“Put the Best Nine on the Field,” They Say….

“Put the VERY Best nine on the field”, they say
Let the very best players make the play! 
But when it comes to which nine to choose
Everyone has very different views.

Who will catch, who will pitch?
If Sally starts can her and Em switch?
If Meg goes to first, and Lou to 2nd,
Then Babs will have to play short, I reckon. 

But then, the outfield will be quite bare
Because no ones mom wants their daughter out there. 

And if Jordan plays 3rd and Mo’s at first 
Then Lilas dad will have an outburst. 
Then there’s Jo, Mack, Mary and Grace
Where will they play, who goes in which space? 

We have 12 girls that helped get us to the BIG GAME
Choosing the best nine, just seems insane. 

What so many always seem to forget 
Is that it takes more than just 9 to be a threat. 
We need girls to cheer, and girls to play
And girls to come in when their teammate has a bad day.

We may need more than one girl to pitch
If the balls keep landing in the ditch. 
And what happens if someone gets hurt
Who will we call to fill her shirt.

Plus some girls are fast, and some girls bunt 
Some are better at keeping the ball in front. 
One day she’s on, and one day she’s not
We need to have players for every spot. 

And what we did today, took them all to achieve. 
Thinking it just takes nine is my biggest pet peave. 

The bench has to be ready to come in and play
If the girls in the field are not having a good day. 
We take 12 to practice, 12 to the field
Chose 12 for the season to as ONE TEAM yield. 
We win as one, and we lose as one, too
We stick together no matter what we go through. 

So at the end of the day when you ask for the best nine
Forgive me if I have more than that in mind. 
Because each girl was chosen to be on my team
And I believe they are part of one big grand scheme. 

While to you, it may seem it only takes 9 to win
The truth is, it takes the entire team to be kin. 
So no matter where or what position she plays
NO matter who goes out or who in the dugout stays
Where we go one, we go all - win, lose or draw 
And, On MY team it takes all 12 to win it all!