Sympathy Pain

The tournament has started. 9 year old kid pitch. The Cougars, Jack’s team, are somewhere in the upper/middle part of the bracket.

They had their first game Saturday. My folks came in. It was like 90 degrees at 4:30 when the game was to begin. We showed up and found shade for them to sit in.

The game started. We were home team. The team we were playing against had beaten the undefeated team that skunked us 12-0 a in the last game of the season. After they scored 5 runs on us in the first inning and we answered with 0, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Tony was tired and hot, so Sarah took him home.

Then, we held them in the second inning, but our middle of the rotation was coming up. Not the big hitters, but the pretty steady guys. Jack is one of them. The player before him doubled. Then jack hit one down the 3^rd base line. Now my son is fast…when he wants to be. The ball rolled to the fence. By the time someone got to it, he was rounding 2^nd and the other kid had scored. The ball was cut off at 2^nd base and he was around 3^rd. he crossed home as the ball was almost there, making an inside the park home run. Yeah Baby!

We scored another 2 runs that inning.

We take the outfield and the first batter strikes out. The 2^nd batter hits a fly to right field. Jack is there to make the out. The 3^rd out comes from a great catch at 3^rd base. Jack actually comes to bat again in this inning, with 2 on. He hits a double and gets 2 more rbi’s. He steals 3^rd. unfortunately the 3^rd base coach sends him at the wrong time to try to teal home, and he gets tagged out. Now it was a bad call cause the kid had the ball in his ungloved hand and tagged him with is glove…to the face…but I try not to argue with the ump… ol’ blindy as I like to call him.

We went on to win 10-8. That’s right, without my son’s slugging ability, the game would have been very different. And his defense.

It was a pretty awesome game. And he doesn’t want to play next year. Belch. I am of two minds. One, I don’t want to push him. Two, I do want him to play a sport that he shows aptitude in.

He quit swim team. I am making him pay me back. Next year baseball will be all kid pitch. No mercy rules of 3 walks and the coach pitches. You can lead off to steal. I think he would like it better…so what do I do? His mom wants him to play, especially since this would be his only summer sport.

Maybe it’s time to try theatre…Just saying.

Dick’s…

Ok, actually we found one at Hibbitt’s, but we went to Dick’s first. Jack needed one for football. He plays rough, and needs to protect the Comer line.

Now the closest thing I have ever worn to a cup is a dance belt. And, FYI, they are very different.

It’s football season, again. Jack wanted to do the cup shopping with me. Seems he was too modest to talk about it with his mom.

“He needs a new mouth piece and…he wants to get something else…” his mom said with that “you know” sound in her voice.

“Ah…”said I, understanding, ” we will take care of that.” I figured this would come around soon.

He’s hit an age where his modesty is kicking in. It’s kinda cute. He was changing the other night while I was in the room and ask that I turn around. I can’t imagine what he asks his mom to do…probably leave the house.

So we went in search of the athletic protection device. It’s not required at this age, but I would think it would suck to take a helmet to the groin without some padding there. Again…I didn’t have to worry about that in “Camelot”, just hiding my panty lines in my Kermit the Frog green tights. Do you know how hard it is to find a youth ball barrier? We went to 3 stores before hitting a home run at Hibbitts. Now, hopefully, we have protected the boys from harm.

Jack’s team won the region championship. 21-18 was the final game. We played another team from our city, so we knew the kids really well. It was a good game, and a great ending to the undefeated Threat. I’m so proud…

Of course, there’s always a but…or Butt. In the semifinal, we were up about 20 points, had taken out our lead scorer in the 3rd quarter to try to make it fair, and the other teams crowd was still pissed off. In the 4th, our lead guy got fouled…hard. The crowd actually cheered. One of the adults stood up and said…with his big girl panties on…

“He’s the only one on your team worth a damn, the rest are crap.” To a bunch of 7 year olds…He was ejected. It was a great moment in little league history.

But I digress…Congrats to the Triple Threat for a perfect season!

It was a hellish weekend…not “somebody died from a rattlesnake bite to the face” hellish…just busy. Jack had a Basketball Tournament this weekend, some Christmas thing. It seems some parents think it’s great to have your child spend 3 days of the Christmas Vacation locked up in a gym. I had rather been at home playing Wii, or traveling with family. Any way, Jack’s team is a really good team, but got beat Friday night. That meant they would have to play 5 games Saturday, winning them all, 4 back to back, just to get into the championship. And yes, they did. I am very proud of them, and don’t know how they keep upright for that long. They lost in the championship, their 5th back to back game, to a very rested team. I am an assistant coach, and we were both dead when we got home. Sarah was not much better, having spent the day with fussy baby.

Why was he fussy? Well, not having any guidance on feeding, other than “BREAST IS THE BEST OR HE SHALL NOT GET INTO COLLEGEwe had no idea how much formula we should start out with. Seems 2 ounces is not enough. So Tony spent a good deal of the first few days of formula, hungry. We have read up and figured it out since then, so he is a much happier baby.

Sunday was family day. We traveled about 90 minutes away. Ate good food, Showed off the boys, got presents, and returned home. It was exhausting. We got home and wanted to just crash. Then, there was a moment in which we both got an energy boost…

Seems mister Tony likes laying on his back while you “shake his booty”. It was the first time I noticed him reacting to something outside the food and gas realm. He was cooing and almost smiling. Sarah and I were in heaven. It was so cool to see that happen….then I crashed.

So, I look forward to more booty shaking in ‘08. It made my heart smile. I think that’s one of my resolutions.