Tiny Trotters ~a lesson in humility

I played basketball last night. It was in the same gym where I played junior high ball over twenty years ago. My team wasn’t very good when I was a kid, and we weren't any better as adults.

But man, was it fun. The video above is not from our game, but I posted it to give you and idea of what happened. Those are the same guys on the clip that we met last night.

A group of local firemen and police officers played a charity fundraiser last night against the Tiny Trotters. I am a volunteer fireman, so I qualified for the roster. But I have to be honest, I really didn’t want to play at first.

To me, it seemed to be a lose-lose situation for us. The Tiny Trotters are a traveling team of little people. If we lose? Well, we’d face ridicule from our fellow firefighters and police officers. If we won? I’ll let you figure out how that might not look so good for us.

About two hours before the game was to begin, I began to change my mind. Earlier this spring I made a promise to myself that I would try to do more things in life that seemed uncomfortable. You know, the “try-something-everyday-that-scares-you” kind of thing. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the worst that could probably happen was that I’d be a little embarrassed. OK. A lot embarrassed. But there just seemed to be a much larger upside to what I could learn.

So I put on my old basketball shoes and headed to the gym.

When I got there several of my teammates were already warming up on one end of the court. The Trotters were on the other end. But I only counted four.

“Hmmmm. Maybe it’ll be a forfeit and I won’t have to go through with this, “ I thought. I crossed my fingers. “After all, you need at least five to play.”

Warm ups continued. I never saw a fifth man.

We went back into the locker room to meet the guys and to learn a little about “how the game would be played” ( I won’t reveal any secrets, but I will say, that not all of the gags are “spontaneous”). The other team was great. So fun and full of life. But there still wasn’t a full roster on their side.

We went back out to the gym floor. A few hundred people were there and they all seemed ready to laugh – mainly at us, I was sure. The event organizers introduced our team and we played the part of macho cops and firemen. High fives. Chest butts. Muscle (or flab) flexing. We were ready and determined to keep this game close, even though we knew the odds were stacked against us.

The Tiny Trotters were introduced. 1-2-3-4. Still no fifth man.

Then we saw him.

The men’s basketball team at our local university did some pretty nifty recruiting this spring. Filled with a roster of guards, and in need of some size on his front line, head coach Jason Conner somehow discovered some hidden talent from overseas. That talent was to be the fifth member of our opponent’s squad.

So there they were. Four Tiny Trotters and a seven foot, twenty year old Russian.

In this previous post you can see the halftime score. Here is how it ended.




I can’t even begin to describe how good these guys were. Truthfully, they could have beaten us without the Russian. It might have been a little closer, but they would have won. And turns out there were one or two more Trotters and a few other locals from the university playing with them. The gags weren’t just for game time. They began before the crowd ever showed up. But we never stood a chance, no matter how much we might have tried to make ourselves believe it.

I’m really glad I played last night. If nothing else, I laughed and smiled in a manner that I haven’t done in quite some time. I met some incredible men. Inspiring men. Sure, I was tackled, stomped on by three Trotters, and covered in whipped cream. I had opponents go through my legs, block my shots, and steal the ball from me much, much too easily. One of my teammates had a pie thrown in his face. Another was doused by a bucket of water. We were dunked on, shot over, run around, and showed up. And we loved every single agonizing second of it.

The seven foot Russian has only been here a few months, and I’m sure he never expected to receive a college scholarship only to play in a game like this. If he performs half as well at the collegiate level as he did against aging civil servants we will be celebrating a national championship next spring. He seemed a little confused at first, but as the game went on he relaxed a bit and seemed to have as much fun as we did. At halftime, one of my friends (who happened to be playing for the other team) was talking to his new teammate.

“You having fun?” my friend asked.

The giant simply nodded his head, grinned a little and said, “Only in America. Only in America.”

So true.

Me and Little Jordan. He abused me all night.

Take care and God bless. Here's hoping you get a Tiny Trotter-like experience of your own.

~wj