I'm not really a coach. I know what a real coach looks like and I'm not it. I've had the privilege of watching my son flourish under amazing coaches who donate their time and efforts in the most selfless manner possible.
However, due to the fact that I can usually make baseball practice since I can leave the coffee shop early, and I can throw a decent BP session, I've sorta been drafted to help with Owen's baseball team the last few years. It's fun to hang around the guys and impart a little baseball wisdom once and a while.
Things like: run out every hit no matter what, make sure to call a pop-up with a loud, "Mine!", and of course, the doozy of them all...
THROW IT TO THE CUT OFF MAN!!!!!!!!
Nobody will ever yell at you for throwing a ball directly to the cut off man. Sure, there "might" be a better play, but if there is ANY doubt, immediately throw it to the cut off man.
Still, after preaching this mantra hundreds, if not thousands of times over years of practice, what do kids still do after they chase down a long fly ball in the gap? Their eyes get wide and they just stand there, pumping the ball for five long seconds while every coach on the team is screaming in unison, "THROW IT TO THE CUT OFF MAN!"
I know they are just kids, and I'm in no way singling out any one player, I've seen them all do it... but sometimes.... my inner dialogue.....
(put down that joystick, pull your head out of your ass and just throw it to the frigging cut off man! How hard is that?? As I mentally imagine destroying the dugout with a bat and kids running all directions screaming and crying. But I just swallow hard and keep my mouth shut.)
Well today, in the biggest moment of the biggest college baseball game of the season, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers executed a picture perfect throw to the cut off man, stranding the tying run by the Arizona Wildcats at 3rd base in the 9th inning of a one run game. The next batter struck out and CCU had a College World Series championship in their very first trip to Omaha.
And it was all due to somebody hitting the cutoff man. A sweet day for youth baseball coaches all over the world.
Check out the play below at about 1:13. Colin G.