There were also scenes that make Hitchcock movies look harmless. One player refused to go out into the field, making a path to the Mister Softee ice cream truck instead; he has since left the team. In another game, we yielded five runs in the last inning when we had a five-run lead, before losing in extra innings.

And the extreme lowlight occurred when one of the other coaches, with as much charm as Albert Belle, cursed us out and challenged us to a fight on the field after he thought we were intentionally walking a runner. That player happened to strike out, and thankfully the big bully was given a temporary suspension by the league.

But even the Bad News Bears pulled out a victory, and we finally got one last Tuesday. It was against the second-best team, and we rallied from an 8-1 deficit to win, 11-9.

It was that game which reminded me of why I was doing this in the first place. I personally am not so concerned about wins and losses (we're 2-7 so far), but rather on the improvement in the team's overall level of play. Then again, you should have seen the looks on our players' faces after our first win.

The joy was everywhere. The parents were jumping up and down, the kids were high-fiving each other and I was so caught up in the emotion that I even ran out to the pitchers' mound to carry our star hurler off the field.

At this level, nobody's in it for the money. The kids enjoy playing, the parents enjoy watching and most of the coaches love teaching the sport.

I do have to admit that I'm a tad jealous of our players. It would be great to be seven again and be able to play in little league.

But that obviously won't happen, so coaching is the next-best thing. And as long as there are children who are playing for the fun of it, then sports like baseball have a future.

Of course, winning helps, but the activity itself is what it's all about. And even if I need Sy Sperling's special procedure after June 6, the whole experience will have been well worth it.