Softball: Poetry marks dignified exit for Sorenson

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Eleven-year-old Jaimee Sorenson had a room of world champions in tears with a poem she wrote for her father.

You are a Black Sox

You are my dad

When you hang up your cleats

You will be so sad


But sad is something

You should not be

Because you'll be a Black Sox

For eternity


Softball is your game

Mark Sorensen is your name

But what makes me so glad

Is that I get to call you dad.


Jaimee stood and read her verse at a night of tributes paid to her father, who retired this week after 17 years in the New Zealand softball side.

"It was pretty amazing - there were all these tough sports guys there, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house," Sorenson says.

It has been a week wrought with emotion for the Black Sox captain - and it's not over yet.

Tomorrow, when the New Zealand side is named to tour Australia, it will finally hit the 33-year-old Wellington sales manager and father-of-two that his playing days are over.

"I know it's going to be tough - I'll be still listening for my name," he laughed.

After all, he has been in the Black Sox line-up for more years of his life than he has been out of it.

At the tributes night in Wellington where Sorenson's playing number - No. 2 - was also retired, there was a poignant message from former Black Sox Michael White.

At the previous World Series, where White turned out for the United States, there was no love lost between the two. But that was all forgotten on Tuesday night.

"I must say that I was taken by surprise to hear you were retiring, especially when the future looks bright for New Zealand softball," White said.

"But as you have done throughout your career, you are meeting the challenge head-on and confronting the enemy before it confronts you."

The enemy is age. Not that Sorenson believes he's past it, at 33. But he points out that in softball years (kind of like dog years) he has been playing at the top for 20 seasons.

"What a lot of people don't realise is that I spent 12 years playing all year round - a season here, the next in America," he says.

"I just didn't want to be playing at 37, when the next World Series comes by. I always said I would play until I was played out of the team.

"I still feel at the top of my game - but my use-by date was becoming a bit of a concern."

Sorenson, the Black Sox captain for the past 12 years, was worried that his mental strength was fraying at the edges.

"It's something that I have become proud of - the mental discipline I was able to bring to the park. If you don't have that edge, you just become another player," he says.

"The candle was flickering a bit. Sure I had cold feet - I thought I was getting married again."

When they retired the No 2 uniform, Sorenson put his little black book away with it.

Since starting his international career, the catcher has kept a dossier on all the players he has come up against - listing their strengths and weaknesses.

But he won't be passing it on to the next generation of Black Sox.

"The information I keep in that book is constantly changing. I was picking up on players' habits, and they could change each season," he says.

"Part of our makeup as Black Sox is to share secrets. But this is like my diary, something I have built up.

"If someone gave it to me by default, it would be hollow."

He is still happy, however, to pass on advice to his former team-mates, now that the "Jurassic Park" guys - Sorenson, Kere Johanson and Dean Rice - have all called it quits.

"We will work with the guys. I'm still available for phone calls," Sorenson says.

But he's in no hurry to coach at the top. Today, he will be down at the diamond with Jaimee's all-girl softball side.

"It's a challenge - a bunch of 12-year-old girls and only a couple of them have ever played before," he laughs. "It's coaching at the very basic level - I'm just trying to make sure they have fun.

"I would like to coach seriously at some stage but it's all about timing. I wouldn't want to go straight into it now, especially coaching players I've just played with."

He has other things to do in the meantime. He has started playing golf, and is thinking about doing tertiary studies in business management or marketing.

He can spend more time at his real job, as a sales manager with Spicers Paper. He says he owes his employers for their support and understanding over the years.

"So many athletes are struggling to work and play. But I have found work to be an important balance to get away from the game.

"I really enjoy going to work - remember I spent 12 years in the United States hanging out in shorts, singlet and jandals during the week."

His wife, Jayne, has some work around the house for him to do, to make up for last year when he was away for his fifth world championship. And there are the children.

"The kids are always important to me. Spending five weeks away from them at a stretch was really hard," he says.

"Jaimee understands, being 11, but Grayson, who's two, takes a bit of time to get settled again when I get home."