Suzanna Parpos| Special to Worcester Magazine
Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood is a roadmap for the summer and side jobs of my early and mid 20s. The resume of industries is eclectic: restaurants, retail, coffee (shops) – even a real estate marketing firm.
The famous like to visit the Back Bay, but this column isn’t about dishing out details from when a low-key John Rocker came in to dine at Charley’s Eating & Drinking Saloon on Newbury Street. It isn’t about the Olympic champion figure skater with prima donna demands at Starbucks on Boylston Street. And this column isn’t about the entertaining interaction with Manny Ramirez in the private lobby entrance of Niketown, which I had access to as an employee of the real estate marketing firm located on the top floor of the Niketown building.
Meeting Manny was fun; so was having Lou Merloni as a substitute teacher in high school.
While some people wait a lifetime to meet their favorite player, I am raising mine. Yes, my favorite player calls me, mom. And for the past three baseball seasons, he also called me, coach.
The dugout — it isn’t a place I expected to be, at least not at this stage of the game. It seems the older and bigger and stronger the boys (young men) get, the fewer moms there are in the dugout and on the sidelines. Let’s not sugarcoat the truth: not all dads comprising coaching staffs are welcoming of a mom assistant coaching players that have transitioned from an instructional-level of play to a competitive one, and of equal truth is the fact that there are not many moms signing up to coach their teens.
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With regards to the former, despite the couple of rotten apples in the orchard, the majority has been welcoming of me on their coaching staff both in the dugout, as well as, on the sidelines at flag football. And for that, I am grateful.
Before my son reached the ‘bruh’ years, I couldn’t share with my baller about how the road to the big diamond was laced with foul plays from coaches scouting the bleachers for single moms. I didn’t want my son’s faith in coaches, and humanity as a whole, to be lost at such a young age. I wanted him to have the chance to fall in love with the sport and all that baseball can give and teach a player about the game, and about life.
Flattery got the rotten apples nowhere; the text and Facebook messages with married coaches reporting on my “stats” were unappealing offers. I am proud to report that I went undrafted those seasons. For me, it is as Louisa May Alcott stated, “Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.” I don’t know what I’m batting in motherhood, but I know I’m giving my all to raise a happy son and a player that will have integrity in whatever position/role he has in the sport — be it a player or one day, a father and coach himself.
The road to the big diamond has had far more good (apples) than bad ones. Last spring season (2022), my son was drafted to the local A's. His Head Coach was, without a doubt, the best youth sports coach. And despite Coach Mike’s 2023 A’s team knocking out the 2023 Cubs team (the one that I was the Assistant Coach of) in this year’s final playoff game before the World Series, I still would argue Coach Mike is the best youth sports coach.
It was a bittersweet end to the 2023 Cubs season, but I’m grateful our entire team was together to wrap-up and celebrate what was a great spring season of baseball. Life is a rollercoaster and it has its ups and downs. And in that nature, our team had its ups and downs during the season.
But through it all, the Cubs kept a fighting spirit and played, and ‘lived’ the game, with heart, determination and integrity. The (local) Chi-Town team was the only team to beat the back-to-back World Series Champions, the As, multiple times during the 2023 season. The Cubs were also the only Framingham team to beat the local out-of-town team whose roster was stacked with club players.
The Framingham 2023 TW League Cubs — they have a special place in the heart of this dirt-and-diamond-mom turned Assistant Coach. The crack of the bat — the pop of the mitt … I never knew how electrifying those sounds could be, but then one early morning years back, in the serene dawning of a summer day, I heard my favorite player outside in the yard taking batting practice. I looked out the window — through the rays of sunrise, my baller stood solo…he had fallen, just as I had, in love with America’s pastime.
After being part of the 2022 World Series Championship team, my favorite player spent the off-season working on his pitching. All winter long, on the weekly, we went to the baseball academy to continue training with the extraordinary Coach Brian. Hard work does, in fact, pay off and in the 2023 season, my lefty took the hill as starting pitcher for his first season on the big diamond.
I got the best view — I was in the dugout, and I was at first base (coaching). Along with the Head Coach and another Assistant Coach, we rode the rollercoaster with nine incredible teens. From this dirt-and-diamond-mom-coach, who was the only female to enter this spring’s Coaches’ Home Run Derby, I hope the Cubs players saw Babe Ruth’s words come to life and being genuinely lived: “Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.” I hope that will be their forever reminder, not just in sports, but also in life, to not let fear limit or dictate their abilities — I hope they will maintain a faith in themselves that keeps them boundless.
And perhaps, when they look back on our season, they will smile remembering the Greek I spoke and taught them in that dugout and the lesson given in that last motivational, top of the seventh [inning], speech … good girls sometimes cuss.
I started this column with a Braves player that came into the Boston restaurant I worked in; it seems fitting to end this column with the lyrics about that team. Morgan Wallen’s, “’98 Braves,” entwines love and life lessons in the recap of the 1998 Braves’ season.
To the ’23 Cubs … We won some, we lost some; they weren’t always home runs — that’s just the way life plays. We got close; close didn’t cut it. But, we had a real good run.
Suzanna Parpos is a single mom and writer that works in the field of special education. Find her at: suzannaparpos.com.
