Thursday, November 1, 2012

On the Beat with Lincolnwood Baseball

Over the last two weekends, I have been covering Lincolnwood youth baseball as they played their last two games.  I have known two of their players, Peter and Christopher, since birth, as their parents, Louie and Effie are great friends of mine.
As I arrived at the first game, I started to recognize some of the other young players from previous games over the years.  It is cool to see them all growing up and staying with baseball.
After the first game, I interviewed Peter, Christopher and Coach Lou for Little League Large Spirit, a story I did for the Skokie Patch.
After the second game, I interviewed several more players for This Big Kid Enjoys Youth Baseball Again, another story for the Skokie Patch.
I had a blast doing these interviews and talking to the kids.  They are well-mannered and funny kids.  They know baseball and they play it the right way.
Much of that must be credited to their parents and to Coach Harry and Coach Louie.  I have seen both of them demonstrate extreme patience and care, while still instilling the fighting spirit.  I have seen enough youth sports in my life to recognize excellent coaches and Harry and Louie are two of the best I have seen.
This story is a feel-good story for me.  No major news was broken.  No interesting twists took place.  This was just a couple of fun afternoons with kids playing, coaches coaching and fans cheering.  Somewhere in that mix was me, a writer-wannabee, enjoying it all.

No comments: