Thank You, Coaches, for Taking Care of My Son and All of Your Players

An open letter to Richard Caines and Henry Brandon, Manager and Coach of the 2010 Culver City Little League Major Pirates

Dear Richard and Henry:

I wanted to take this opportunity to write to you and thank you both for so very much.

Thank you for volunteering hundreds upon hundreds of hours when you could have been at home with your own families, but instead, you treated the Pirates’ players as your very own family;

Thank you for taking Jason under your collective wings and treating him like a son;

Thank you for taking all of the Pirates under your wings, and treating them like your sons, except of course for Miranda, whom you treated like a daughter;

Thank you for making our children better baseball players, but more importantly, helping to make them, in many ways, better persons;

Thank you for being both an adult friend and an adult disciplinarian to the kids, sometimes at the same time;

Thank you for instilling confidence in the children, and giving them the belief that they could, indeed, do anything;

Thank you for setting a positive example for the children. In a game where negative examples are far too prevalent, you both exhibited the kind of attitude and demeanor that is so often missing in organized kids' sports; and

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to coach alongside you, an honor I will always cherish.

Success is a difficult word to define. Were the 2010 Culver City Major Pirates successful?

There’s no question, they certainly were. And without question, you two were a significant reason for our success.

“Some people dream of success… others wake up and work hard at it.”

I think that that the Pirate parents would agree that you two are certainly not dreamers. Your work ethic was a great example to our kids.

Perhaps American cultural anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead said it best, “I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.”

Dr. Mead would be very proud of both of you.

Thanks again.

Mr. Zeidman may be contacted at Scott.Zeidman@laslots.com