The Laguna Bombers and their Parents

Family aside, nothing outside of school has done more for my development as a functioning United States citizen than sports. When I look back on my days as an adolescent, all of the memories I cherish most have involve me wearing a jersey, whether it be football, basketball or baseball. Back then, there was nothing I loved more than starting a new season, competing against my friends and just learning something daily that I didn’t know the day before. This may seem odd to some, but the majority of my life’s lessons didn’t come from inside the home, the classroom or the church, I learned everything from bulletin boards in the basketball gym locker rooms, the clipboards of my football coaches and in the dugouts that ran parallel with the first and third base lines, because that’s where I spent the majority of my time – and that’s where a lot of today’s youth spends their time.

I remember all of the friends I made playing baseball, I remember all of the trophy’s I’ve won and all of the ones I didn’t win. I remember snacks after ballgames and pizza parties after the end of a season as well as orange slices before the games and new cleats before the seasons. I remember all of us who had so much fun playing the game we loved so much. However, all of the attention of youth baseball seems to go to the children, not that I’m saying it shouldn’t, but when the Little League World Series runs on ESPN we learn so much about everything the kids have gone through just to play on such a large stage, but what about the parents? What about the coaches? What about all of the brothers and sisters who contribute so much of their time and effort into getting these kids where they want to be? These are the questions we need answered, so I went out and asked a group of people who knew what all of this was about – the Laguna Bombers, the 2007 Babe Ruth 10-under World Series Champions.

Youth baseball has always been special in our country because baseball itself is like your favorite song that’s grown old to everyone else, but will always be in the favorite’s play list on your iPod. Baseball is definitely unique when compared to other youth sports because the camaraderie that comes with youth baseball is second to none – and the Laguna Bombers amity, not just between players, but between players, coaches, parents and siblings alike is what makes this small, tight-knit community of people so special.

I heard through a friend that the 2007 Babe Ruth World Series Champions were going to be playing in a tournament in Bakersfield. I showed up to their next game, a late evening thriller against Northwest Bakersfield’s team. At the top of the sixth inning (the sixth inning is the final inning in this league) Laguna took the field just three outs away from sealing yet another victory up 2-0. Bakersfield got a couple on base with two outs, and the next kid up blasted a John Burke pitch over the fence. This was important for two reasons, A) Laguna was down one at the top of the sixth inning and B) no one on Laguna’s side seemed a bit worried about it, it was almost surreal. Burke’s catcher and the rest of the infield went over to him and told him it was going to be alright, Laguna’s manager had a few words with him, but left Burke on the mound when any other manager would not have hesitated to take him off of the mound and all of the parents let him know that all he needed was one more out and the bats would have a chance to win the game for him.

Burke struck out the next kid, two of Laguna’s first three batters got on base then Carlos Mosley dropped the game winning RBI over the second baseman’s head.

It’s not every day you see a team with so much composure down the stretch, especially not with a group of 11-year-olds. I’m not going to lie to you, I was immediately fascinated with these kids and became a fan of this team, as un-journalistic as it may be, because it’s kind of hard not to like this group of kids. I think, more than anything, the composure of these kids, their collective lack of braggadocio and their talent is a testament to the parents and coaching staff who have sacrificed so much for these kids to come out here and compete. The ‘baseball parent’ (or the parent of any youth athlete) is one of our nation’s most undervalued resources.

Like most parents, the parents of the Laguna Bombers love watching their children succeed. When children succeed, they’re happy, and parents are (more times than not) happy when their children are. The success of a child gives the parent something to brag about at the workplace and, sometimes, the parents get to go along for the ride. It may be enough that the kids love being on the road, enjoying their peers company, but the parents of these youth teams, especially all-star teams like the Bombers, who travel from city to city playing in tournaments, get to enjoy each other’s company too.

When Laguna traveled to Vincennes, Indiana for the Babe Ruth World Series last year, the parents of every kid on the team made the trip. These parents know each other, they look out for each other, and every once in a while, they get to have a little fun. When asked how much fun the parents have on the road trips, Patty Wackman confessed, “at beer-thirty, we’re having a lot of fun,” and everyone in the vicinity of her voice laughed at the answer (and I’ll leave the definition of beer-thirty up to your own imagination).

However, not everything is fun and games for the parents of these kids. In order for any of this to happen, sacrifices have to be made.

“Most of us have more than one child,” explains Mo Mosley, father of Carlos and one of the Bombers assistant coaches. “We have other kids in other sports and we’re taking off weeks here and there. For a lot of us, our vacation time has already run out for the year so these parents are sacrificing their time and their money to provide for their kid to have fun. It’s a strain on you, but you don’t let you kid see it because you don’t know if they’re ever going to get to do something like this again. We all have the mindset of ‘I want to work as hard as I can do what I can for my kid.’ A lot of us set aside money because we know how the year is going to go, we’re use to it now, we’re kind of in a rhythm. If we know other parents are struggling, we’ll help out. We’ll buy dinner for the kids, you know, do something to help out the family.”

The family Mo was talking about was the Laguna Bomber’s family – including the players, coaches, parents and siblings. This is a concept that they’ve all bought into, and it was imperative for the team’s success. Manager, Brett Day, told me that the coaching staff tells the kids they’re brothers, and the kids act like it, but some of the parents will tell you the same things about themselves.

“The social life for us [the parents] is usually pretty good,” said Gay Lynn Kelly who describes herself as a ‘baseball mom.’ “You become a family. We do each others laundry, we eat meals together – and have beer-thirty together. We do it all; we all become a part of each other’s families.”

And like all good families, the Laguna Bombers take care of each other, both on and off the field. In preparation for this regional tournament, their last of the season, the team played four tournaments – and won all of them. Day explained that the team has “a tradition of ‘win and swim,’ when we win we get in the pool and have fun and that’s something we always strive to do.” Along with that, some of the parents who have the pools that the kids swim in (and they swim very often), take turns barbequing just to keep the kids close and to keep the burden of the costs of cooking for everyone off just one person – not that they’d all that to happen in any other circumstances.

It is things like this that go unnoticed to the kids who play on these teams. The parents shield their kids from so much of the outside world’s negative tendencies to keep the kids optimistic. Angie Mardical, a real-estate agent and motivational speaker by day and avid Bomber fan by night, explained that the league didn’t really recognize the kids after winning the Babe Ruth World Series the previous season. There was an article of them in their local paper after their win, but there really was no mention of the accomplishment in any of the tournaments that they played in this year and it was not mentioned in a pre-regional tournament banquet. All of their hard work, and for what, an article in their local newspaper – this of course, was taken much harder by the parents than it was by the kids.

“The only problem I think we have is that we think the league needs to support us more,” said Coach Mosley, explaining some of the things these parents shield their kids from. “We’re returning World Series champions – and I don’t want to bash on our league or anything – but we came down here and the kids were like ‘why don’t we have any state champion t-shirts?’ All of these other teams are out here with their state champion t-shirts and hats and our league didn’t do anything for us when we came down here and that kind of upset the kids a little bit, but they kept their heads up and played hard. As their older family members we take it a little harder because we try to shield them from all of the politics.”

In the end, it’s all worth it. The course of the season may be nerve wrecking, long, hard and expensive, but the good always outweighs the bad – especially when the kid who had struck out his two previous times at bat (catcher, David Mickle) can come up in the bottom of the sixth inning and knock in the game winning run in the Regional Championship Game to end another season on top. So this one is for you mom and dad, and for all of the moms and dads across the country who dedicate their time, effort and hard earned dollars into helping their kids have the time of their lives. The games may be soon forgotten, but the parents never will.

Stay Hideous -PB

(Word count to date: 47,108
45 days and 52,892 words to go)