May 9, 2001
| Ramona Shelburne |  | Year: Senior
Position: OF
Height: 5-2
Hometown: West Hills, CA
High School: El Camino Real
Major: American Studies |
|
The stadium is finally done. Well, almost. There's still a fence around it, some orange cones up on top and yellow tape around a few seats that couldn't get put in yet, but last weekend, for the first time ever, there were people sitting in the seats.
I used to say "I'll believe it's done when I see people sitting up in the seats" when asked over the last 3 years or so how the stadium was coming. Yeah, that's right, 3 years. Ever since I got here as a freshman we've been hearing how we were going to get a stadium.
"They're going to break ground this summer," I heard as I left school after my freshman season.
"The plans have been approved, all they have to do is build it," we were told the next year.
And then this year it's been "it should be ready in January," and then "it'll be done for Pac-10s."
After a while, I got fatalistic about it. "I'll believe it when I see people sitting up in the stands," I said.
No one ever lied to us, things just take longer than you think sometimes.
Like getting to the World Series.
Each year I've been here we say "we're going this year, no doubt." But each year, something has tripped us up along the way.
The first year it was inexperience. We'd never been to postseason before and didn't take the right attitude into Regionals.
The second year our chemistry was off. People were going in different directions and when it gets to be crunch time, to quote Coach Rittman, "everyone has to be pushing the rock up the hill."
Last year, we let the pressure of being a #1 seed get to us. We played not to lose, and weren't able to throw off all the negative stuff that builds up in Pac 10 season.
After last season, I got fatalistic about it. "I'll tell you we're going to the World Series when I'm on the plane to Oklahoma City."
You can be confident all you want, and that's great, but you still have to make it happen. The question is how?
If I could give you the precise answer to that I'd be a highly paid sports psychologist right now with every coach in America knocking on my door. That said, here's my best try:
1) Play catch.
2) Hit the ball where it's pitched.
3) Stay positive.
4) Execute.
What does all that mean? To me at least, it means, take care of the things that you can control. You're not always going to get all the breaks. Balls will fall in between people or take funny bounces. The umpire will call a ball instead of a strike or say a runner is out instead of safe. But you can still play defense, hit the ball hard where it's pitched, keep a positive attitude, execute bunts, hit-and-runs, or first-and-third plays.
All those things are in your control.
When you set goals for yourself, you are always supposed to make a plan for how you will attain them. Things don't just happen because you want them to or because you are a good person.
So what we're a talented team. Definitely talented enough to go to the World Series. But no matter how much you want it, you have to make a plan for how you're going to get there.
This week, our stadium finally got finished not because we all really wanted it to, but because Mr. Arrillaga and Ted Leland and a bunch of other people got out there and made it happen.
Two or three years behind schedule but the stadium did get done.
The reason I wrote this column now, instead of next week when we are prepping for Regionals, is because I feel like the last few weeks we've really only "wanted it" and not made things happen.
We've done a pretty good job of staying positive, but we've still made too many errors, popped up too many bunts, or let too many good outside pitches pass us by. None of these things is due to a lack of effort, if anything we might have been pressing a bit, but in the end, they end up being the difference between Wins and Losses. Now is the time to address these problems. Tommorrow, the next day, this weekend. Not on a plane ride home from Regionals wondering what went wrong.
On that note then, I'll sign off and let you know how we fared on the four goals up in Oregon.
I'll let you know if we're going to the World Series when we're on the plane to Oklahoma City.
