By Frank Notaro, November 8, 2019 — I … used to coach a summer league for high school in Colonia when I was still a coach. We were up in Piscataway playing in the semifinals against Old Bridge and [my grandson was] even there. [My wife] was there and … [my grandson] used to hang out in the dugout and cheer along with my players. I remember [he was] shy and nervous to talk to all of these older kids because [he was] only around five years old. We were getting beat up pretty bad when we started to mount a comeback. It was 7-4 Old Bridge in the bottom of the ninth inning and after two home runs we cut the deficit down to 1. First batter walked and second hit a single. Runners on first and third. I stole my guy on first so now its second and third with one out and my fourth hitter of the inning hit one in the gap and the two runners scored, Game over. I was so happy I started to run from third base where I was coaching and passed the dugout.
I remember like It was in slow motion that the entire dugout was empty. I completely forgot about the game and started to get nervous that I did not see [my grandson] in there. In a panic, I looked at [my wife] and mouthed the words, “Where’s Mark?” She could tell I was starting to get worried and with a huge smile on her face, she pointed to home plate where my team was just celebrating their walk-off win to head the championship. I did not care at the moment because I thought you had been abducted or something. I gave her a look like, “I am not worried about my team right now, where is Mark?” She then pointed over there again and I turned and all of the sudden saw my team surrounding something at home plate. Then they started to scoop it up and noticed that it was [Mark] they were surrounding. They picked [him] up like [he was] a trophy and ran [him] around the entire field in celebration. I couldn’t do anything except for laugh because that was the last place I expected you to be.
The funny thing is, that wasn’t even the best part of the evening. When we were leaving I had just put my equipment in the trunk and closed it. The trunk popped back open. I close it. It opened again. I close it and It opened again. I thought I must have been hitting the button on accident in my pocket but then realized the keys were not the problem. Over at my wife’s car, I saw her confusingly pointing her keys at her car trying to get it open. Then, it clicked. She had a spare set of my keys on her keyring and I noticed what she was doing. I yelled over to her, “Hey, Ann Marie! Are you having trouble opening your trunk?” She yells back, “Yes, Frank!” Then I started to chuckle and yelled back, “Well you sure as hell aren’t having trouble opening mine!”