March 14

Sometimes it's all about locating the bright spots and focusing on them until they eclipse the darkness.

Take Brady's Intermediates game this evening. It was, by and large, a largely unmitigated disaster. The opponents' starting pitcher was an unusually large, extraordinarily hard-throwing kid who basically mowed down our offense from top to bottom. Brady --who batted leadoff-- was mad when he struck out, as it was his first K of the season. (I know because I could see him mumbling to himself as he marched back to the dugout.) And on top of that, although our two pitchers (shout out to Randy Johnson) did well, our defense wasn't quite as sharp as it needed to be.

But, as previously suggested, there were bright spots for Brady. For one, he broke up the other team's no-hitter by singling to left field late in the game. (And in fact, that one hit was the only one his team managed.) For another, he pitched 2 1/3 innings and gave up just one earned run. And on top of that, he struck out the very dominant pitcher who struck him out to start the game. And he did it with a pitch in the dirt that made the kid flail and look kind of silly. He smirked afterward, I assume because it must feel pretty amazing to be a 13-year old who strikes out an otherwise incredibly dominant player who's the size of a very athletic 16-year old. A sort of David and Goliath kind of moment.

So today, I'm thankful for big bright spots that help to make the darkness seem a little less dark.