June 11

This guy right here showed a tremendous amount of grit, determination, and resilience this evening. That's the summation. Here's the story.

Brady's game today went into extra innings --thanks to a terrible call by the home plate umpire, but that's neither here nor there-- and he came in to pitch the top of the eighth with the score knotted at 6-6. (Or maybe it was the ninth. It doesn't really matter because the relevant detail is that it wound up being the last one.)

Anyhow, I've been watching baseball for 40-plus years, and I can honestly say that what followed was the absolute worst defensive inning I've ever seen. Brady threw strikes and pitched well, but his team committed a whopping seven errors behind him, so he wound up having to get about 10 outs to retire the side. I've never seen so many dropped balls and missed tags in a single inning in all of my years as a fan of the game. And every time another goof happened, I felt my hackles go up further. It hurt me to see him in that position. 

Eventually, he retired the last batter. And although they plated three runs in the bottom half they still lost, which was a complete bummer.

But I am so incredibly impressed with him. He told me after the game that during a mound visit, the coach offered to let him just leave since the defense wasn't helping. He just gave a half-grin and stuck it out. He threw more strikes. And he never once lost his cool or his composure. I could tell he came close a few times, but every time that happened, I watched as he took a deep breath, reset his shoulders, and continued doing his job. 

He may not have gotten a win --and truthfully, he was the pitcher of record when the other team pulled ahead so he got the loss if one was assigned-- but he carried himself like a champ. And I am so proud of him for staying focused. And I'm grateful to God for instilling in him the strength of character that allowed him to keep going --and keep performing well-- when others would've gotten angry and quit.