by: Mike White
On June 13th, 2015, BWBL's very own, Super Heroes in Training, competed in the NWLA's regionals to try an advance to the nationals. I could tell you all about the games themselves, but to be honest, it's very simple to say what happened - we played like shit. For most the day we played horrible, with no team cohesion at all. While everyone on our team wanted to do well and win, it seemed like all of us had different agendas.
Mikey Holloway and Joey Dougher seemed to be more interested in ... recreational activities. Tom Hannon at times seemed more interested in how he was doing overall than some of the team. Matt Morgan seemed to be afraid to fail, so he sat every game out. Jake Lukachik, Brandon Haydt, and Steve Dotzel - while able to handle most of the pitching in the BWBL with relative ease - seemed overly eager to prove they could do it against some of the region's best and looked uncomfortable at the plate. Our manager, Kevin Sickle, seemed at times to make decisions just a little too late, worried about being fair. Michael White (yours truly), seemed more fixated on winning for the sake of himself and getting to see his parents than winning for the team's or league's sake. Simply put, we were on a team but never quite seemed like a team. We were teammates, but in name only. Late into our last game, something changed though.
With a runner on first and second, one out in our last at bat, and down 1-0, Brandon stepped up to bat. Brandon hit the ball hard to left field. Remembering a play in an earlier game in which he was thrown out for not hustling, Brandon tried to break out of the batter's box and run his ass off down the line. If you ask us, he would have been safe, but unfortunately, tragedy struck. Brandon never made it out of the box. He fell to the ground, in extreme pain and separated his knee. This moment of darkness is where - for the first time - we worked collectively as a team. It was the first time that we seemed to have the same agenda - help Brandon.
That wasn't just our teammate and our friend lying on the ground - that was, as Hannon would say, "family". Everyone on the Super Heroes, acted like super heroes when needed most. Whether it was getting there quickly to hold his hand so he wasn't alone, holding him still so he wouldn't move and cause more damage, making the phone calls to the paramedics and his family, running to get ice packs and trying to help him be as comfortable as possible during this painful time until help arrived, or helping the paramedics lift Brandon up on to the stretcher to take him to the hospital. We were finally a team that couldn't be stopped and at the time needed most.
I would like to say after all that was said and done, I then got up with runners on second and third with two outs and delivered the game winning hit, but that isn't how the story ends. I hit a fly ball to left center, that for a second looked like the fielder was going to drop it after bobbling it. He then dove and caught the ball before it hit the ground for the last out. The funny thing is, if the accident never happened, we would have at least tied our final game and earned the final spot to nationals. Instead we backed in, which never would have happened if it wasn't for Brandon's great field play in our third game victory.
Brandon is now recovering well from his injury but unfortunately won't be making it to nationals with us. While his bat and fielding can't be replaced, we have a new member to the S.H.I.T. team that is more than capable to help fill Brandon's Hulk-like shoes - Daulton Shearer.
While, we don't know how far we will go in the nationals, one thing we do know is we will be doing it for the BWBL. We will be doing it for Brandon. Most importantly, we will be doing it as a team.
On June 13th, 2015, BWBL's very own, Super Heroes in Training, competed in the NWLA's regionals to try an advance to the nationals. I could tell you all about the games themselves, but to be honest, it's very simple to say what happened - we played like shit. For most the day we played horrible, with no team cohesion at all. While everyone on our team wanted to do well and win, it seemed like all of us had different agendas.
Mikey Holloway and Joey Dougher seemed to be more interested in ... recreational activities. Tom Hannon at times seemed more interested in how he was doing overall than some of the team. Matt Morgan seemed to be afraid to fail, so he sat every game out. Jake Lukachik, Brandon Haydt, and Steve Dotzel - while able to handle most of the pitching in the BWBL with relative ease - seemed overly eager to prove they could do it against some of the region's best and looked uncomfortable at the plate. Our manager, Kevin Sickle, seemed at times to make decisions just a little too late, worried about being fair. Michael White (yours truly), seemed more fixated on winning for the sake of himself and getting to see his parents than winning for the team's or league's sake. Simply put, we were on a team but never quite seemed like a team. We were teammates, but in name only. Late into our last game, something changed though.
With a runner on first and second, one out in our last at bat, and down 1-0, Brandon stepped up to bat. Brandon hit the ball hard to left field. Remembering a play in an earlier game in which he was thrown out for not hustling, Brandon tried to break out of the batter's box and run his ass off down the line. If you ask us, he would have been safe, but unfortunately, tragedy struck. Brandon never made it out of the box. He fell to the ground, in extreme pain and separated his knee. This moment of darkness is where - for the first time - we worked collectively as a team. It was the first time that we seemed to have the same agenda - help Brandon.
That wasn't just our teammate and our friend lying on the ground - that was, as Hannon would say, "family". Everyone on the Super Heroes, acted like super heroes when needed most. Whether it was getting there quickly to hold his hand so he wasn't alone, holding him still so he wouldn't move and cause more damage, making the phone calls to the paramedics and his family, running to get ice packs and trying to help him be as comfortable as possible during this painful time until help arrived, or helping the paramedics lift Brandon up on to the stretcher to take him to the hospital. We were finally a team that couldn't be stopped and at the time needed most.
I would like to say after all that was said and done, I then got up with runners on second and third with two outs and delivered the game winning hit, but that isn't how the story ends. I hit a fly ball to left center, that for a second looked like the fielder was going to drop it after bobbling it. He then dove and caught the ball before it hit the ground for the last out. The funny thing is, if the accident never happened, we would have at least tied our final game and earned the final spot to nationals. Instead we backed in, which never would have happened if it wasn't for Brandon's great field play in our third game victory.
Brandon is now recovering well from his injury but unfortunately won't be making it to nationals with us. While his bat and fielding can't be replaced, we have a new member to the S.H.I.T. team that is more than capable to help fill Brandon's Hulk-like shoes - Daulton Shearer.
While, we don't know how far we will go in the nationals, one thing we do know is we will be doing it for the BWBL. We will be doing it for Brandon. Most importantly, we will be doing it as a team.