Game 3

Played a Hamel team again tonight and lost by 2 points. What a disappointment on several levels. The game got ugly with yelling between coaches and yelling between coaches and parents. We've played several Hamel teams and they all have the same win-at-all-costs attitude. There always seems to be tense feelings when Hamel comes to town and without fail, a questionable call that helps one of their runners come in. For example, tonight a kid over ran third as the ball was being thrown towards the base and the coach pushed him onto it. The pitching coach is supposed to make the call and conveniently "didn't see it", so called the kid as safe. And of course the guilty coach was mum. It feels like Hamel wins by cheating and then getting loud and ornery to prevent other teams from challenging them. I don't mind losing to an admirable team, but to lose to a team like this, well, it just makes me sick. David tells me I'm too passionate about the whole thing and that it's just a game. I whooped when their kid dropped a ball at the end because they were being so nasty. I'm not proud of that whoop - I acted just like they were acting and I wish I could take it back. But at the same time, I can't help but hope that their shady methods catch up with them . . . perferably in a key game like right before the championship round. Oh man - am I so bad at loving my enemies or what. Thank goodness we don't have another game until Monday - I should be okay by then and ready to just enjoy some little league baseball again. And, of course, things will be calmer because we won't be playing a Hamel team that night. No, we'll save that drama for later in the tournament (Tuesday or Wednesday).