Baseball, Part 2

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

At 8:45, Evan and I left the house to go to his game.  We wouldn't get home until nearly 8pm.  His game was at 10:30 but we needed to be there at 9:30am.  By the time we got there, it was already hot.  We are having an unusually hot spell this weekend.  I don't know what the end result was for the high but it was predicted to set a record.  After warm ups, Evan was complaining he was hot.

Unfortunately, Evan's team lost and was eliminated from the tournament for the game.  He had one big hit, and another single.  The big hit was a very very high and very deep flyball to left field that wound up as a triple.  But where he really shone was in the field.  Because the kids were hitting it to the outfield he played some outfield and some third base.  He did very well in the outfield make sure nothing got behind him.  At third base, he actually bobbled a ball but still was able to fire a bullet over to first to get the boy.  He also made a nice tag play when a boy was trying to come to third on a non-force play.  Evan made a great catch and swipe tag.

After the game, Evan and another boy from his team Chase and I went to a sports bar restaurant to watch the Steelers game.  The fields are far enough away from home that it didn't make sense to drive home just to turn around and drive back up again.  Evan's coach and his family joined us as did Mario, Evan and Noah's former coach and his family.  We had a very nice time watching the game.

Then we drove back to the field for Noah's game.  It was a very very tense game with some, ahem, questionable calls by the umpire.  The other team's parents/fans also were a bit rowdy and got under my skin a bit.  Their kids were hitting every ball to the outfield.  One kid hit the fence on the fly hitting off of a tee.  It was unbelievable.  But despite all that, our team played hard and we only lost by one run.  In fact, going into the bottom of the 4th (the last inning) if we could have possibly managed to get three outs before giving up 3 runs we would have won.  So I was very very proud of the kids.

Aunt Susan, and her daughter Lauren along with Lauren's husband and two kids came to watch Noah's game.  After the game we went to dinner at Smashburger.  The boys ran around constantly with outside with Lauren's two-year-old.  I don't know how they had the energy.

When we got home, the boys had showers and they are now in bed.

Until next time...

Last Season Games for Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning the boys woke up and played well upstairs.  I didn't hear any fights.  Later, Evan asked to watch "Field of Dreams" so I put that on for them.

At 11:45 we had to leave to go to fields about 30 minutes for our last games of the season.  Today, we were lucky as both boys had games at the same fields.  Parents of a boy on Evan's team couldn't make it today, so they dropped him off at our house and he drove with us to the fields.  The first game was Noah's game.  The other team only had six players.  So Evan and the boy on his team played outfield for the other team.  They didn't bat.  The rules I came up with were that they couldn't catch a fly ball and they had to roll the ball into the infield.  I was not sure how well the other team could catch and I didn't want them firing the ball in and hurting anyone.  Noah did well.  His first hit was a shot down the third base line that went into the outfield.  Evan fielded it.  We had some good plays from our team.  The second time Noah was on second, the ball was hit into the outfield.  I didn't wave Noah home, but he saw where the ball was and never slowed down around third and scored.  He's a very very heads-up baserunner.

After the game we walked over to the fields where Evan was going to be playing.  No one from Evan's team was there.  It turns out that the Evan's coach accidentally put the wrong fields down in the email.  Since I had to be there for Noah's game, I didn't even look.  Luckily, everyone got there.  I pitched some batting practice to the three kids who did make it there and then the rest of the team came.

Evan told us he wasn't feeling well today.  I don't know if he's battling something but he's been kind of "off" the last couple days.  He's gone to bed early each day but still I think he's not quite right.  I didn't know what kind of game he would have.  It turns out, he had the best hitting day he's ever had.  The field they played on was bigger than the field they normally play on.  The bases were 5 feet father apart  and the field was 25 to 35 feet deeper in parts.  It didn't matter to Evan.  His first hit went deep to right center.  His second hit was the farthest ball I ever saw him hit.  It went well over the left center fielder's head.  I'd estimate it went about 135 to 150 feet.  I think it would have had a chance to hit off the fence on the fly on their normal field.  His third time up he hit a hard ground ball between short and third that no one was going to be able to get to.  And then he finished up with a shot like his second which actually may have gone even farther.  His old coach, Mario, asked Evan if he drank Muscle Milk or something.

We stayed a bit afterwards catching up with some of the coaches around there and then we came home.

For dinner we had corned beef.  The kids are now in bed.

Until next time...