Fate seals a team's bond. (My Turn).

The unimaginable happened on a wintry January morning earlier this year. An SUV carrying nine Yale students crashed into a jackknifed truck on an icy road. Four of the students died. Two of them were members of my Yale baseball team. The other two young men who perished also had ties to Yale athletics.

As I write this, I have just returned from another memorial service. This one was on campus, held in honor of Kyle Burnat, a righthanded pitcher from Atlanta. A few weeks earlier, my entire team attended the church service for Nick Grass, a righthanded pitcher from Holyoke, Mass. Prior to that, through the generosity of President Richard Levin and Yale University, I was able to travel to Georgia with 11 of my players to attend the Atlanta service for Kyle.

Kyle was a fun-loving, yes, sir/no, sir, Southern gentleman. He parted his hair on the side, wore his socks too high, and liked old-time country music. His teammates teased him constantly about these things, but he never wavered. They were just a part of his considerable charm and were much of the reason his teammates loved him so much.

Nick was a tough competitor who backed down from no one. He wore his hat so low that you wondered if he could actually see. Although just a shade under 6 feet, he looked imposing and unapproachable. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

These were two of the finest young men I have ever had the honor to coach. They both lived life to the fullest, seemingly reveling in each and every minute. People gravitated to them. They were always the life of the party.

People have asked me, "How can you go on?" My response, "How can we not?" I envision Kyle and Nick looking upon this scene and saying, "Enough already!" And so we go on.

I have emphasized to my players that it is OK to cry, for sure, but it is also OK to laugh. The memorial services have been tinged with laughter and tears. Team practices have gone extremely well, as there seems to be a new energy surrounding my team. Reminders of the two fallen teammates are everywhere, from tattoos to the numbers and initials the players wear on their hats and shoes. We are dedicating this season to their memory. Not in how many games ...