The story below about Cal Poly Pomona's former baseball coach, the legendary John Scolinos, was written by Chris Sperry and it appeared on his blog. The full article is linked here.

In Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA convention. Nineteen times since, many of the same professional, college, high school, youth, and a slew of international coaches from passionate and developing baseball nations have gathered at various convention hotels across the country for two-and-half days of clinic presentations and industry exhibits. Sure, many members of the American Baseball Coaches Association have come and gone in those years; the leadership has been passed, nepotistically, from Dave Keilitz to his son, Craig; and the association — and baseball, in general — has lost some of its greatest coaches, including Rod Dedeaux, Gordie Gillespie, and Chuck "Bobo" Brayton.

I have attended all but three conventions in those nineteen years, and I have enjoyed and benefited from each of them. But '96 was special — not just because it was held in the home of country music, a town I'd always wanted to visit. And not because I was attending my very first convention. Nashville in '96 was special because it was there and then that I learned that baseball — the thing that had brought 4,000 of us together — was merely a metaphor for my own life and those of the players I hoped to impact.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — "John Scolinos is here? Oh man, worth every penny of my airfare."

To continue reading, access Sperry's blog.