Monday, August 2, 2010

So what did I miss?

In a word, nada. We took our annual baseball trip (Louisville KY, Cincinnati OH, Indianapolis IN) and it was amazing. If you want to see pictures they are up on Facebook. I can highly recommend the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum, it is very cool. Rabbit has been at Grandma Camp and Hanford Camp as well. In fact, he had not played a competitive game in over 7 weeks. We had been to one practice in a month! What interesting timing as we head into the USTSA World Series in San Diego. Oh, one more thing, the tournament started on Wednesday the 28th, his twelfth birthday.

The boys looked sluggish in game one. We had two new players on the roster but they had subbed in before. No fire, no drive, no personality. The team languished to a 13-8 loss. Little did I know this would be the best game we would play all week. Rabbit went 1-2 with a ground rule double and 2 RBI. Great hit, got all of it. Thursday we played two, and scored a total of five runs while allowing 23. Rabbit pitched poorly, including 6 WP with a runner on 3rd. It was frustrating, and got to be embarrassing. Between games I talked with him and said that I will excuse lack of execution or ability, but not lack of effort. The kids mailed it in. Game two was much better, but still a mercy loss.

We stayed down with the team on Thursday night and got ready for a 9am game on Friday. Another blowout loss. No energy at all. This was bad. The boys were not hitting, but if the had, I am convinced they would not have run out the ball anyways. Lazy defense made the pitchers work too hard. It is amazing to think that this was the same team from Arizona, or even Memorial Day, that was winning tournaments and playing such great ball. Oh well, we were now in the bottom bracket of course, and elimination games started Saturday afternoon.

Friday night we went back home so Rabbit could act as the batboy for the Flyers. It was fun for him, and the Flyers won with an extra inning walk-off double. A real treat after watching the games I had seen so far that week. We checked the standings and saw that Mizuno was the 28th seed, out of 30. A miserable showing to be sure. Blue Wave was 27. Enough said.

Saturday was, predictable, more of the same. The never flipped the switch. Scored a single run. One. Uno. Not many positives to take away from that weekend. I guessed wrong, and said they would lose 9-2. It was 9-1. We stayed after to watch the Blue Wave game. The fell as well, and both teams left after the five games.

After the games we went out with some friends from Blue Wave and Coach Louis. It was the highlight of the weekend for me. A great time chatting and laughing. Lots to discuss and compare notes about. I was reminded that the people are as much of the experience as the play. After our gathering we went back to the team hotel and Rabbit and the rest of his team swam until they could no longer stay awake. We got up early on Sunday and went home by way of an old favorite restaurant. A good ending to a lousy weekend.

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