Tim Hollibaugh<\/a><\/strong>, the head coach of the Pioneers, have shaped the lives of each player who has stepped between the lines for GC.\u00a0 It is impossible to say what each of us would be doing had we not been teammates at Grinnell, but what each of us has done since we graduated is rather inspiring, at least, for me.\u00a0 We all seem to be moving in directions that will allow us to be happy adults and positive contributors to each of our environments.\u00a0 While we all probably had very busy weeks and months ahead, everyone seemed able to let go of work\/school for the weekend and very relaxed as a result.\u00a0 During our time together, I\u2019m not sure any of us had what could possibly constitute a serious conversation.\u00a0 Amidst an entire weekend full of inside jokes and recollecting our times shared years ago, we walked away from Grinnell still in nearly every way the same kids and ballplayers we were during our time in the scarlet and black.<\/p>\nThe good fortune and persistent recruiting that somehow was able to land us all in the same small town in Iowa will never fully be accounted for by any of us, but there is no way to really describe how thankful I am now for spending my collegiate experience there with the group of guys that I did.\u00a0 In talking with some of the current GC players, I was reminded of just what it felt like to be a student and athlete there.\u00a0 They surprised me with how aware they were of who they are and what the game and the team meant to them.\u00a0 The Pioneers of today make me endlessly proud to call myself an alum.\u00a0 I am very confident that they will hoist the MWC trophy in 2012.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think the game ever leaves our lives<\/strong>, even after our play between the lines comes to an end.\u00a0 During fungo work over the weekend, I was reminded of what it was that made me a valuable member of the Pioneer team and even before. \u00a0My hands in the infield allowed me to stay on the field well beyond what my bat could justify, and picking the ball up was always something I could do pretty well.\u00a0 In watching Robbie and Arlo take cuts, I was reminded of just how well they swung the bat.\u00a0 Robbie got more out of his set of tools than anyone I\u2019ve ever known and continues to do so in London today.\u00a0 Mike may not even be done improving.\u00a0 His arm has held up better than any of the rest of the other alums\u2019, and I think his bat has a little more lift in it than it used to, although it\u2019s a little tough to recall since I had not seen him take a cut in three years.\u00a0 It is my belief that if not for baseball and constantly trying to grip four-seams as quickly as possible that my hands could not adequately control a dental handpiece or forceps.\u00a0 Labor Day weekend reminded me of that, but this time it likely was dentistry that had kept my hands in decent shape for groundball work instead of vice versa.<\/p>\nMy experience at Grinnell is something I am very proud of, but I don\u2019t think I understood how proud until I returned after some time away.\u00a0 Seeing the new yard and the new athletic center as well as the current crop of players reinforced in me the positive direction in which the program is headed.\u00a0 I feel very proud when Coach Hollibaugh suggests that Rob, Mike, and I helped begin the program\u2019s climb, even though it is my belief that Kevin Byrne essentially taught us how to be captains.\u00a0 As we\u2019ve moved into our own lives independent of one another, this weekend, more so than perhaps anything else, reminded me that we are not and will never be fully independent of our teammates.\u00a0 My time at Grinnell particularly shapes what I do on a daily basis, and I could not be prouder of the friendships I made while I was there and the time I spent as a Pioneer.\u00a0 I would like to thank all of my fellow baseball alums for making Labor Day weekend as meaningful as it was for me.\u00a0 Marsh, special thanks to you for helping organize it.<\/p>\n
GO PIONEERS!
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Labor Day weekend across the United States marks in many ways the end of summer.\u00a0 For students this means a return to the lab and the classroom.\u00a0 For working Americans it means, well, I\u2019ve never really been a \u201cworking American\u201d, so I\u2019m not exactly sure.\u00a0 Regardless, at Grinnell College in central Iowa, Labor Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15,1300,16,13,776,14],"tags":[49,2722,2724,2723,708,363],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4835,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions\/4835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/grinnellcollegebaseball.png\" "\\"grinnellcollegebaseball\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n