This was a busy year for the idea that became Digging for Good. In addition to building our site, expanding into Instagram and Facebook and trying to learn video editing, we also took the time to both sponsor and coach a Little League Minor’s team. It started off with DFG’s Nicole designing the best banner we’ve seen at our field in some time. It drove traffic and some really exciting leads.
We went all out with DFG’s Rob managing DFG’s Curt, Andrew and Nicole coaching and DFG’s Zach and Alexandre dazzling on the diamond. Opening day started with a win, and the team really took off.
As the season went on, we kept winning, but—way more importantly—the kids were having fun. We saw kids pitch that had never pitched before… we saw the very first hits of young careers… we saw a team come together with parents cheering and being positive instead of the yelling and criticism which is all too pervasive at youth sporting events these days.
As the season wore on, remaining undefeated became the thing on everyone’s mind as we won our 11th, 12th and 13th games in a row. Finally, our team lost to our rivals in Middletown. But in the immortal words of Pete the Cat, “Did [we] cry? Goodness no! [We] kept walking along and singing [our] song”. Or we just ate watermelon.
Why did we celebrate? Because baseball is—and has been for over 150 years—fun. We win, we lose, we tie (umm, no we don’t; this isn’t soccer) and regardless, we should be having fun doing it. It’s a game. A great game, but a game nonetheless.
We closed out the season with another loss against one of our rival HK teams. They pitched their Ace for 5 innings. We pitched 9 kids, including 2 who had never pitched before. If you had looked closely, you would have never been able to tell from the smiles in our dugout that we were losing. To the Digging for Good family, the smiles matter more than the score. Being 13-2 and winning the league pennant will be forgotten soon, but the lessons taught and learned will remain for a lifetime.