RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Sadie Armstrong is a 5-foot-10 pitcher/infielder from Portland, Maine who plays for the Firecrackers-Bordeau and Central Mass Voodoo travel teams and is one of the top prospects in the 2023 class.
She’s written over 10 blogs for Extra Inning Softball and in her latest Inside Pitch she explains that “You have to win at the small things to win at the big things,” and that goes for off the field as much as between the lines.
Sadie was selected in March as one of the 2023 Extra Elite 100 honorees and has been named as a two-time All-American by USA Softball, a member of USSSA Elite Select Futures and chosen as a Pre-Season Rookie by Under Armour Softball Factory thanks to a solid array of pitches including a screwball, drop, change and rise. Offensively, she has consistent ball exit velocity speeds in the high 60s to low 70s.
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Climbing the steep and dimly lit stairs in a building last remodeled before the second World War, I held a bag full of freshly baked, golden popovers in a bag looped over one arm, a Tupperware tub of garden fresh salad tucked under the other, and a precariously balanced and scalding hot glass dish tightly covered in aluminum foil and containing my mother’s homemade chicken cordon bleu casserole gripped in my doubled-up oven mitts.
It was a challenging feat for which my years of agility training had left me ill-prepared.
I loved how the aroma of the lovingly-made food filled the small indoor space as I excitedly anticipated the answer to the doorbell I rung.
The blue eyes of the elderly woman’s face sparkled and crinkled as the smile spread across her face when my mother, brother and sister helped me unload the prepared food which now covered her entire kitchen counter and explained that we were there to give her a hand with some meals until her family could visit to help her after her recent surgery.
I was thrilled to share the cherry cobbler when she offered, even though my mother admonished us to not eat it because we had our own at home. Still, we were reluctantly allowed, and I suspect that was so, in order for our new friend to have some companionship during her meal.
We still participate in the “Casserole Brigade” when the need arises and although I love to prepare the food, the real joy, for me, is meeting a new friend or helping an old one.
I was taught not to talk about good deeds or works because when you do something that is actually altruistic, you should not do it for glory or attention.
On social media, though, people noted the good deeds that they would do or witnessed, and it seemed like the intent was to spread the idea of doing good.
I am sharing my story about the “Casserole Brigade” for just that purpose, and I think the following example is another time when it was okay to share a good deed for inspirational purposes.
Recently, Coach Mark Bordeau of the Florida Firecrackers Sewell/Bordeau team shared an inspirational video from several years ago that he found on social media.
