We had only won two games during the regular season. It wasn’t for lack of trying.  We played hard but just didn’t have the talent that the other teams had.  But our postseason tournament provided a new opportunity.  Our first game against Athens National Bank, a much better team, was interrupted in the middle of the game by a summer shower.  While the ANB players stood around in the rain, I made our players hop into cars for shelter.  (I think I had 4 or 5 players crowded into my car.)  The shower lasted, maybe, 10 minutes and then the sun came out.  The field was still in good shape.  We were nice and dry.  But the ANB players had wet, sticky uniforms.  From that point forward, we came back to beat them 12-6.  They weren’t the same team after the rain.  Real ballplayers don’t stand in the rain.  Duh!

The second game was…see Gut Feeling.

By winning those two games, we were now playing for the tourney championship.  It also meant I only had three innings left for my best pitcher, and no innings left for my second best pitcher.  We had no third best pitcher.

Tim Poling may have been the smallest player I’ve coached–and probably the quietest.  In two years I, maybe, heard him talk four or five times.  But Tim played hard.  He usually played centerfield for us and several times made diving catches for outs.  Tim’s dad knew baseball and was a regular at our games.

Before the game started he came over to me and said that if we needed a pitcher, Tim could do it.  We were a big underdog but the crowd was with us.  After three innings the game was close.  While we were at bat, I went to Tim Poling and said we needed him to pitch for us.   He shook his head and said he didn’t want to.  He seemed scared.  A couple of players asked him, but he still seemed scared.  The anonymity of centerfield was a lot safer than the spotlight of the pitcher’s mound.

Then his dad came over and game him a pep talk.  That did the trick.  Tim warmed up and then took the mound.  The crowd was loudly rooting for us by now.  They were cheering Tim Poling on every pitch.  But the other team was just too good.  We ended up losing the game by 5 or 6 runs.  But it sure felt like we won.