-
Coach Josh White’s cousin, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly, shared some advice with local Little League players Sunday, encouraging them to work as a team. PHOTO/DEBBIE DANIEL
Some St. Cloud Little League players got a major league virtual visit after practice Sunday when the local Diamondbacks had a chance to FaceTime with Merrill Kelly, a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Little League Diamondbacks, or “baby snakes,” as Coach Josh White calls them, seemed starstruck as they met Kelly, his cousin.
“I’m totally geeked out,” said Andre Banrey.
Kelly, who is currently on the Diamondbacks’ injured list with a strained latissimus, took the call from the clubhouse during the Diamondbacks’ game against the San Diego Padres and shared some advice with the younger players.
“The best guys fail seven times out of ten,” he said. “This game is hard enough already. You’re going to fail. The team you’re with is like your family. Those guys are your brothers. So if you guys have each other’s backs, no matter what’s going to happen, whether you win or lose or whether you guys do well or not, you guys can always fall back on kind of motivating each other and pushing each other. At the end of the day, during a long season, that’s really who you rely on more than the coaches, more than anybody. It’s you guys.”
When one of the “baby snakes” asked Kelly how to improve the chemistry of the team, he suggested, “At our level, if we see someone not doing their job … we kind of take that into our own hands to make sure everyone is going in the same direction. So if you see your teammates kind of getting out of line, doing something they shouldn’t be, I think that should be up to you guys even more than the coaches to let them know, ‘Hey, we’re trying to win ballgames, and we’re trying to do this all together.’ If someone’s not going in the same direction, I think it’s up to the team to make sure everyone is going to the same spot.
Kelly added that team sports like baseball not about a single player.
“It’s about you guys coming together as a team,” he said. “So if someone is trying to take away from the team and kind of being about themselves, that’s going to show. That’s not going to translate well as a teammate, and it’s not going to translate well into winning baseball games.”
Sunday afternoon, the Major League Diamondbacks came away with an 11-4 win over the Padres. The Little League Diamondbacks came away with valuable advice—for baseball and for life: It’s not just about you. We’re all in this together.
