The now graduated Lions got together one last time as a team (less Ryan, already in TX for an LAX Tourney) Friday night to eat tacos, drink virgin Margaritas (one hopes), and toast themselves:
A team for all seasons (& one little brother)...
Stephen E, Nick, Joe
Ryley, Stevie P, Andrew
John C, L-I am, Morgan, John K
Their coaches:
Coach "E" & Coachie, flanked by Christine and Bill
And their drivers (er, parents):
A motley crew...
Les, Jill, Dan, Elaine, Marjorie
'lil sister Kelly, Henry, Christine
Lisa, Patsy, Joe, Margaretta, Doug
Team Parent Marjorie presented to the Coaches gifts from the parents - gift cards and a bound book of the season that included both this blog and a medley of Jack's pictures, and a laminated picture sheet produced by Adrienne.
The book's dedication read:
"With heartfelt gratitude to Coach Glen Bowers and Coach Dennis Estrada It was our boys' dream to have you coach them this Final Season. By giving so much of yourselves in this effort, you allowed them to play the game they love, not just in front of you, but for you. They will never forget. Nor will their parents. -Your Lions"
In honor of her tireless efforts keeping this bunch organized, as well as the season supply of sunflower seeds she and Bill provided for the team and parents, Marjorie was presented with a box of sunflower themed note cards and the everlasting thanks from grateful parents.
For the pics and blog, Jack and Dan were presented by Henry a book on classic baseball photos and classic sports writing:
Wow! Thanks so much!
The boys made incredible speeches, the parents made astute observations, and financing is being pursued in order to settle the bar bill. The party went late and a good time was had by all!
Look for future updates to this blog as these fine young men of ours make their way into high school, and even beyond.
Now and forever,
Go Lions!
PS - our deepest sympathies to Jack, who was in Chicago for the funeral of his brother. And our thanks to Adrienne ("Jackette") who took all these great shots at La Barca.
A great, great party last night that will need to be deservedly documented with pics (courtesy of "Jackette") and a well-put together post. In the meantime, Jack and I are incredibly grateful for the gifts (I've read the first New Yorker story already) and all are so grateful that we were able to be together as a team, with our Coaches, Ms. Yuen, and a rich full room of players and parents. Well done, Marjorie!
In a stunning turn of events yesterday, the 8.1 Lions, along with their 8th grade classmates, graduated from SHB and were immediately declared ineligible for future 8th grade competition.
With 8th grade behind them, the Lions will be taking their skills onward and upward:
Lick Wilhmerding
- John K, baseball (& basketball?)
- Stephen P, continuing his mastery of surf dogdom (and hopefully answering the siren call of baseball that brought him back these past two seasons)
St. Ignatius
- Ryan C, slotting back over to his first love, Lacrosse
- Andrew F, baseball
- Joe L, golfer/thespian extraordinaire (and one would hope, baseball)
- Nick S, another Lacrosse player who loves baseball, and will have a tough choice to make
The Hall
- Ryley A, basketball, baseball
- Liam C, basketball, baseball
- Stephen E, basketball, baseball
- Morgan L, another surf dog who will likely be logging water time with Stevie P.
Thatcher
- John C, baseball, riding horses, and working on his Eagle Scout.
The team has decided to console themselves over the ruling by heading to La Barca, tonight (Friday 10 June) at 6 in the back room.
PS - Check out "Jack's Pics" (left column) for link to Father/Son BBQ at Ocean Beach Mon night! PPS - Check out "Jack's Pics" (left column) for link to Field Day Pics!
The annual Stuart Hall for Boys Field Day took place today in The Presidio's Ft. Scott, by Golden Gate Bridge. What an amazing day of athletic competition by the K-8 boys, organized by their "families" into 4 colors. In a first ever for the event, Green and Blue tied for overall honors followed by Gray and Red. The all school relay race (two participants per grade per team) went to Gray with the Lions' own Stephen E. pulling away on the final length.
However, this was all prelude to the annual Faculty vs. 8th grade Softball Game, a game almost always won by the faculty (captained, naturally by the Lions own Coachie and Coach "E"). This year, the Faculty came in decidedly nervous, knowing full well the heart of the Lions order would be this year's League Champions, and hoping like crazy that this bunch of participatory classmates would field 30+ players, keeping the Lions to only one at-bat. The Lions, captained by the 8.1 team, were joined by 24 fired up eighth grade classmates, and took the field determined to make a go of it.
Being generous souls, the Lions limited their pitching to one inning each for Andrew and Stephen E, wanting to give classmates a chance to pitch as well. The result? No runs scored against Andrew or Stephen, naturally. In the end, the Faculty did manage two runs (1 "earnedish"). And were fortunate to do so, given their only meaningful hit was a double down the first base line (just fair) by Coachie.
As to batting, the Lions saw that the Faculty's prayers were answered in the big 8th grade turnout - they were only going to get one pass through the order. So, they stacked themselves in their usual batting order to start the bottom of the first. The result? Two runs in the first (Ryley- single and Nick- double) driven in by Stephen E.- RBI single and Andrew- deep RBI Sac Fly. Sound familiar?
And so it ended, a very rare 2-2 tie, with Middle Form Dean Dennis Phillips and Science Teacher Arnaz Raj remarking with obvious relief, "that's a result this faculty can happily live with!"
Now, if the Lions could have just found a last opportunity to scrimmage the undefeated 7th grade League Champs (the Lion cubs)! Alas, it is not likely to be.
At the end of last season's 6-2 loss to St. Cecilia in the 8.1 Championship game (cue eerie music), the Lions 7th grade team members (all 7 of them) vowed they'd get Coaches Bowers and Estrada, and 3 or 4 more classmates to replace the departing 8th graders, and come back for their 8th grade year with a vengeance. Well, well... what can we say?
the 2011 SHB 8.1 Lions
In serious conversation throughout the Fall, usually over a refreshing beverage or three, it was decided by the Dads that there was the possibility of epic-ness at play here with this team (just go with me on the grammar, Mr. Estrada, I'm on a roll) that could not, nor should not go unchronicled. Final discussions were made during the celebration of the 8.3 Soccer championship at the Ferrero's bar house and this blog was born. Similar to that old Mickey Rooney movie ("hey, we can use my Father's barn for the theater!") it was decided that Jack liked to take pics and Dan liked to talk, so we already had as much talent as most bloggers out there have (except for those little details such as knowing how to create a blog)!
But we had something else going for us that few other blogs can claim: we had Subject Matter!! And we had it in spades! We had teachers and administrators for fans:
Christine & Daniel
Raj & Dennis
We had groupies! (ok, Moms and classmates' Moms):
But most of all, we had a group of talented ballplayers who were more than capable of creating their own story lines during 3 months of an incredible season, even if somehow it was over in the blink of an eye:
The boys of Spring...
And create, this gang did. Nine games. All different. None boring. After the first, a two (or one!) run nail-biter against Salesian, there followed 5 wins of varying degrees of dominance, leading up to the Regular Season finale for the Regular Season title, the epic 9 to 8 victory against Epiphany that left parents drained while boys were just hitting their stride. Just days later, and into the playoffs, the guys took on an inspired St. Stephen, who were determined to make amends for a 14 run beatdown the previous week. Tied 2-2 after 7 regulation innings, they held in the top and produced the thrilling winning run in the bottom of the 8th, setting up Wednesday's finale against St. Cecilia for the championship, after the Cec's had obliterated Epiphany, 17-4 in their first round playoff game. Fittingly, and not surprisingly, this final game encapsulated the entire Lions season:
Pitching. You face a worthy opponent, as the Lions did in St. Cecilia, and you will take a punch in the mouth. Starting in the first, they put the ball in play, ran the bases hard, and did everything in their power to generate runs. And they did, managing to plate 2 in that first inning, but none after that. Nick (3 innings, 6 strikeouts, 3 hits, no walks, 2 runs (one earned)) and Andrew (4 innings, 6 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk, no runs) combined to keep them off balance all game long. St. Cec's never got that big hit when they needed it with guys on base, and 9 of their 11 batters struck out at least once.
Fielding. The Lions made a couple mistakes in the game, but both were execution mistakes (fielding or throwing) and not mental mistakes. They played within themselves and when it counted, executed big, big plays:
- Morgan made a play in Left Field that had the stands buzzing when a single hit his way in the 3rd inning took a bad hop toward the third base line and he reached out and bare-handed it (!!), hitting his cut-off and sending the runner scampering back to first. That ball was humming, and if it gets by, a runner scores or is on third.
- Stephen E ended their 6th inning with a cross-charge/short-hop/glove-in-stride throw to Nick from Short that got the runner bang-bang at first. Web gem.
- But perhaps the play of the season occurred in the top of the 5th, when St. Cec's got a lead-off single and a walk. Down 5-2, they had to get something going and went for a double steal. From behind the plate, John C gunned the pitch (a strike from Andrew!) to Ryley at third so hard, and so accurately, it stopped and turned the runner, sending him sprinting back toward second. Ryley fired a strike over the runner to Stephen E., who was furiously backpedaling to avoid contact with the runner (a collision would have been interference on us). Ryley's throw lands in Stephen's glove just as the runner bowls Stephen over back at second. Runner is out; the other runner is forced back to first. With the threat avoided, Andrew proceeds to strike out the next 2 batters. For all intents and purposes… that was ball game.
Batting. The Lions didn't have an extra base hit. But they did have seven Singles (Nick got two). And, of the 6 runs scored (Nick scored 3), 5 runs were "batted in" (2 each Andrew and Stephen E, 1 for John K). The whole team put the ball in play and got their teammates around and home, whether they got on themselves or not. And this includes the Lions trademark 10+ stolen bases ("we're gonna run and run and run some more!"). How on was this team? We're talking only 4 strikeouts in 28 at bats! Only 4 walks as well - this team hit the ball (and unlike last game, had the advantage of a strike zone that did not reward pitches that bounced)! The Lion offensive juggernaut was a clinic in team offense this final game.
And in the end...
...the guys walked off the field with their 6-2 (!!) victory and all objectives met:
1. Regular Season Title
2. Undefeated Regular Season
3. Won Playoffs
4. Undefeated Season (i.e, 2 + 3 = 4 and you can just hold that comment on my math, Ms. Yuen!).
9 Years ago together in Kindergarten; next year off to 4 different high schools!
So that's it Lions, Lions fans, and Lions Parents. "Stuart Hall Baseball - The Final Season" concludes as we had all hoped. Thanks to some incredible players and their incredible coaches.
Will there be more posts? It's possible. After all,
END does mean Entirely New Direction...
... doesn't it?
Production Note - All pics, clips are from final game, for this final game post. Great job, Cap'n Jack!
And it will be said... but not now, not while the finality of it all refuses to sink in... stunned parents wandering the field, taking pictures, shaking hands, hugging, trying to figure out where it is we're supposed to go now, do now, take our boys to now.
The transfer of carpool-phenalia, thoughts of an unplanned dinner at a late hour, realization that there is no game this weekend, or practice next Tuesday. Realizing the chance was missed to thank all from the school who came to celebrate the end of our era with us... Ms. Yuen, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Fishman, Mr. Raj - true friends of parents, successful molders of our young. Classmates and their parents, coming just because these were their classmates, and their classmates' parents. You know... this was family.
The too-brief thanks for Coach Bowers and Coach Estrada, who honored these boys with their knowledge of the game, yes, but so much more than even that, through such generous giving of their precious time. In this one instance it is the parents who truly understand this sacrifice, while our sons were focused on the joys of playing their game for their beloved teachers.
So yes, there is more to say. Tomorrow then, when the "overness" of it has sunk in a bit. When we have had a chance to share a smile at drop-off or pickup, or an email or text (or heaven help us, a tweet?).
Till then, Congratulations Lions, on an outstanding season. You were magnificent.
Final Score 6-2. Final Record 9-0. Unbeaten. Untied. Untamed.
It's the Final. Literally. Last Game. Last Sport. Last Year.
vs. St. Cecila, the school (not the team) responsible for the Lions' last loss, in the 8.1 Finals last year (yes, this is most of the Lions players' 2nd visit to the 8.1 final!). The team that gave the Lions fits in an early season meeting at McCoppin Park. The team that ran Epiphany off the field 17-4 in the first playoff game. Records mean nothing right now. Both teams are 1-0.
