Lighten Up, Francis | Craig Malin

Stay in the dugout. As the season started, I was quite explicit about it. “This isn’t Little League, guys. We don’t leave the dugout to congratulate teammates who hit home runs”. What some of them – the ones who didn’t play for me as Little Leaguers - did not know was I had the same rule in Little League. Let’s all act like we’re not surprised when we rip one out of here. It is far cooler, and far more frightening to the other team, that way.

How much of that was because I never hit a home run over the fence? All my home runs were right-center gap line drives where I out ran the defense. How much of it is the old-school (old-guy?) approach to the game? Other than the batting cage scene, the best part of the best movie about baseball is when Crash Davis distills it all for Nuke LaLoosh, fifty-eight minutes into Bull Durham.

“That was great, huh” Nuke more says than asks as they come into the dugout for the bottom of the inning. Crash does the wise catcher routine; “Your fastball’s up, your curveball's hanging. In the Show, they would have ripped you”. Nuke asks, “can’t you even let me enjoy the moment”. Crash, peeling off his gear to get ready to hit, sums it all up; “the moment’s over”. So when Lesley asks how the performance eval went and I simply say “fine” … there’s a reason “forward-focused” is spelled out in letters eight feet across on the purple wall (no kidding). The moment is over.

Some moments hang with you though. They burst out of the dugout when Kaleb got his dinger. The record-setting, shock and awe offense of the 2012 Lights Quality Built team came with routine laser shots over the fence from Colin, long, arcing beauties from Bud, and enough to make the other team fret from Spencer, Jacob and Nick. But Grif and Kaleb, in their last year of Pony ball, hadn’t yet hit one, and time was running short before the fences got even deeper in high school. Grif would bounce them off the fence and make it to third with his speed, but Kaleb would have to hold up at second. The team had a running bet on whether Grif or Kaleb would get one first.

Big, affable, not fast Kaleb. Soooo close. Sooo many times. But never over the fence. Such a nice kid, everyone was pulling for him.

And then it happened. Only once, but that was enough. Everyone poured out of the dugout to greet him at home. It still makes me smile. Who needs dumb, happiness-crushing rules like “stay in the dugout”?

Not Puerto Rico. If you haven’t started watching the World Baseball Classic, there’s still time. Going into the tournament, Puerto Rico was my favorite team, in small part for the Cubs’ Javy Baez playing on the team. In large part, because of how they play. In a word; joyfully. I first saw it at the Pony League World Series. The Team Mexico parents (not making this up) boo’ed and taunted every other team at the opening day parade. Team Puerto Rico, however, was perhaps the most joyful team I’ve ever seen, on and off the field.

The same joy the Puerto Rico Pony World Series kids displayed has been on display with the WBC team. Up against the Dominican Republic dreadnaught, Puerto Rico brought the joy (see: Javy Baez’s celebration tag, etc.) and won. Up against the we invented the game and have a hundred times more players than you Team USA, they kept up the joy, and won. They haven’t yet lost, and if they play the ever disciplined Japan in the finals, it will be something to watch.

Baseball has this thing for tradition, which serves it well in most regards. Part of that tradition is a workman’s approach to the game. Keep your head on straight, play hard, play fair, don’t showboat, don’t disrespect the other team or the game itself. Keep moving forward when something bad happens and act like you’re not surprised when something good happens. Stay in the dugout … the moment’s over … take one for the team ... short and quick to the ball ... make a play ... get the out ... just put it in play ...

I suppose all of that is good advice.

I also suppose it is better advice to reflect on just how stoic do you really have to pretend to be? On and off the field, the moments happen as they do, and we only get so many of them. Without being disrespectful to others, enjoy them.

Have some fun out there ...