Dallas Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

 After Evan got home from school on Friday, he and I drove to the Dallas-area (Cedar Hill) for another tournament.  Rachel and Noah stayed home to spend time with Uncle Mike, Aunt Jen, Maya and Artie.

 When we got there, we went with some other families to dinner.  We enjoyed ourselves.  The food was good and the company was nice.

  Their first game was at 11:30 on Saturday morning.  It was cold and very windy.  The wind was blowing so strong, the boys' hats would blow off.  It actually affected the pitches being thrown.  Several kids looked like they were throwing sliders when in reality, the wind was just pushing the ball.  Evan did great.  He caught most of the first game and pitched two innings in the second game.  He was 3-4 with two doubles.  His team went 1-1.

  Noah had a flag football game. Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen were at a wedding so Grandma and Papa were taking care of Artie and Maya.  They all came to Noah's game.  Noah pulled several flags.  His team won 24-0.  After that, they stopped at Sweet Caroline's for a post-game snack.  Later in the afternoon they went to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden.  The Garden had a scavenger hunt to find statues.  The kids enjoyed it.  Noah stayed over with Maya and Artie to keep them company.  Grandma and Papa said it was like having an extra adult because Noah could entertain the younger kids and make sure they were ok.

  This morning, Evan's game was also at 11:30.  He struck out in his first at-bat, though he fouled off a number of pitches before he couldn't catch up to a fastball.  He started at catcher.  The second batter of the game grounded out and in the process threw his bat back and hit Evan with the bat.  The game was delayed a bit while Evan tried to work the pain out of his shoulder.  Two batters later, a very large kid - probably 5'9 or 5'10 crushed a ball to the fence.  There was going to be a play at the plate.  The ball and kid arrived at the same time and as Evan reached to catch the ball and apply the tag, the boy slid and took Evan's legs out from under him.  It caused Evan to flip in the air and come down hard.  Some people say that Evan flipped twice.  My memory is that he flipped on a couple different axes.  In any event, some part of the boy rammed into Evan's thigh and he wasn't able to put weight on his left leg.  He had to come out of the game.  He still is having trouble putting too much weight on his leg.  However, because he had already batted, and the team was batting 10 batters, Evan had to come to bat again.  Batting was not the problem, it was running bases and they could not pinch run for him if he got on base.  Evan had a good at-bat and worked the count full.  He fouled off a couple of pitches only to eventually reach base by - being hit by a pitch.  Yes, the kid could not catch a break.  He hobbled down to first and barely took a lead because there was no way he could steal.  Just then the batter behind him crushed a ball to the fence which ended up being a triple.  Poor Evan ran as hard as he could and ended up scoring.  You could tell as he was running he was in pain.  But he did it.  The whole game, coaches and parents from all over the complex were coming to tell Evan how tough he was.  After he ran the bases like that, some parent from another team that wasn't playing came over and said "Hey 21, that was awesome.  You are one tough kid"  Evan's team lost 3-2. 

  Before we drove home, we joined the 13U team for lunch at Chili's.

  Rachel and Chewie joined Grandma, Papa, Artie and Maya at Lady Bird Lake.  First Rachel took Chewie to the dog park.  Then she jogged with Chewie to meet everyone else.  Then they took Chewie back to the dog park for a bit.

  When Evan and I got home, we went with Grandma and Papa to Tarbouch.  Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen and family had left by then. 

  The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...