I finished my workout, but stayed to watch the game. I sat near him. He looked over and asked me if I was from New York, because of the way I laced my sneakers. So we got talking.

He was really stinging balls for a while.

We have so much talent here, it was definitely one of our goals to get to the state playoffs and this win gets us there.

This is win or go home. This is playoffs. This is it.

I've been a little low on confidence lately.

He gave me a stack of batting gloves. He said, 'Mike, if you need anything, you let me know.' I would see him other times, and he would tell me he heard I was playing well. He was always real cool. It's a shame he got a bad rap.