Carbon Copy Imprint

I have always thought that children were God's best invention. It's truly amazing how they grow so fast and learn so quickly. They get excited about everything and they take in everything around them like a sponge and that's where we as adults come in. Whether we have children of our own or just come into contact with children in our daily lives, we have to realize we leave an imprint. Children look up to us and picture us as supreme beings. So if we do leave an imprint on their lives, what should it look like? And would it be okay if it was a carbon copy of our own lives?

On Saturday I played in a baseball game with my Halo Baseball Club at Angel Stadium. It's our big end of the year charity event to raise money for Cerebral Palsy. Actually, Dennis Kuhl, Chairman of the LA Angels, started this event in memory of his father Bud Kuhl, and it's always a huge success. I mean who wouldn't want to wear a real Angel uniform and play baseball at the Big A in front of a couple hundred family and friends!

Everyone brings their children to this event and in between games kids are allowed to go onto the field and take pictures.  It's really fun because the kids get so excited and it doesn't hurt that former Angel Ballplayers like Clyde Wright and Rod Carew are usually there signing autographs and giving tours of Angel Stadium. Before the game even started I had a young boy, Tony, approach me and ask me for my autograph. He was only about 7 years old and even though I explained that I was not a real LA Angel, he wasn't buying it. He saw my uniform and was convinced I must be somebody special. I signed his baseball and off he went gathering dozens of autographs from everyone else in a uniform. One of the players even gave him a bat so that he could get autographs on a real wood baseball bat. That young boy never stopped smiling the whole game.

Our team played really hard and we gave it our best effort, but it didn't exactly go the way we hoped. We lost the game 8-4 but in all honesty, we had so much fun that it felt more like a win! After shaking hands with the other team the kids poured onto the field one more time. That same young boy, Tony, and his Dad approached me all excited and asked for a picture with me. Tony didn't care if I won or lost. He was just happy to be at a ball game and get to meet ballplayers. I admit that I was having so much fun, I didn't really care if I won or lost either and made sure that I was all smiles for Tony. I suppose I could have been dejected and felt like a loser, but then what kind of an imprint would that have left on Tony? Children need to learn that real "winning" is in the journey and the friendships you make along the way, not in the individual games played.

I have to admit that I am a very competitive person and I love to win as much as anyone. But I also realize there are always going to be little eyes upon me and they're going to be influenced more by my attitude than by my results!

Tony and Joe at Angel Stadium

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

~ Frederick Douglass