As a 12-year-old Little League baseball player in the mid-1960s, I pitched for a woebegone team named the Angels in Bryan, Texas. We didn’t win very many games.
Still, I wanted to win, so much so that often tears would fall as I stood on the mound late in a game in which we were hopelessly behind.
Near the conclusion of one game, our feisty third-baseman walked over to the mound and said something that has stuck with me for almost 60 years.
“Why do you always cry when you are pitching?” he demanded.
I don’t remember my answer, but I sure remember his question.
I’m writing this because of something that happened after the recent college football game between Southern Cal and Washington. You might have caught the clip of USC quarterback Caleb Williams going into the stands after the loss and being consoled by his mother as he sobbed.
Here’s a take on in the incident from CBS Sports.
I was listening to the Dan Patrick radio show this week when a caller to the show asked DP if the sight of Caleb Williams crying after the game would hurt his draft placement. The current reigning Heisman Trophy Winner, Williams is certain to be drafted among the top three picks, perhaps even first.
A self-proclaimed crier himself, Patrick reacted to the question as if it was intended to insult Williams (I’m certain it was, too). He told the caller that there’s nothing about what the QB did that would diminish his draft status.
However, the incident and questions afterward stirred some emotions in me, because I still feel the sting of my third baseman’s confrontational question so long ago.
I’ve since thought about why I cried on the mound and concluded it was because I wanted so much to be successful and the frustration that it wasn’t happening. A lot.
But I don’t see that shedding tears after (during?) an emotional game diminishes an athlete. What other athletes are famous for shedding tears during or after a game?
I can remember a few. Michael Jordan lay on the locker room floor and shed tears after winning the 1996 NBA title that he dedicated to his late father. Serena Williams cried as she met the press after a hotly contested loss in the 2018 U.S. Open finals.
In fact, here’s a video compilation of some of the saddest athletic moments filled with tears.
My point with all of this is that there’s no shame in tears flowing in the wake of an emotional moment for an athlete. It happens.
The 2023 me is more apt to shed tears watching an emotional scene in a movie, like Roy Kent rushing to the stadium to take his place among the coaches in Ted Lasso while “She’s a Rainbow” plays in the background. Or when George Bailey discovers he really is the “richest man in town” at the conclusion of It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Of course, my career as a soft-throwing Little League pitcher ended in 1965.
Yes, there were tears and a pointed question from my third baseman. It’s a moment etched into my memory.
And that’s the only photographic evidence.
Otherwise, I would listen to games on our bulky old stereo-record combo that we had in our living room. In 1971, and I can still hear Jack Buck’s call of Bob Gibson striking out Willie Stargell to end the game for Gibby’s only no-hitter of his career.
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