Life's Evolution

It was 1960, and I was attending my very first professional baseball game. My mom took me to Seattle to attend a Seattle Rainiers game. Sick's Seattle Stadium was at the corner of Rainier Ave. S. and S. McClellan St. When I walked up the steps to field level and saw the deep green of the infield, I am certain my jaw dropped to my knees! This was like heaven!!

From that day to this, I have loved the game. I was never very good at it but have been around it since I was eight years old. Oh, I played Little League and then Babe Ruth. I even was on my high school teams, first on the junior varsity and, in my senior year, the varsity. But only played one game, and that was only one at-bat and that at-bat lasted only one pitch. I grounded out to the pitcher.

When our first child, Jason came along, I began to pass things along. He seemed to love all sports and, indeed, in high school, he excelled at football, basketball, soccer and baseball. The latter was his favorite and he received several awards: All-Wesco junior/senior year, All-Area senior year and All-State senior year. He went on to play for three years at perennial power, Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

He has been teaching and coaching for nine years and presently he is the Head Baseball coach at R.A. Long High School in Longview, Washington. Longview is a two-school town: Mark Morris High School and R.A. Long High School. Jason took over the R.A. Long program when he was still teaching at Kelso High School and began to change things. The year before he took over, the Lumberjacks (his teams' mascot) had won only two baseball games; 2-18!! Not good!

Jason began to build things and little by little, things changed. It was, however, not without some very deep sorrow and frustrations on Jason's part. He was not sure at all that he wanted to continue. Parents were a huge problem. They always seemed to be complaining and there was no support from the administrators or AD. He would call me and we would talk long hours as he would vent and share his dilemmas.

Over the years things have improved. Along with the Head Football coach, Eric Bertram, Jason has been pushing the school toward a sense of excellence. They have begun to build their own school identity and with Eric's help, things are moving along excellently.

Today, we attended the annual Hall of Fame Luncheon of the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association. It was held at Safeco Field and the keynote speaker was Jack Zduriencik, the General Manager of the Seattle Mariners. By the way, a phenomenal speaker; completely open and totally honest about the most recent season's performance by the Mariners.

We were there to see Jason receive the Don Freeman Award: for outstanding achievement by a young coach. He had, in June, been selected by the AP Sportswriters of the State of Washington as the 2A Washington State Baseball Coach of the Year, for leading the R.A. Long Lumberjacks to a 2nd place finish in the state tournament.

Of course, we are very proud of the job he has done and what he has accomplished in his short career. But as his dad, I still remember all the hours and hours and hours he would make me hit ground balls to him, throw batting practice to him and play catch with him. I still think about all the games we would go to and the baseball cards we collected (which he still has!) and the autographs we asked for. I still have the ball that was his first home run, which was in Little League. He made sure to sign it for me. He was 12 at the time!!!

Truly, I am not writing this to impress anyone. I am not writing it to brag and to say "look what my kid did". I am writing it because we all want our kids to find their place in life. We all want our kids to find success and to be acknowledged for their successes. Well, he has found his place and has found success in that place.

But the most important thing of all is that he is still just Jason Castro. He used to be Jason Castro, Pat and RaeLyn's kid. But now he is Jason Castro, husband to Jill, daddy to Bailey and Maddie, teacher, coach and mentor to hundreds. But he is really just Jason, the kid who loves everybody and who is loved by everybody.

Funny how life transforms us and changes us as it moves along. Thirty years ago he and I were wrestling in the living room. Twenty-seven years ago he and I played Aggravation after dinner every night and I can still remember his joy when he finally beat me! I remember the time I hit a grounder to him and it knocked out one of his front teeth and how he refused to quit--he wanted me to keep hitting more balls!

Now I am Papa Pat, Bailey and Maddie's grandpa and I am the man who lives with Nana Lyn. And, as Bailey told me last weekend, "You are not a boy, you are too old to be a boy. Papa, you need to sit down and rest."

Life does change and it moves along non-stop. But we stay who we are, who God created us to be. RaeLyn and I were certainly proud when our son walked up to receive his plaque today. But there is no plaque for what he is best at: just being Jason!