2 years ago Taylor started playing with the Carrollwood Gators. They are an AAU team and just get together when something comes up that works into their schedules. They do not practice. Coach Danny calls Coach Jeff and Coach Billy and one (or both) of them calls us and tells us we are playing. Last season he played a bit more than the year before because he had the bum knee. The last game he played before knee surgery was with them. I remember they told him "just hit the ball as hard as you can, I don't care if you walk to first base". The season starts up as school baseball winds down. We have 12-15 players that are pretty regular. We lose a couple (grass greener kind a thing) pick up a couple. They are good players, good boys and a hell of lot of fun to watch.
This was Perfect Game tournament. This is a big time organization, with a lot of scouting reports and alot of exposure. I don't think Taylor will get much at this point but we love baseball and we go. There was 48 teams in this tournament and they used 4 different ball parks for games. We took 13 boys to Fort Meyers to play. We had one boy for Saturday only. So we actually had 12 and then Taylor sprained his ankle. We are down to 11 boys that can play. This is huge because when you play game after game arms get sore, backs start to hurt, cramps start and hamstrings get pulled. I tell you this because some teams took up to 27 boys, 15 of them pitchers. Can you say we were small time?? Some guy from the tournament said "who are ya'll? nobody knows anything about you". They do now!!
Friday night we were almost 2 hours starting and ended in a tie 1-1 against the team that won the 16 and under division last year. Tieing the previous champs is major. Saturday morning we were at another ball field and won that game. Taylor pitched 2 scoreless innings, throwing 29 pitches, 22 which were strikes. After the game we went back to our 1 star hotel. Some took a nap, swam and then we went out to eat and there was 14 of us going to the Gulf Coast Town Center. What a fantastic place. Jimmy went to Bass Pro Shop, 12 went to the movies to see HangOver 2 and I went to JoAnn's and Kirklands before they closed. I went back to the hotel and put a load of uniforms in the washer and then went back to the mall to pick up Jimmy and get our truck load from the movies.
Now I have to get this out here--- I was going to meet up with Barb and Gerri Ann for dinner Saturday night. Jimmy applied a bit of (unusual) pressure for me to go with them. He said he thought I should hang with the families and moms/aunts/grandma. So when we get all loaded up and heading to eat it is me, 3 dads and 10 boys. He looks at me and says I guess you could have went with your friends.
Thats all I am saying about that. If you know me, you can fill in the rest.
Sunday morning we went to a third ball park and beat a team 12-0 in 4 innings. We were finished by 10:30 am and we had to be back at 3pm for a 4pm game. Taylor sprained his ankle at the hotel running from Coach Jeff's truck to ours through the grass. A little dip in the St Augustine grass took my boy out of the game.
Now we had made the reservations at the hotel for Sunday night but everyone figured we would be finished and heading home Sunday afternoon. I decided that we weren't checking out of the room, we were keeping it. I didn't want to pack up and then have to go back and unpack. I figured for what little bit we were paying (I mean it was $54 a night) we could come back, shower and pack up and head to Tampa if we lost or we could spend the night and head home Monday morning, whatever. The money was spent so what the heck.
We knew we could possibly be playing 3 games Monday if we continued to win. Lose and put a fork in you, you are done. We would play at 9am 2 pm and 4:30pm. The first against the Hardballers and they were up 1-0 until the 5th inning when we tied it. We stayed like that until the top of the 7th inning when we pulled out a run. It was 2-1 with them coming up to bat last. 3 outs away from the quarter finals and we did it.
The next team we played was from Tampa. Alot of boys we knew and had played with and against. Our Carrollwood Gators have never gotten respect. We were the team players left for greener pastures. We were the ones that weren't serious, we never practice we just play baseball. I don't think the boys thought about winning the game in the same way the parents did. There are some parents on the other team that just flat thought we had no chance, shouldn't have been there and wasn't going to be much of a challenge for them. Let me tell you right now- I told everyone on our team as far as I was concerned winning that game was the World Series, the Stanley Cup, Super Bowl and the DAYTONA 500 in one. I wanted that win so bad. If I hadn't been away from home I would have had to go to the bathroom. The Warriors scored one run in the 1st and we tied it in the 2nd. We scored 1 in the forth and 2 in the 6th. They scored one in the 6th. Going into the bottom of the 7th with the score 4-3 they had one last chance to win it and they didn't do it. We won. We were beyond happy to say the least. And that one parent never came over to congratulate us. Never saw him again. Sad sad.
The last game was hard. Taylor was out, Dominic had back spasms and a cut finger on his pitching hand. I think he was bleeding on the mound. Brandon pulled a hamstring. We were beat up. We had come full circle, here we were playing the same team we played Friday night and ended in a tie. It was stressful. They were down 4-0 in their previous game and had come back and won it 5-4 in the last inning. They had 24 players and we had a Mash Unit. I passed out Excedrin Back and Body like candy. Well not like candy but you get the idea.
We went up 4-0 in the 1st 2 innings. In the 3rd they scored one. In the 4th they scored 4. We were down 5-4. It stayed that way until the 7th inning. We had 3 outs to make something happen. We scored 4 runs and it was their turn to bat with the score 8-4. They were only able to get 2 across and we won it 8-6. We got the big trophy. We had Brett, the most valuable player of the tournament.
I tell you it was something else. Never would you have convinced any of us that Monday we would come home with win. Our boys never quit, never gave up. They are a good bunch. We have some great coaches too.
Oh and Taylor got his drivers license this morning. He is a driver without a car.
Seriously, that is a movie of the week, David and Goliath type of story! Congratulations to Taylor and all his teammates and to the coaches and the parents, like you who supported their love of baseball!
Posted by: M-C | May 31, 2011 at 23:23
Just looking at that ankle made me hurt! Ouch-a-wowwa!!! So glad he won!
You ... three dads and 10 boys .... what was he thinking?? Give me Barb and GA any day!
Guess they know who the Carrollwood Gators are NOW! Congrats to Taylor and his team!
Posted by: Ginni Carrican | June 01, 2011 at 11:30
way to go boys and to the parents for being so encouraging!!
Posted by: Jax | June 03, 2011 at 07:34
that is a fantastic story and too funny about you going to dinner with the dads..way to go Jimmy, lol!!!
Posted by: Kip | June 09, 2011 at 17:53
It was an amazing weekend in Ft Meyers. We surely surprised them all! Way to go Carrollwood Gators. Ranked #17 in the nation now! And not only are we the Perfect Game 16U winners, we can add the AAU National Underclassmen Champions too as we won at ESPN WWOS. You can still see championship game on replay at espn3.com.
Ans sorry you had 3 dads and 10 boys for dinner. My husband and I, and Jimmy D went to the beach for dinner. Next time...
Dawn McKnight
Posted by: Dawn McKnight | June 28, 2011 at 14:03