allow me to play baseball two nights a week. Plus, what is exciting about the challenger baseball league is they have a spring and fall session. Wow, that would be fantastic to be able to play not once, but two times a year. What else could a baseball player want!
My mom registered me online. I waited anxiously for the spring session to begin. As the time got closer, we began to get concerned because no one had contacted us. My dad looked online and was able to find what team I was on and where the games will be.
We even drove to the ball fields a week before the game so we would know how to get there and see what field I would be playing on. Yay, the game night finally arrived. I was so excited. We approached a table full of baseball shirts and hats, except there wasn’t anyone there. We waited, and soon a large man came. He apologized for making us wait. He asked me my name, and then handed me a shirt and hat.
As we looked over at the field I was going to play on, we only seen three boys. Two of them were about my age or older. The other boy was about 9 or 10 years old. He was pitching the balls to the boys and chasing after the ball. We thought that he may have been a brother to one of the players. As we waited for others to show, my mom questioned if we were on the correct field. My dad asked the man at the table. And yes, we were in the right area.
Hum, wonder where everyone was?
Soon there was another boy about my age in a wheelchair being pushed by a man. Maybe this was the coach. No, he was the boy’s dad. After a while, I decided I wanted to see if I could bat. I ended up batting and running the bases twice. But it was getting late and still there was no coach or other players except the four of us. The boy in the wheelchair and his father knew just as much as we did. So we decided to leave. I was very disappointed.
Where was the organization? Where was the coach? Where were the other baseball players? Where were those volunteers? The only helper was the young boy trying to be pitcher, catcher, and outfielder.
The man at the booth totally misrepresented what Challenger baseball is. When my dad tried to contact someone about the team, he couldn’t reach anyone. Sadly, we decided not to go back, except I did get a very nice shirt and hat. And all wasn’t lost, because I still was able to play on the Miracle League. There is an old sitcom called the Facts of Life, and the song lyrics say “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Facts of Life.” Without disappointments, we may not appreciate what we do have.
Time to dust off my baseball shoes and keep moving forward. This is Life with Kyle and I will talk to you next week.
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