My Cat Osterman Experience

My team the Nebraska Nemesis 98s was the first team to sign up for the Cat Osterman Experience in 2009.  We actually broke ground on this complex last year with Mayor Ed Babbit.  Unfortunatly, Mayor Ed Babbit passed away this past year and did not get a chance to see this beautiful complex.  Though we were not the first team to play a game on these fields this year, we are still honored to have been a part of this historical event.

I was looking forward to this the entire year and had told everyone I knew or met about this.  About a week before the scheduled date of July19th-24 for us to attend this event I was playing in the USSSA State tournament.  The plan was to finish the tournament and we had to win one more game to make it to the chamionship.  During the majority of this semi final game we had the lead the score was 3-1 in our favor.  With a time limit in our favor and us being the "home" team we were surly moving on to the finals with maybe 15 minutes to go in the game.  But then it happened.  I pitched a ball down the middle into the coffee can sized strike zone the umpire was giving me and the batter hit a hard line drive directly into my face.

Dad said that I looked like I got my hand up and the ball tipped off of the top of my glove and crushed my face.  Dropping me instantly.  Apparently, he was the first one out on the field.  I was bleeding, scared and disoriented.  After about 15 minutes of gushing blood you could hear the abulance in the back ground.  I wanted to get up.

-Bulldog

Once Brooke got up I asked her if she wanted to go sit in the shade because she was very wobbly.  She refuesed that and said she wanted to sit in the dug out and watch her team win the game.  I told her that was fine and the abulance was on the way.  She asked for a bucket to sit on.  A few seconds later she said she didn't feel good.  So I got her up and she got week in the knees and colapsed in my arms.  I carried her to a shaded area were the ambulance could pull up.  After the ambulance took my daughter Brooke and my wife off I remained at the field.  I was actually so upset that the other parents at the field noticed this and told me they would take care of my other two daughters while I went to the ER to see how Brooke was doing.  I said that was fine and that I was going to stay and watch the game because I knew Brooke would want to know the score...  What the heck was I thinking?  Obviousily, I wasn't thinking clearly.  Another dad said "Come on Scott we need to get you down to the ER and someone can call us with the score".  At the time I told him Brooke was going to be upset, but on the ride to the ER I started to process how hard of blow my kid just took and I got very teary eyed.

Once we got to the ER we entered a room and Brooke was laying in bed and it looked like here face was swelling right in front of my eyes.  It was very hard to see my daughter in so much pain that about every 10 minutes she was puking up blood from all of the pain.  In and out of x-rays and cat scans believe it or not, Brooke was actually asking how our team was doing.  By the time I had left the field the score was already tied up and there wasn't any outs.  It was obvious the team was very upset and probably wasn't going to win the game.  I told her we were doing fine and once I actually told her we were winning.  She was obviousily very tired so I dimmed the lights in the room so she could get some rest.  About an hour later my friend Scott told me that entered the room and told us that our team just lost in extra innings on a bad call.  Oh yeah, and our coach got thrown out of the game.  This is something that doesn't normally happen, so it was obvious everyone, including the coach was shook up by the event.

Several of Brooke's friends showed up to the ER and it broke my heart to see my daughter, that typicially always has a smile on her face almost throw up from the pain in her face because she wanted to smile at her team mate that showed up to comfort her.  I was very proud of the girls and her coaches for being so strong and not freaking out by what they saw when they entered the room.  I was also thankful because that meant a lot to me and I am sure Brooke for them to come see her in the ER. 

After about 5 hours in the ER the nurse was giving us some instructions and told Brooke something that probably hurt her more than the hit ball into her face.  The nurse mentioned that Brooke might not be able to play softball for several weeks.  That upset her so much that it actually made her shed a tear.  This kid is tough and she loves the game.  That tear made it so obvious.  Who would of thought that getting your face bashed in by a 100 mph ball coming straight into you would make you tear up less that the fact you might have to take it easy for a couple of weeks to recover so you didn't get hurt more.  That following Thursday she had a check up with the plastic surgeon and he would be able to tell us how long it would be before Brooke could play.

The reason I found out on the wasy home for Brooke getting so upset in the hospital was because she was looking so forward to playing in the Cat Osterman Experience and the World Series and they were less than a week away.  Brooke also wanted to watch her younger sister play at her Nationals in Branson and was looking forward to that as well.  As a matter of fact, we were leaving immidiatly after the touranment the Brooke was injured in.  On the way home from the ER Brooke actually said she wanted to still go with on the trip...  We delayed our departure and decided to go the next morning.  About midnight though the pain intensified and Brooke started to puke again from the pain.  She then told me she didn't want to go anymore.  I told her I didn't want to leave her, but she said she would stay home with mom.  I told her we would see in the morning how she was doing.  My sife stayed up and slept in her room that night.  I just as well should have because even though I take a ton of medication and sleep like a brick every night couldn't catch a wink and found myself in the room many times just staring at my kid with her swollen, brused and bloody face...  I just couldn't believe this happened to her and was amazed because she was almost unreckonizable.  In the morning I woke her and my wife up and asked her one more time if she wanted to go....  I knew the answer before I asked and would have made her stay home anyways if she would have said different.  So I gave her a kiss and left with Kenzie for Nationals.  That was a long 7 hour drive.  I couldn't get the image of the ball hitting her or her laying motionless on the ground out of my head.

All week long I called and worried and facebooked and worried and talked and cried to people about what had happened to Brooke.  I guess for the first three days she didn't have any appetite and threw up quite often because of the pain.  The swelling continually got worse for about three days and about the forth day, it all started to go away.  This was of course the day of her appointment.  Later that day I get a call from a voice I hadn't heard from in awhile...  You could almost see her smile through the phone.  She told me that the doctor actually said she could participate the following week in the Cat Osterman Experience.  I had never been more happy or scared at the same time.  It was so nice to hear my kid again.  Every time I talked to her from the time of the accident to that phone call sounded like almost a different person.

McKenzie was knocked out of the tournament and we headed home.  We could have stayed one extra day but we both decided to get home to see Brooke because we missed her so much.

Out of 25 teams from around the country we finished second in the silver division.  Some of the team we competed against included teams from Michigan, California North Carolina and Alabama.