(#13)
It was the comeback that made the yodeling stop!
During the Spring Break of 2006, about a month before I would be suspended and stripped of my coaching duties, an ambush by the Pearl High School athletic director, principal and board, officially for insubordination, but really because I was the new guy who got caught up in somebody else’s politics and ongoing drama. We were playing in the Big Blue Classic at Madison Central High School.
The opponent was powerhouse West Lauderdale and their legendary coach Jerry Boatner. He was a great coach. He is enshrined in all the various Halls of Fame. His West Lauderdale teams won an unbelievable 14 state championships. In his 50 years of coaching baseball, 5 at Clarkdale and 45 West Lauderdale, he won a record 1202 games. He was the best there was and a larger than life character who played the part like John Wayne.
I remember watching him strut in the gate by the third base dugout before the game and he didn’t notice the top rail above the gate was a little lower than his 6’3″ frame. He did not see it and he did not duck when he attempted to walk through and hit his forehead on the rail and went down like a tree.
In the game, the Knights jumped out to a big lead and Jerry, who coached third base, was obnoxiously yodeling and while up 10-6 after 4 1/2 innings, he was yodeling excessively and having a lot of fun at my expense…. even with a Band-aid on his forehead and a slight concussion. It was the first and only time I had ever personally experienced yodeling from the coach in the the opposing dugout. I’m sure he only did it when he was winning… which was a lot. Not fun for the opponent. Not fun at all.
Jim Miles, longtime head baseball coach at Northwest Mississippi Community College always whistled while coaching third base. It was equally obnoxious, but only while he was winning, which was, by the way, also quite often. Lots of yodeling, whistling and winning by those two legends of the game.
Nobody yodels or whistles when they are losing. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t on that day.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, however, the Pirates left fielder Craig Howard hit a grand slam home run to tie the game at 10 and all of the sudden, the yodeling magically stopped. Craig added a two-run homer in his next at bat to cap off a 12-10 comeback win. I’m not sure, but I think Craig yodeled while rounding third base on the second home run. He probably didn’t, but I’m sure some of those in our dugout did. Now, that was fun!
I enjoyed watching Coach’s temper tantrum in the other dugout. Better him than me, I thought. Coach kicked a gigantic ball bucket with at least 100 baseballs in it. The bucket split and all the balls rolled out of the dugout and onto the field. Some lowly manager had to pick them all up.
I saw him the next day in the coaches lounge and he was still suffering from the loss. I told him he needed to lose some more games like me and he’d learn not to take it so hard.
The moral? Baseball is and has always been the great humbler… for anybody who has ever coached and/or played the game. Play the game one pitch at a time, expect success and back it up with action, play it with respect for all opponents, but never fear any opponent. Keep playing until the fat lady sings or until the opposing coach stops yodeling (or whistling). 😁
Or if you really love to yodel, just do it all the time… win or lose.
And if you want the other team or their coach to stop acting in a certain way, hit a couple of big home runs and win the game. That will shut ’em up every time. It always has and always will.
Footnote: I was officially 1-0 against the legend from Collinsville in my career. There would be no rematches. 🙂
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 