18U Sadness
 

Take a look at the link below. I umpired this coaches last game. It was a heart breaker to see the "for the big guy" or "for Didi" written on the backs of their jerseys. There was also another coach that passed away from a different team earlier in the week during the night at the hotel. Sad week.

http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=398379

Wow....... Just wow....

The other coach....
 

was an assistant with the Jersey Outlaws. Tom Tobin was his name. After I coached my last asa game at the 18u leverl in Georgia 2-3 years back , I had a chance to sit and chat with Tom about softball, life, etc. and he really was a wonderful man.
May these 2 fellows rest in peace, softball is a better sport with fellows like this in the sport.

I was the third base umpire on the Rockers first game, just a couple of hours after the coach died. The girls were playing on pure adrenaline that game...but it was no fluke that they won the championship. They were a team with a lot of talent that were playing with a mission.

In a great show of sportsmanship, the team they beat in that first game after DiDi's death gave each one of the Rockers players a rose at the end of the game.