- December 25, 2024
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Some 30 minutes into my return to coaching, I hit a kid in the mouth, causing blood to spew from his nose.
Last Wednesday, after the deadline crunch at the paper fizzled, I slipped into workout shorts, a dri-fit T-shirt and a pullover fleece, then drove over to FPC to see what Jordan Butler’s fledgling travel baseball program is all about. They’re called the Flagler Bandits, and Butler hopes they’ll be the vehicle to turn Palm Coast into a hotbed of youth baseball talent.
As I walked onto the field, Butler cracked wise about my wearing sleeves in June. If you had memories from four years of high school baseball tryouts with snow on the ground — you’d dress conservatively, too.
We tossed. I forgot how weird it was to play catch with another lefty, especially when it came to off-speed pitches (even on flat ground, Butler’s curve has more late movement than Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony).
After the kids finished warming up, Butler split them into infield and outfield drills. There was one first baseman among the group of 13 and 14-year-olds. Since first was my primary position in high school, Butler asked me to work on picks or short hops with the kid, Carlos Nieves. Big mistake.
I stood about 20 feet away, and threw picks at him like they were always thrown at me — fast and unpredictable. Carlos impressed me. He knocked almost every throw down, scooping the vast majority. Backhands, forehands — even the ones I beamed at his chest so he couldn’t cheat. With only a couple minutes left before we’d switch to a different drill, I threw another short hop. But this throw — this unlucky throw — caught the tiny lip between the Bermuda grass and the dirt, skipping up wildly. No one could have brought his glove up in time to prevent a rawhide nosejob.
To his credit, Carlos took it like a champ. He used an old pair of gray baseball pants to stop the bleeding, got a drink of water and was ready to sprint back onto the diamond. I assured him his nose wasn’t broken (because I’m totally qualified to make that diagnosis).
The other highlight of the evening was Zach Tutak, FPC’s junior varsity coach who helps out with the Bandits, mistaking me for a high-touted junior transfer from New Jersey. When I grilled him about whether he thought I could pass for 16, Tutak replied, “Well, they did say he was a big kid.”
