Being Brought Back Down to Earth

This will be a post to say that one day you are on top and the next you are humbled, especially in the game of baseball. Defense was our downfall this weekend, but despite that, we had a chance to win. All I ask of my guys is to play the best they can and things will take care of themselves. I know that no one tries to make mistakes but it happens to all of us. I think that all of my guys would agree that we can do better and we also know that it’s a long season and we will have our ups and downs before the regular season is over. As long as we get on a roll towards the end of the season, I’m sure that all the guys will be confident in their abilities and we can go deep in the playoffs. Time will tell, but right now we are licking our wounds in preparation for next weekend’s game.

The Beginning – Denver 2000

Although I am from Texas, this wasn’t my first rodeo. My managing roots started when I lived in Denver, Colorado – the state that happens to have the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Maybe it was fitting that this is the place where it started. I had known after I finished college that I still wanted to play baseball. In the spring of 1999 (in Denver) I tried out in a city wide tryout in the National Adult Baseball League. I was one of about 300 guys who were looking for a team to play with. We took turns in the outfield, catching fly balls and throwing them in to second base, third base, and home plate. There was also a batting practice session, and finally the pitchers and catchers were able to throw to each other. This tryout lasted at least 5 hours and all I wanted was to end up on a team so I could play again. I was drafted by a team called the Dodgers, a group of guys more concerned with partying than playing baseball. This didn’t sit very well with me and I wanted to start my own team. In the spring of 2000, I went to a managers meeting and met a guy named Russ who was looking for a team as well. We ended up talking with a couple of other guys, Dave and Mike who happened to be brothers and decided to join forces and start a team. The four of us voted on who would be manager and I won that vote 3-1. Of course I didn’t vote for myself and it felt good that the other three guys voted for me. The Bohica Warriors were born. We had a few practices and I told the guys that we would all get the chance to show off our skills and would each get plenty of playing time. I wanted to make all the guys happy while at the same time win some games so they wouldn’t get discouraged. That proved to be harder than I thought and I could tell many of the guys were about to turn on me. Through our first eight games we were 3-4-1 and the guys wanted to start winning more and having more fun. I don’t blame them for wanting to have more fun, considering that our fourth loss was by the score of 17-7. I told them that we could improve, but our best players would need to get more playing time and we would need to cut down on the mistakes. What happened after that little talk is more than I could have ever wished for. We started playing better than I expected and the guys were all happy with their playing time since we were winning. We got on a winning streak leading up to the playoffs. We ended up playing in the Championship game against the last team that beat us. I told the guys that we owed this team since they beat us last and they took it to heart. We jumped on them right away and went on to beat them 28-8. Some may have thought that we ran up the score on them but we looked at it as they beat us by 10 so we had to get that back and them we beat them by an extra 10. We ended the season with a record of 18-4-1, a 15 game winning streak, and the League Championship.