Sometimes crying is allowed in baseball

This was a team that little was expected of this season, a team that was young and inexperienced, especially in its pitching staff, which isn’t what you want in one of the better baseball conferences in the country.

But it somehow got off to a good start, especially considering it was playing its first 30 games on the road before its new baseball palace could be completed.

It started unexpectedly by beating No. 24 Clemson in a series, the first time Clemson had lost a season-opening series in 20 years.

They took it from there, got some strong pitching, timely hitting and played competitively throughout the season, never being swept and winning an extremely emotional first game in the new Monongalia County Ballpark, going 13 innings with Butler to do it.

That first series wound up a sweep and Morgantown, for the first time since who knows when, had gone baseball mad. Fan were flocking to the new ballpark despite some dismal weather.

If only the team could have continued its run toward postseason play.

But there’s this thing about baseball that is true no matter what the league. You play enough games that, sooner or later, you reach your level. You may have a winning streak here and look like you’ll never lose again, but you hang enough curve balls and strike out enough with runners in scoring position and it catches up with you.

And that has happened. The ballpark remains a jewel but the team has slipped back to where it was thought to be before the year began, losing five in a row, 7-of-8 and 10-of-13.

A shame, as stated previously, but not a crying shame … and that brings us to Sunday when I cried at the ballpark.

Can’t recall the last time I did that, but I was probably 10 years old and lost a tough Little League game, although now that I think back on that first Little League team I played on it was an expansion team in an established league and we were losing games like 23-4 and 16-0, so maybe it was a year or two later before losing a game that brought tears.

No, the tears came before Sunday’s game and here’s why. In the pregame festivities on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish Foundation they brought a young girl to the mound with her family to throw out the first pitch.

Her name was Kayla, the family didn’t want to give out the last name, and she was from Kingwood.

She was grade school age, adorable, but suffers from autoimmune disease and, as they introduced her, they noted that her wish was to have an English bulldog puppy.

With that the baseball team, a couple of fraternal organizations at the school and a couple of other groups brought out items for her when she gets her puppy … a bed, toys, leash and collar.

It was then time to throw out the first pitch but that put that on hold for a moment because there was one other thing … and out from the dugout they delivered the English bulldog puppy she had wished for.

Folks, I lost it. Something about kids and puppies, just as there is something about baseball and hot dogs and sunny Sundays and a team with heart.

And that is the West Virginia baseball team and why what’s happened is a crying shame.

They deserve better. You may recall a few years back, when Oklahoma was hit by a killer tornado outbreak, this team with a heart went out there to help the victims, forever earning their respect. They even paid a follow up visit the next year to help with the ongoing clean up … tornado damage lasts a long time.

The team has been active in our state and community, helping to collect water for the water crisis in Charleston a year ago, honoring Wounded Warriors not only at the opening game at the new ballpark but last year at the banquet, making a couple of them honorary team members.

On Sunday games they open it up for kids to run the bases and get autographs of the players.

With that kind of record, they deserve a better fate than they’ve had throughout these last couple of weeks.