A LONG DAY AT THE BALLPARK & I WOULDN'T TRADIE IT FOR ANYTHING

Yesterday started for me around 6:00 in the morning when I headed out for a travel baseball tournament.

By the time I pulled back into my driveway, it was 11:45 at night.

It was a long day and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I attended yesterday's tournament not as an owner of The Factory Sports Training of Georgia, but simply as a parent. My twin boys, Jericho and Jonah, were playing with their 14U team, and my older son Ryan was helping coach. For one very long Sunday, I got to watch three of my sons doing something they love.

If You've Never Been to a Travel Ball Tournament

For those who have never attended a youth travel baseball tournament, I encourage you to find one in your area and spend a few hours there. Hopefully, for your sake, you can find one that isn't an hour or more away.

Get there early. Walk around the complex. Watch the different age groups.

You may see players as young as eight years old putting on their uniforms, grabbing their gloves and walking onto a field ready to compete. You'll see parents pulling wagons loaded with chairs, coolers, tents and equipment. You'll see coaches preparing fields and talking with players. You'll hear cheering coming from several fields at once.

But if you pay attention, you'll see something much bigger than baseball.

You'll see young people learning. Witnessing them succeed, fail, recover, encourage one another, control their emotions, compete, shake hands and come back for another inning.

I've Been Watching These Two Play for a Long Time

Jericho and Jonah have played baseball together since they were about five years old.

They've played recreation baseball, middle school baseball and travel baseball. Over the years, I've traveled all over Georgia watching them play tournaments, along with trips to Myrtle Beach,

Cooperstown, Panama City and Pigeon Forge tournaments.

There have been long drives, flights, hotel rooms, early mornings, late nights, restaurant meals, coolers packed with food and plenty of waiting around between games.

Anyone who has been a travel ball parent knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Sometimes you drive hours to watch your child play a game that lasts less time than the drive and I would do it all again. Because one day there won't be another tournament on the schedule.

There won't be another 6:00 a.m. drive.

• There won't be another dirty uniform waiting to be washed.

• There won't be another "What time is the game tomorrow?"

• That's something I've come to appreciate more and more.

The baseball is important, but the time together is priceless.

Yesterday Was What Youth Baseball Should Look Like

The games yesterday were competitive. These young men wanted to win and they competed hard. But what impressed me just as much was watching new teammates quickly begin to bond with one another.

• That doesn't happen by accident.

• The right coaches matter.

• The right parents matter.

• And the culture surrounding a team matters.

Coach Chad Hickman, along with my son Ryan and Coach Hickman's son Chase, worked throughout the day to keep the players focused, inning after inning and game after game.

What makes travel baseball interesting is that many of these players have known one another for years. Some have played together. Some have played against one another. Some have competed for positions. Some may play against each other during school ball and then become teammates during travel ball.

Yesterday, they weren't opponents. They were teammates and had one another's backs.

Baseball Gives Us a Preview of Life

As parents, we sometimes become so focused on batting averages, pitching, errors, wins and losses that we can miss what our children are actually learning.

Youth sports give us a preview of the adults our children may someday become. They are learning:

• How to work with other people.

• That things aren't always going to go their way.

• How to perform when they're tired.

• How to respond when someone else gets the opportunity they wanted.

• How to accept coaching.

• How to recover from mistakes.

• How to encourage a teammate who just made one.

• Confidence without arrogance and competitiveness without disrespect.

Perhaps most importantly, they're discovering that being part of a team means sometimes putting someone else's success ahead of your own.

Those lessons will eventually follow them off the baseball field. Someday it may be a college classroom, a marriage, a business, a job, the military, a church, or a family of their own.

Life will put them in adverse situations, and baseball is giving them an opportunity to practice how they respond.

Then There Were the Umpires

There were two other people yesterday who deserve recognition. The umpires.

These two gentlemen appeared to be somewhere in their late 60s or early 70s, and they started around 8:30 in the morning. They were still working when the final games finished around 10:15 that night.

Think about that.

Nearly fourteen hours at a youth baseball complex. Game after game. Two-hour games. Standing behind the plate and working the bases.

I don't remember seeing them take any meaningful break. I don't even know when (or if) they had an opportunity to sit down and eat a real meal. From what I understood, both still had several hours to travel before getting home.

Parents and coaches don't always agree with umpires. That's part of baseball. But watching those two gentlemen work yesterday reminded me that we should never forget the human beings behind the uniform.

• Without umpires, there is no game.

• Without coaches giving their time, there is no team.

• Without parents making sacrifices, there is no travel baseball.

• Without young men willing to put themselves out there, compete, fail, learn and try again, none of us would have a reason to be sitting in those chairs.

The Ride Home

When you're pulling out of a baseball complex late at night after being there all day, you're tired. The kids are tired. The coaches are tired. The parents are tired.

Your vehicle is probably full of baseball equipment, empty water bottles, food wrappers, dirty uniforms and things you don't even remember packing that morning. But yesterday, driving home, I couldn't help thinking about how fortunate I was.

• I got another day with my boys.

• I watched Jericho and Jonah compete.

• I watched Ryan coach.

• I watched young men become teammates.

• I watched coaches teach.

• I watched parents support their children.

• And I watched two older gentlemen stand on a baseball field for nearly fourteen hours so those kids could play the game they love.

That's a pretty good day.

Parents, Don't Wish These Days Away

Travel baseball can be exhausting. It can be expensive, and it can test your patience.

There will be early mornings, late nights, long drives, rain delays, hot afternoons, cold mornings, questionable calls, tough losses and weekends when you wonder why you signed up for all of this. But don't wish these days away!

• The wins will eventually be forgotten.

• The trophies and rings will end up on shelves.

• Statistics will disappear from apps.

• Uniforms will become too small.

But years from now, I don't think I'll remember every score. I'll remember:

• The drives.

• Watching my boys walk onto the field.

• Sitting in the stands.

• The conversations between games.

• Watching them grow up.

I'll remember days like yesterday, leaving home at 6:00 in the morning and getting back at 11:45 at night. Nearly eighteen hours centered around baseball, and some people might call that a very long day. 

I call it time with my boys and you can't put a price on that.