A baseball season is a living thing. The Valley League season is born late in the spring and it develops and grows and begins to take on a certain personality. And just when we get to know it well, just when we learn to accept whatever shortcomings it has and embrace it fully, it ends halfway through the summer. And thus, no matter what the calendar and the thermometer say, summer ends with it.
New Market Rebels fans face the end of our season this evening against Haymarket after losing the opener of a best of three playoff last night, 6-0. The Rebels have become the Little Team That Could with our left fielder catching and a pitcher in left field and no one left on the bench as injuries have taken a terrible toll. The players could have folded and left for home and the beach, but what makes the 2009 season so special is that they seem to have the same attitude that we fans do: They don't want it to end. And so they go out and defeat a fully-manned Luray team with improbable heroics, not the least of which is our pitcher-turned-left fielder Steve Owens leaning over the fence and bringing back a two run homer in the clincher.
New Market well might win tonight; might even win the next five games and become Valley League Champions, but should even that come to pass, the most successful day of the season will be the saddest, for it will mark the end of summer for 2009.
Being with the team almost every day in order to gather material for a book about New Market's season will soon be an exhausting experience. For now, I am running on iced tea and adrenaline and the joy that comes from standing on the field in the late afternoon sun watching batting practice or shagging fly balls. As it is now, I count down almost every mile to Rebel Park as I'm driving along and when the day soon arrives that I need not head down I-81 because there is no ballgame, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do. Stand on the porch in the late afternoon sun and remember, I suppose.
Every baseball season is a living thing. I will be so sad to see this one pass.
This season has been such a great one. I mean it really, really has. This is the sort of season that deserves a funeral to celebrate it's life and give it's family closure. I really don't feel that way every year. I'm going to be so sad when this team goes home and I have no more games to go to.
Posted by: Anna Kipps | August 07, 2009 at 10:30 AM
I think you've put your finger on a real problem for fans: There is no final send off. Win or lose the final game, the players scatter almost immediately and there are hardly ever any proper good-byes.
Posted by: Austin | August 07, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Tonight provided the most complete goodbye I've ever been a part of. The guys were all so gracious as I thanked them for their effort and grit--and they seemed surprised by it and thanked me in return for everything the New Market community has done for them. What a crazy ride---that last inning was an apropos ending to the most unusual season I've ever witnessed (3rd basemen in to catch, 1st baseman on 3rd, pitchers on first and in left field).
Give me a call while you're standing on the porch remembering and we'll reminisce together about the Little Team That Could.
Posted by: Melissa Dodge | August 08, 2009 at 12:24 AM