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| Lee
July 20, 2008
5:02:15 PM
Entry #: 2837236
| As the manager of the Florence Post 11 American Legion baseball program, I want to commend both of our teams.
Our Red squad went to Birmingham Southern for the weekend and emerged as the winner and advanced to the state tournament at Troy University next weekend.
There is no doubt we benefitted by the absence of Tuscaloosa 96 (who was in Orlanda playing in an AAU tournament and finished 3rd out of 20 teams). At the same time, there is no doubt we were as well prepared (stocked) to give it our best shot at winning and advancing as we have been all year due to the fact we had 17 players on hand and available. Every player saw action, in fact, every player saw at least 4 AB's, or 7 innings in the field, or action on the mound. Everyone contributed, and everyone who wasn't in the game was sitting on ready to contribute whenever their name was called. And from what I've heard, several even enjoyed getting to sit in the bullpen to watch the game.
There was an incident that happened Saturday afternoon after our game was completed I want to comment on. We were on the field getting lined up for a team picture. As the Bessemer folks were leaving, one of their dads (I'm assuming) was on top of the hill above the 3rd base dugout. He yelled down to us, and wished us good luck and made the comment "you guys are a classy bunch and I hope you win it all". That is what this is all about.
In order for him to make the comment, that means he was also impressed with the conduct of our fans. Our fans conduct throughout the tournament was exemplory, and for that, I'm extremely grateful.
An unfortunate string of events seemed to continue piling on our Black team during the last week or 10 days which prevented us from being able to give our best shot to make a postseason run. Some were unavoidable, some were.
From injuries (which are unavoidable) to vacations to defections, it amounted to us going into the tournament with only 12 available players, and a greatly reduced pitching staff to sustain any kind of run in a deep 9 inning game tournament. Not to mention, the last week to 10 days leading up to the tournament having a very short supply of players due to work or being out of town which greatly diminished our being finely tuned and primed at the time of the season when it means the most.
It was disheartening to see such a talented group of players not be able to go in with their guns loaded to give it our best shot to make a deep postseason run.
I was talking to Coach Radtke yesterday and he made the comment "this was the best team I've ever coached when it came to competing and giving it our all every game". Even at the end, with a short roster, the ones who were there gave it everything they had, and are to be commended for it. For those who weren't there, trust me, you were missed!!
We have learned a couple of valuable lessons from this season which will be implemented in how some things will be handled next year. Please check back here in the coming weeks to see these new policies.
I feel fairly certain that overall, this has been a rewarding season for all of our players. The Black team was the runner up in our tourney, won the Booneville tourney, was undefeated and prohibitive favorite going into the finals in the Tupelo tournament (had they gone back to complete it). And, had we been able to go to the district tourney with our full roster, I have no doubt we would've been a force to be reckoned with. I sincerely think there would be 2 teams from Florence playing in Troy this weekend. However, as discussed earlier, that wasn't to be the case.
With our Red team's season still underway, I'm going to refrain from discussing anything about their journey at this time.
Hopefully, everyone will throw your support behind us as we prepare to go to Troy this weekend and represent everyone in the Post 11 program, as well as everyone in the communities from which we come, with pride, heart, and determination. I promise everyone one thing, we're going to give it our best shot and let the chips fall where they may.
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