With the 19mph winds turning today’s soggy 37F into a bone-chilling 27, the weather here would’ve been more conducive to Football than Baseball, but the High Plains Little League Minor Rangers & Twins toughed it out in Falcon for their first game of the season.

Slugging their way through what could have arguably been called the “All Time Best Game in Little League History”,  the Rangers’ catch of the Twins’ last inning pop-fly would ensure this one went into the books as a tie.

These are some tough little dudes for sure, but we’ve also got to appreciate the coaches, ump, scorekeeper and a myriad of other volunteers who could’ve been warm and comfy at home on a day like today, but chose otherwise and decided to give their valuable time to making sure these kids have an opportunity to:
“Play Ball!”

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While organizing some files, I came across a directory of the “Insider” newsletters that I published for a couple of years in real paper & sent out to about 3,500 people every 45 days. Those files revived many good memories of our initial transition to Colorado, a transition that many of you helped make a very pleasurable experience.

Having been able to try something new that I’d had no experience with whatsoever in an area where I had no contacts was a daunting experience at first; but the realization that one could do quite well simply by doing the right thing and treating people decorously was another real-time reinforcement of a closely held belief system.

The company in which I had developed many good relationships here has since changed hands and no longer exists, but fortunately some of those relationships continue to grow.

The actual layout may or may not be a bit off depending on your program and/or version, but here’s a sample of a couple of those newsletters:

Volume 03 Issue 01

Volume 03 Issue 03

The working title of this post was “Tools of the Trade”, but it developed differently along the way.

You may have already guessed from some of these posts, that I’m no stranger to using tools to get a job done. But if you’re a regular reader, you already know that I don’t have a narrow viewpoint of what “tools” really are.

Every trade has its tools and some craftspeople absolutely master their use over time, applying intentional effort to continually get better, ultimately making difficult tasks look easy. Whether you’re a machinist making parts on a mill, a computer programmer, a linebacker playing guard, or a protege of Antonio Stradivari (himself a student of Nicolo Amati) making musical instruments, it is the repetition that builds skill. Continue Reading »

‘ picked David up from a sleep-over this morning, took the family to breakfast and then went to sign the boys up for High Plains Little League since their Basketball season has just come to an end. We were politely greeted by the person behind the first table as we entered the registration area and were directed to progress from table to table where the boys would get fitted for shirts at one stop, meet some vendors at another, and eventually finalize registration and pay at the end. Simple enough, so Mom and I began to make the round with our two eager-to-play boys.

We no sooner get to the second table where a man walks up and asks us what we’ll be volunteering for. I open-mindedly and ready to pitch-in ask him, “Whaddaya Got?” and he starts listing them, “Coach, Asst Coach, Team Mom, etc” and in the course of the conversation informs us that “I’m not asking you to volunteer. I’m telling you. There’s none of that asking stuff.”  Continue Reading »