Baseball Players & High Salaries - Sometimes They're Worth It

Even though Cole had played well defensively (he’s the catcher for his team) Saturday and Sunday during the year’s first baseball tournament, he was having trouble at bat. He got a couple of base hits and walked to get on base, but he hit a lot of fouls and flied out several times. When he gets on base, he’s a great base stealer; the boy runs like the wind!

At the beginning of the last game, his mother said, “Cole, if you hit a home run, I’ll give you $10.00.” He said, “Is that all?” Mr. Fixit said, “If you hit a home run, I'll give you $20.00.”

It was the bottom of the fifth, two men out in the last game late yesterday afternoon. We needed one more run to end the game. (The mercy rule is if a team is leading by eight runs in the fifth inning, the game is over.) Cole thought he had discovered the reason for his lack of success at bat. He said he was standing a little too close to home plate so he was going to back up a tad. Then it happened! He hit the ball into center field, and the fielder missed the ball. There was so much speed on the ball it rolled to the fence. Cole ran those bases like the hounds of Hell were chasing him. He made an inside-the-park home run and scored the game-ending, winning run. He also made $40.00 on the deal thanks to Mom and his two granddads.

It sort of made up for the battering he took in the first game of the tournament. These boys are 13 or 14 years old. Of course, at this age there are big differences in the physical appearances of the boys. There was one boy on the other team who was huge! In fact, someone suggested that his birth certificate should be checked. He must have been 5’10” tall and weighed about 170. He was a moose compared to the other players. Cole is probably 5’2” and has a slender build.

The moose rounded third heading for home. Cole has been thrown the ball and was waiting to tag him out. The moose put his arms up like a guard in the NFL and hit Cole at full speed. Cole went flying but he held on to the ball. The umpire called Moose out and ejected him from the game. I’ve never seen a player ejected before. Cole was hit so hard that the plastic on the back of his catcher’s mask/helmet cracked. After a few minutes, he got up, shook it off, and continued to catch all four games of the tournament.

I am so proud of him because he continued to play after being knocked silly, he never gave up trying to better his batting, and he solved the problem. What a guy!