A Baseball Season to Savor

It started with a game of catch behind our hotel in the February Florida sun. There were trips to the indoor batting cages to get ready for baseball as the snow kept piling up. Several of those hitting cage sessions were with some of your talent Woburn teammates with whom you'd win many big games over the course of the spring and summer.

Somehow the Minor League Orioles got stacked with a group of you that would be the heart of All Star teams later in the summer, plus two ten year olds that got passed over in the draft. You boys worked hard together, and enjoyed the fruits of your labor. At first the Pirates looked like they would be tough to stop. But then you took the ball for a start against them, and pitched a complete game shutout! Sent the message they could be beat, and definitely one of your best individual performances of the season.

That Orioles team got on a roll, and couldn't be stopped when the playoffs came. You won a couple tight, exciting games, and then had a convincing victory against the Angels for the title. Your leadoff single against a strong pitcher helped set the offensive tone.

One of the best things about this baseball season was the way it really started to become a strong network of friends, both among players and parents. There were several impromptu Oriole team gatherings and celebrations. Pool parties at Hayden's and the championship night celebration on the field and later at Jordan's. So much fun! Don't forget the time your Dad took one shot to get a swish in pool basketball!

**work in progress**

It is not the critic who counts

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.