Opinion:Lambert, mom get rare honor

Olathe Northwest junior Harrison Lambert is a throw-back to the old school high school athletes. Lambert plays football, basketball and baseball for the Ravens, resisting the specialization bug that has bitten a lot of his contemporaries.

It’s great for Lambert — he gets the variety of different sports, and he gets to work with a lot of different teammates. It’s gotta be a bit of a strain on his parents though. They hardly ever get a night off for nine months.

Lambert’s parents, and his mom especially, are fixtures at Northwest sporting events. His mom is more vocal, though always positive. She cheers for all the Ravens by name, not just her son.

“She’s here at every game,” Lambert said. “It keeps her busy.”

That’s old-school too, in an era when both parents increasingly work and struggle to make it to games that start at 5 p.m. So it’s nice to see that both Lambert and his mom will get some recognition this weekend.

Lambert sold the most tickets for Northwest’s baseball game against Leavenworth in the Frank White Classic at Kauffman Stadium last month. As a reward, he gets to throw out the first pitch before the Kansas City Royals face the Baltimore Orioles at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, May 11.

Because it’s Mother’s Day, Lambert’s mom will be behind the plate to catch his pre-game toss. It should be a nice memory for both of them.

It also will be a role reversal for Lambert, who splits the catching duties with Brad Alberts at Northwest. Perhaps he’ll have some tips for his mom, like how to frame the pitch inside the strike zone to make him look better. Hopefully he won’t have to teach her how to block a ball in the dirt, but with the pressure of a few thousand people watching him, who knows how far Lambert’s pitch will actually travel.

Still, throwing a strike is not the point of the ceremonial first pitch (though it is more crowd-pleasing than the alternative). It’s recognition for a job well done, and Lambert and his mom deserve that.

Everyone knows that the football and basketball seasons didn’t go so well for the Ravens this year, but Lambert, by all accounts, was a picture of class and an outstanding teammate through all the losses. Whatever role he was asked to play, he played it without complaint.

Meanwhile, his mom has been in the stands, faithfully cheering on the Ravens no matter how bleak the season looked. She’s not fair-weather, that’s for sure.

Things are looking up now, as Lambert is turning in a very solid year on the baseball diamond and that group of Ravens is at least winning more than it’s losing. I’m sure Lambert would tell you that’s been the best part of baseball season, and this whole first-pitch thing is icing on the cake.

The only thing that could make it better is if the Royals stepped up to the plate a more. Lambert said he wasn’t even sure if he and his mom would get free tickets to the game against Baltimore. Seems odd — they’re taking care of the first pitch, but they have to pay their own admission?

Of course, the Lamberts, being the team players that they are, probably aren’t going to complain.