Is Honesty Really the Best Policy?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 -- Following up on my March 20 post "It's Zach's Fault," Zach missed the Refugio game because he was invited to Quemado (on the border near Del Rio) for Spring Break at his friend William Hughes' family ranch. Zach's original plan, at the urging of his teammates, was to skip the game and apologize to the coach after the fact. The idea was that he would get in trouble, have to run a bunch of laps around the field, and it would be over. I insisted that Zach be honest with the coach up-front so that he could plan his pitching rotation accordingly. In retrospect, it appears that Zach's teammates' advice may have been the wiser choice. Not only did Zach end up running laps as predicted, but he was demoted to the Junior Varsity where he stayed for the remainder of the season. As I write this, the team - hobbled by a lack of pitching depth - has suffered a second loss to Refugio and is officially out of the running for the playoffs. The punishment, in my opinion, did not fit the crime, and ultimately did more harm to the team than a single missed game.