Okay, NOW it’s over

The 2008 SSBA coach-pitch Florida Marlins baseball season has come to an end. Officially, this time.

Ian’s Marlins played their consolation game last night against the Tampa Bay {Devil} Rays, a team they hadn’t played before. The Marlins wound up only having seven players last night, and the {Devil} Rays had only eight, but alas, the {Devil} Rays prevailed and won the game 18-15 and took third place in the tournament, giving the Marlins fourth place in what wound up being a strong tournament showing.

Ian did very well again. He got on base six times, scored 2 or 3 times, and was really hustling on the base paths. There was one time that he was on first and the batter hit the ball past the outfielders. I hollered “GO TO THIRD, IAN, GO TO THIRD!!” and not only did he not slow down to look at the ball, he kicked in another gear I didn’t know he had. I stood there for a few seconds, mouth agape, taking in what I saw. I told him after the game it was like he had a rocket strapped to his back. I know you had to be there for the full effect, but he really did turn it on.

And Laura hit the ball again!! True, she grounded out to the pitcher, but that’s not the point. She hit the ball. It was friggin’ awesome.

Then at the end of the game, Gene had medals for all the kids. It was cool. They all said, “whoooaaaaaaa!!!” when he handed them out. Hey, they deserved it. I thought it was a good year- could have been better W-L wise, but it was a good year and I am happy to have been a part of it.

Look at it this way: there’ll be no more posts about baseball games for a while. Well, at least not kids’ baseball games, anyway. The MLB All-Star Game is tonight; I’m sure I can at LEAST find something to write about in reference to the biggest waste of three days in the pro baseball season. “This time it counts”… what a crock.

Follow the rules (when it suits you, apparently)

Okay, so the game Wednesday night was rained out, so we played it last night (Thursday). We wound up playing the Mariners, a team we’d seen twice during the season. We beat them the first game of the season, and then they beat us a couple games later. The Mariners wound up taking the rubber game, as they like to say in Lame Sports Cliché Land, beating the Marlins 16-11.

It was a good game, though I was a little concerned at first when they jumped out to a five-run lead after the top of the first. The Marlins hung in there, but since the Mariners were up by more than five going into the bottom of the last inning, we didn’t have a shot. Even so, they all played well. Ian got three hits and scored once, and he made a handful of plays in the field. Caught a fly ball, got a couple guys out at first and/or second, and on those he didn’t, he was diving for the ball, throwing from a prone position, and otherwise giving it his all. I was so impressed.

So, Ian and the Marlins will play tomorrow morning in the tournament consolation game, the winner getting third place.  Even if we lose tomorrow, I’d say fourth place in the tournament is a pretty big achievement for a team that went 3-10 during the season.

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In our coach-pitch league, there is supposed to be an arc drawn in front of the plate from foul line to foul line, signifying that if a batted ball does not travel past said arc, it is considered a foul ball. (I don’t know what the actual measurement is, but I’m roughly guessing it’s in the 15-to-18-foot range.) However, there is a stipulation that if both coaches agree, the game can be played without the arc being enforced, or even drawn on the field. Our coach talked with one of the Mariners’ coaches before the game, and both agreed to eschew the arc and just let the kids play.

Remember that last line while I tell you this story.

I’ve mentioned before about my buddy Laura, one of the girls on Ian’s team that tries and tries and tries but just can’t hit the ball hardly at all. I’ve mentioned how she finally hit the ball a few games back and grounded out, but was just happy to hit the ball. I’ve mentioned about how she finally reached first base a couple games ago and was STILL beaming from ear to ear when she was forced out at second on the next play.  It gets to the point where the opposing coaches and parents even wind up rooting for her to even just make contact with the ball.

So in last night’s game, she goes her first at-bat without making any contact.  Okay, no big deal.  Second time up, she hit a little squibbler down the first-base line that I wanted so badly to go try and nudge fair for her, but it was, alas, a foul ball.  Hey, she hit it, right?  Well, she wound up striking out again.  Okay, fine.  For the record, as often as she strikes out, she’s always got a smile on her face.  So her third time up, she hits the ball again- FAIR BALL!!!- toward the pitcher and winds up being safe at first by two steps.  Our whole bench is going nuts.  I was so happy for her that I picked her up off first base and swung her around and damn near made both of us dizzy.  It was awesome.  That cute little smile was in place again.

And then, the bottom drops out.

All of a sudden, one of the coaches of the other team starts saying that it was a foul ball because it didn’t go past the “arc” (like he could tell from his vantage point in the outfield; I couldn’t even tell from mine as first-base coach) and was bitching about there not being an arc, and blah blah blah, and basically was saying Laura had to go back and try to hit again.  Gene (our coach) says, “give her a break, Coach, that’s like her second hit all season”, to which the opposing coach responded, “hey, I haven’t been to your games and followed your hitters all season to know who hits and who doesn’t” or some bullshit like that.  Bottom line, Laura’s hit doesn’t count.

By now, I’m absolutely beside myself.  This douchebag is going to pick THAT moment to get all “follow the rules to the letter” on us?!  I couldn’t believe it.  I mean, yeah, folks, you’re right- the rules do state that there should be an arc, and if the ball does not travel past it, it’s a foul ball.  But A, both sides agreed before the game not to enforce the arc, and B- and most important- these are seven-year-olds.  It’s not Game fothermucking 7 at {insert favorite big-league ballpark here} in late October.  I could almost- ALMOST- see him at least saying something if it were tied, or a one-run game, or something like that, but we were already down by 4 or 5 at that point, and it was the 4th inning (of the 5 that we played).  Oh yeah, and they’re SEVEN-YEAR-OLDS.  And let us not forget the at least two of his batters, before this happened with Laura, that hit balls no further than what she did, and nobody said a word.  Yet suddenly it becomes an issue on the one batter on our team that needed the hit the most.

So I had to tell Laura that her hit didn’t count and she’d have to hit again.  The look on her face broke my heart.  Naturally, she goes back and tries again and proceeds to not hit the ball.  I’m not positive, but I think an expletive or two slipped out from me.  I was definitely thinking it, but I don’t know for sure if I said it or not.  If I did, nobody said anything, so either nobody heard it or else I actually used my inside voice for once.  But I was pissed.  PISSED.

I think what made matters even worse was after the game, when the teams were shaking hands, and this coach tells Gene, “hey, Coach, great sportsmanship out there”.  I don’t know whether that was his attempt at realizing he was being a dick and trying to make amends for it, or his attempt at sarcasm.  Either way, it came out extremely smart-assed and I wanted to punch him in the friggin’ t’roat.  I also wanted to respond by saying, “hey, Coach, great job crushing a little girl’s spirit out there.  Hope you sleep well, cocksucker”, but decided that would be neither prudent nor constructive.  Those of you that know me probably can surmise what a colossally huge feat that was for me to keep my mouth shut.

And, to cap off the whole Fickle Finger of Fate aspect, this particular coach happened to be a guy that Jennifer and I went to school with at Laketown many, MANY moons ago.  Jennifer and her daughters were at the game, and afterward, Jennifer told me that she had already talked to that coach earlier, doing the whole “hey, remember me?” thing, and suggested that I go talk to him as well.  Part of me wanted to, because I did like the guy, but at that particular moment, I really had nothing {positive} to say to him, and felt it best just not to say anything.  I think Jennifer was a little ticked off at me for that, but I was still too pissed about the whole situation and knew I better just retreat to the car.  So to my dear sister, I apologize for being a baby, but you know as well as I do that I probably would have wound up saying something I shouldn’t have and made a bad situation worse, and far after the fact.

The whole deal was one of those conundrums about do you do the kids the bigger favor by teaching them that rules are rules regardless, or by realizing they are just kids and letting them play.  Again, had it been ANYone on our team besides Laura, it likely wouldn’t have been nearly the issue it was.  And I’m sure I’m probably making far more of a mountain out of it than necessary, but still.  Why did he have to pick Laura?!

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Anyhooze, as I said, the Marlins will play tomorrow for third place.  Win or lose, I’m very pleased with how well Ian did all year, Laura’s hit counted (if only in my heart), and I’m happy with how the season went, even at 3-10.  The kids all seemed to have fun, and they gave it their all.

You rock, Marlins!

Bonus baseball

The baseball league in which Ian plays apparently decided, at the 11th hour and then some, to have a post-season tournament, which is fine; I know Ian would enjoy another game or two.  Coach said we had enough interest within our team, so the Marlins are in the post-season.

The first game was last night.  Beforehand, Coach laid it on me that he discovered we have been in the wrong division all season.  We are a first-year team, obviously meaning it’s the first year our kids have played {organized} baseball.  Come to find out, we’ve been playing in the 2nd-year division all year.  THAT explains a lot.  No wonder we kept getting our asses handed to us all year.  Turns out that of all the dozen or so games we played, only one team was a team that we “should have” played.

I was really kinda pissed about all that at first, but then I says to myself, “Self,” I says, “sure, we lost a couple games by double digits, but there were a few games that were only decided by 2-6 runs or so.”  I know you can shoulda-coulda-woulda from here to Rancho CUC-amanga, but it does have to make one wonder, if we had been playing in the right division, how might the season have been different?  So after thinking about it a little bit, I decided it actually wasn’t as bad a thing as I thought, since, as I said, several of our losses were only by a handful of runs or less.

So anyway, to last night’s game itself.  We played against the Royals, who I had to assume was a first-year team, considering they had some little, LITTLE kids on their team.  There was one kid- I’m not exaggerating- his bat was probably 3/4 as tall as he was.  Anyhooze, what a difference playing against someone with similar abilities and skill levels makes.  The Marlins jumped out to a 6-0 lead after 2 innings, then the Royals came back and made it 6-5, then we scored a run or two each inning the rest of the way, and wound up winning the game 11-6.  All the kids did very well, especially in the field.  Sure, there were your requisite botched throws and dropped balls that you’ll find in seven-year-olds baseball, but it was like they all turned it to eleven.  They were diving in the dirt for balls, backing each other up, making double plays, it was amazing.  Ian was had three infield assists playing 2B, two of which were pretty bang-bang, but he wound up getting the kid out simply by staying with it and not giving up.  (MAN I hate it when people talk in cheesy sports clichés, but sometimes it’s hard not to.)  Ian also got two hits and then grounded out to first.

So since we won last night, we play next on Wednesday.  I’m not sure what happens after that, whether win or lose.  I’m fairly certain it’s double-elimination, so I think we’re guaranteed at least one more game after tomorrow’s game, but I may be assuming way too much as well.  Ian and I just show up when Coach calls and tells us we’ve got a game.  I imagine that tomorrow’s game may well be against another two-year team again, and almost certainly any game(s) after that likely will be as well, but hey, we’ll take it as it comes and do our best.

Stick a fork in the 2008 season, folks

Ian’s team wrapped up its season yesterday (I consider that half unfortunate and half merciful) by getting positively shelled by the Mets, 19-2. Or 20-2 or something like that. Like a run here or there matters with that score.

None of our kids really had a very good game. There was a smattering of hits, but we didn’t even get our first run until the 4th inning. Ian, yet again, was knocking the snot out of the ball, twice right into someone’s glove, and then the last time, finally got on base. And even that time, I thought he was out, but the Mets coach apparently was feeling generous (wouldn’t you with a double-digit lead in the last inning?) and said he was safe.

It was a truly weird game defensively. First of all, being a coach-pitch league, we don’t have umpires, so the coaches make all the calls. This particular game, we should have gotten paid. There were so many close- and I mean CLOSE- plays on both sides, especially at first, and for a couple of them, the Mets coach and I had to briefly “confer” on them. It was ridiculous the number of what my dad (the greatest umpire in history) would call “bang-bang” plays there were. Plus, kids were getting hurt left and right, and the weirdest thing was that there were something like 4 or 5 double plays in the game. Of which, one of them, Ian was an integral part.

Indulge a proud papa for a minute.

Runner on first, one out. Pop fly hit to Ian at second. I’m standing in my spot behind the outfielders, watching, saying to myself, “PLEASE catch the ball, PLEASE catch the ball, PLEASE catch the ball”, when lo and behold, he did! So I holler at him to throw the ball to first to get the runner that didn’t tag up. Eventually they got the runner out. (Anyone who has been to a 7-year-olds baseball game knows what I mean by “eventually”.) Like I say, there were at least four of those same plays (total, for both sides), if not more.

Then another time when the Marlins were in the field, a lazy pop-up was hit to left field. The runner on first held up to see if the ball was caught, which it wasn’t. The left fielder got the ball in pretty quickly to Ian to try for the force at second. Ian kind of bobbled the throw and it sort of dribbled away from him, but the runner apparently thought he was out and stopped running, and then started up again when he saw that Ian didn’t catch the ball. Ian kept his head and, keeping his foot on the base, stretched out and got the ball and still got the kid out. I was very pleased.

So the season is done. It was a long, LONG season at 3 up and 10 down, especially with a son that apparently HATES to lose, but I think he had fun. Hell, I had a blast. We really have good kids, for the most part; it’s just that, other than the coach’s twins, I don’t think anyone on the team knew anyone else at the start of the season. Most of the other teams we faced this year had kids that have played together for 2-3 years or longer, in some cases. I think there’s something to be said for team “chemistry”, even with 7- and 8-year-olds. And on top of that, there were probably no more than 4 or maybe 5 kids that made every game. There were some games that we were extremely lucky to have been able to field eight (the minimum to avoid a forfeit). But I’ll work with Ian the rest of the summer and hopefully next year, things will be a little better.

There were a couple kids on the Marlins that really seem to have a promising future in baseball already- the kind that seem like they arrived into this world wearing a ball glove. There were many that really had the desire but haven’t yet developed the skills. We have a girl, Kourtney, that if she can make contact more often, is going to wind up being a fierce hitter. She’s got a wicked powerful swing. Then we have my little buddy Laura. She tried so hard, and just couldn’t do it, and on the couple times she did make contact (to which I have alluded when they occurred), the fact that we were getting pummeled so badly at the time didn’t matter, simply because she hit the ball. Even the time she got out at first, she had such a huge smile on her face because she hit it. And the time she actually reached first safely, her little jump-up-and-down, arms-in-the-air dance she did on first base was priceless. She is a little doll- I just love her. I hope she comes back next year.

I hope next year the weather will cooperate to allow for a few more practices, so we can work a little more on “game situation”-type things. That was one of our big drawbacks- I think we only managed three practices before the season started, and really couldn’t work on that kind of thing. Didn’t really seem to matter which kids were playing which position at any given time; the infielders tended to fight each other for the ball, whereas, unless it was hit directly at one of them, the outfielders would basically look at each other as if to say, “you gonna get that or what?” Obviously, given all the possible scenarios in baseball, you can’t pound it all into the heads of seven-year-olds and expect them to get it, let alone actually do the right thing at the right time, but I think if we would have had more chance to work on that sort of thing, we may have at least been able to avoid quite as many shellings as we endured. Maybe not, but one never knows. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Anyway, congratulations, Marlins. It wasn’t exactly a stellar season, but your first base coach is extremely proud of all of you. Hope to see you all next year.

Rammed by the Dodgers

Lost 23-13 last night to the Dodgers, so the high from the win Saturday was short-lived.

Almost wound up yanking Ian from the field early.  He hit a HARD line drive in the first inning, right into the second baseman’s glove.  He got about 4 steps from home plate and started crying and shouted “THAT’S NOT FAIR!!”.  Dawn yanked him behind the bench and BIG-time reamed him about the scene he made on the field and told him he had to apologize to me, his coach, and his team, and that if it happens again, not only will he be done for the game, but also the rest of the year and quite possibly for good.

I’m paraphrasing.  I didn’t hear the conversation, and I think I’m happy for that.

I think the apology part was worse for him than anything else.  Whatever she told him, it seemed to work.  He got a hit- barely- the next time up (I was right there coaching first, but it was so close I couldn’t tell whether Ian was actually safe or out, and we were quite a bit behind already, so the Dodgers coach was a little generous and said to let him be safe), and later scored, and then the next time after that, grounded out to the first baseman.  He growled a little bit but shook it off.  Either he decided “I’ll get ‘em next time” or else, more likely, he summoned every bit of inner strength he had not to throw a fit so he wouldn’t suffer the embarrassment of getting yanked off the field and being forced to watch.

I am still extremely proud of how well he has done this year, especially for having never played before, and for having the issue with his hamstrings.  I just wish I could somehow convince him not to get so freakin’ pissed off at every little thing that doesn’t go the way he wants.  We’ve only got one more game left, this Saturday, so we’ll get through it (hopefully) and then the rest of the summer he and I can work on his fielding and hitting, so with any luck, next year he’ll have more ability and, God willing, more confidence and less pissy-ness.  I’d like to take him to the batting cages at Knight’s, but I don’t think he’s ready for them yet.  Even the slowest one pitches fairly fast for a seven-year-old.  I’ll just have to pitch to him in the mean time.  Only problem is, I can’t pitch.  If I ever wind up actually coaching a team instead of just sort of being a helper, it can’t be a coach-pitch team, or else we’ll be there all night waiting for me to get even one hittable pitch across the plate.

Hmmmmm… maybe we can work on that this summer too.

Finally!!!

After more than a month of heartbreaking losses (some not heartbreaking so much as brutal), our boys and girls on the Marlins finally got to celebrate a victory Saturday after beating the Tigers 19-14. It took all 6 innings to do so, as the Tigers tied it up in the top of the 6th, but we prevailed- for only the third time this season. I swear, it was everything I could do not to do a cartwheel when the winning run came across the plate, especially since Ian knocked it in. The entire team did very well today. Great hitting, really good fielding, other than that last inning, and everything just seemed to “click” for the most part.

Ian got on three times and scored twice. Yet again, he absolutely knocked the bejeezus out of the ball again. He hit two balls over the second baseman’s head. On one of them, he got a little cocky and started heading toward second- as the ball was coming back in. So I’m screaming “GO BACK! GO BACK!!!!” and he finally heads back to first. Attitude was pretty decent again- he had a small meltdown in the top of the 6th when the Tigers scored their runs- that was the most they’d scored all game- but I told him and everyone that they just need to shake the bats. And that they did.

Even my little buddy Laura got a hit Saturday. She tries so hard to hit the ball and just can’t seem to do it. It’s to the point where the other team’s fans and coaches root for her to hit the ball. She finally got on base Saturday and did the arms up in the air thing. The very next batter, she was forced out at second, but still had the biggest smile on her face. It was all I could do not to pick her up and hug her as she was running off the field.

We have really, really good kids on our team; they just can’t seem to win very often. Saturday’s game was a huge, HUGE boost for them.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Dawn, my lovely bride of ten years, who turns 35 today.  Still just a pup- not the old fart that I am.

I also need to mention a sad note- the passing of one of the greatest comedians ever, George Carlin.  He died last night in Santa Monica, CA.  He will definitely be missed.

So close, and yet…

I really thought we were going to actually win one this time.

It was 16-15 Marlins going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Alas, the Pirates scored 4 runs (though technically, the game was over after the second one was scored) and they won 19-16.  The entire team played really, really well, but the Pirates were just a little bit better this time.

Ian did well again; he knocked the snot out of the ball again. Only problem was, he kept knocking it either right in to someone’s glove, or else he’d ground one to the 1st baseman. He did get one hit, however. He also recorded the Pirates’ first out of the game when he fielded a grounder and stepped on second for the force. Best part was that his attitude was SO much better this time. There were a couple isolated incidents where he sort of growled a little, but even though he got out all but once, his disposition throughout the game was SO much better. I was very pleased. Maybe it’s because I told him after his last game that I will yank him off the field and take him home in the middle of a game if I “have” to, and that I will make him explain to his coach what happened. I’m such a bad-ass. But I would do it.

Hopefully, though, it’s simply because he is starting to learn that it IS just a game.

A “W” is a “W”, I guess

Yesterday was Picture Day for Ian’s baseball team before their game*. Imagine trying to tell a dozen 7- and 8-year-olds “don’t get dirty”. It’s a little like telling Paris Hilton “don’t be stupid”. (Paris Hilton fans can insert the name of some other similarly brain-dead celebrity, if they so choose.) But it went pretty well. There are two kids that still don’t have jerseys yet, for some reason- I think it’s due to the supplier dropping the ball- so for the individual pictures there was some shirt swapping. The team picture, however, won’t be quite as uniform as most (pardon the pun). At least the two kids without jerseys wear shirts that are at least close to the aqua-green team colors. Better than me, actually.

I ordered a Marlins t-shirt from the Majestic website, the company that made the kids’ jerseys. I was looking all over for the green shirt- most web sites only had them in white and black- then I finally find the aqua-green shirt on the Majestic website. And they offer personalization, so naturally I ordered a shirt that says “IAN” with the number 12 on the back, in reverence to my favorite Marlins player. About 10 days later it arrived- on a dark forest green t-shirt. I was kinda pissed, especially since, because it was personalized, I couldn’t return it. So here I am yesterday in the team picture with this dark green t-shirt that stood out like… well, like Paris Hilton at a MENSA convention, to continue a theme. I’ll look like a dork in the picture, but honestly, I was thrilled that Coach asked me to be in the picture.

* The game, to be played against the Phillies, got canceled- apparently the night before- because the Phillies coach contacted our coach and said that they wouldn’t have enough players. I don’t know if it “officially” will be counted as such, but I’m thinking that technically it should be counted as a win by forfeit for us. I’ll have to ask Coach about that at our next game Wednesday. I’m not going to raise a big stink about it, but as the title of this post suggests…

I also want to take a quick moment to say “Happy Father’s Day” to my dad- Happy Father’s Day, Pop- as well as to all dads: birth fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, fathers-in-law, foster fathers, expectant fathers, and any other male parental units I may have left out. Dawn and the boys got me a Sorcerer Mickey (my most favoritest of all cartoon characters ever) lawn statue complete with accompanying magic brooms statue. Snicker all you want- I loved it. Then Ian drew me a Father’s Day card depicting me in the yard admiring said statues by the birdbath. Holy cow, I love my family! How can you NOT love that?!

Oh, and we got home from the mall last night and went out in the front yard to chase “lighting bugs”, as Adam calls them, and in the midst of that saw {at least} four bats flying over our and neighboring houses. Awesome!!! I really doubt they’re living in the bat house I put up on the house about 6-8 years ago, but it was cool to finally see them around. And to all you people that think bats are pests that should be feared and eradicated, you can’t be more wrong. Bats do not bite you and suck your blood- the ones that DO drink blood live mainly in South America and even they pretty much exclusively only go after livestock. So unless you live in Argentina and you look like a bovine, I’d say you’re safe. But then, regardless of where you live, if you look like a bovine, I don’t think bats are your primary concern. Bats do not carry rabies- they can contract rabies like most other animals, but the chances of a human getting rabies from a bat are virtually nil. And bats do not try to nest in people’s hair. All y’alls watch too many movies. In fact, bats are quite handy little mammals (and no, they are NOT birds) to have around. Your average garden-variety bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes an hour. Especially considering what kinds of diseases you actually can get from mosquitoes- not to mention what annoying little f*ckers varmints they are- I’ll take bats over mosquitoes ANY day. So to any weenie-head neighbors I may have, don’t you dare try to chase them off. I’ve been trying for years to attract them; I’m not about to let you myth-believing yay-hoos try to have them exterminated.

Yeah, I know, like I have any control over it. Besides, considering the size of some of the owls I’ve seen in the neighborhood, the bats may already have been exterminated naturally, in which case I have a conundrum. I like owls, but I want to keep the bats around too.

Yikes!… again

The Marlins got whipped 27-9 tonight by the Rockies.

Ian scored the last run of the game, not that it helped.  We have a little girl on the team that just struggles like crazy hitting the ball.  Her second time up, she hit it into fair territory and grounded out.  She had such a huge smile on her face afterward, I swear I almost started crying.

Oh, and they got pummeled last Friday by the White Sox.  I have no idea what that score was.  Oh well.

Aaarrrrrrrrr…

This is kind of getting to be old hat, unfortunately.

Pirates 22, Marlins 18.

Actually, it wasn’t a “bad” game, considering each team only had 8 kids. I think most of the rest probably just assumed we wouldn’t be playing today due to last night’s weather. It was a pretty quick game, too. I think it only lasted about a buck twenty or so.

Ian grounded out to first his first time up (he led off the game, actually) and proceeded to scream “IT’S NOT FAIR!” and start crying. (I did think about it briefly, but decided he is too young for the whole “there’s no crying in baseball!” punk-out attempt.) After that inning he got his bat on in full force, as he reached base the next four times up and scored twice. Once he absolutely crushed it and hit a good solid fast grounder into the hole at short. So his hitting apparently is not much of an issue at the moment. Still gotta work on the glove. (And the attitude, but that’s going to take a lot longer.) He played 2nd, 3rd, and 1st today. Poor kid, he really tries so hard and wants to be involved, yet doesn’t seem to grasp yet the concept of covering his base. Oh well.

He’s a little stallion out there, and he makes his daddy proud.

Sliding and… well… sliding

Yesterday was a long, LONG day for me.

The alarm went off at 6:10- anyone who knows me knows I am anything but cheerful that early- because I was going on a trip to the City Museum in St. Louis. Not the family, not the kids, just me. Well, okay, not really just me- me and about 35 other people.

My sister-in-law Kathy is a teacher at Jefferson, and also the leader of the Beta Club, which is kind of like their honors society. Anyhooze, as a kind of “attaboy/attagirl” to the kids in Beta Club, Kathy arranged for a field trip to the City Museum. How do I fit into this? Simple. She needed chaperones. So there wound up being 3 or 4 teachers, a couple parents, Jeff (my brother and Kathy’s husband), their two kids, and me along with 29 6th, 7th, and 8th graders on a school bus.

As always, the City Museum was a friggin’ blast. Naturally all the kids took off in 29 different directions to get away from us icky adults, so Jeff and I went and wandering the architectural exhibits- something we as parents don’t really get to see much of since the kids have no interest in that kind of thing, just as I had no interest in that kind of thing when I was their age. I told Jeff that I am apparently officially old- I’ve developed a fond appreciation for a lot of things that, had my parents wanted to see or do when I was a kid, I would have rolled my eyes and made the big overexaggerated “sigh groan”. Not unlike my kids do to me now.

Anyway, naturally we went outside to MontsroCity and took advantage of the beautiful day we had, as well as the awesome awesomeness of MonstroCity. Tell you what, my niece and nephew wore me out. I think they just might be harder for me to keep up with than my boys are, and that’s saying something. So we have lunch- I recommend the mushroom & Swiss burger; holy CRAP was it good- and most of the chaperones are tired, sore, stinky, crabby, etc., and like, most of the kids, like, are so, like, totally ready to, like, go do more stuff and stuff. But it was a great day weather-wise, it was a fun day in spite of some of the requisite drama that occurs with 14-year-olds, but we were all pretty wiped out by the time we hopped on the bus to come back at 3:00. We hit the Litchfield McDonalds (where damn near everybody I know stops when driving to and from St. Louis- really, whether one “needs” to or not) on the way, and arrived back at JMS right about 5:30.

Then I had to get all the way to Centennial Park by 6:00 for Ian’s baseball game. Certainly possible, but not necessarily simple at 5:30. To make things worse, I get a call from Dawn wanting to know where Ian’s bat bag is. I told her, “well duuhhhhh, it’s in my trunk”. I’d forgotten to take it out and put it in Dawn’s car before I left for Jefferson. So I wind up breaking roughly 17 traffic laws to make it to the park before the game started. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have run the red light right behind the fire engine that had its lights and sirens on.

But I made it with about 8 minutes to spare. Ian’s Marlins played the Detroit Tigers. All our kids played pretty well- in fact, I thought both teams did a pretty good job- but in the end, the Tigers won 24-18. Mrs. Coach (our scorekeeper) told the kids it was a tie. Probably not a bad idea. I keep trying to tell them all that the score doesn’t matter as long as you have fun, but most of them don’t seem willing to buy it. Go figure.

Ian did pretty well again. I’m really impressed with how well he hits the ball, especially for not having ever played before this year. There was a base running issue in the first inning that I had to address with him and with ALL the kids. There were no outs, and if I remember right, Ian was on second, there was another kid on first, and the batter popped a ball up to the shortstop. Both Ian and the other kid took off running. The shortstop caught the ball, ran back and touched second to get Ian out, then instead of simply tagging the kid that was standing on second, ran all the way back ad touched first and got an unassisted triple play. So for the rest of the game, I kept telling each kid that made it to first to make sure the ball hits the ground before they start running. There were still a couple times I had to scream “COME BACK! COME BACK!” (made myself a tad hoarse by the end of the game), but they seemed like they were starting to pick up on that. They just get so excited when everything starts happening and everyone’s yelling. It’s so cute.

I was pretty much a walking zombie by the time I finally got home. I hopped in the shower, got Ian tucked in at 9:00 (Dawn’s folks wound up taking Adam for the night, so he wasn’t there), and wasn’t really able to fall asleep. I hate that feeling, when I’m so friggin’ exhausted that I can’t sleep. So I wound up finishing the really good book I’ve been reading (The Maze by Catherine Coulter; if you like thrillers, I strongly recommend it), and finally fell into the arms of Morpheus (old family expression) around 11:15 or so. Then proceeded to be wide awake at 2am. But at least I was able to go back to sleep within about 20 minutes or so. Woke up around 8 or so with that lovely sleep-hangover feeling, and here I am.

I hope I remember that Ian gets out of school at 2:30 today. School year’s winding down. I think they’re done next Wednesday. Second grade is just about in the books. Holy crap.

Tick talk

Ian was in Missouri all weekend, camping with G&G and his cousin Maggie. They got home yesterday around 1:30, a good time had by all. More or less. If you take into account the snake that fell out of a tree into Peggy & Maggie’s canoe. Don’t worry, Maggs, I would have shit my pants and then screamed like a little girl. You’re braver than I am- you ARE a little girl, and at least you didn’t poop.

Anyway, fast forward to about 8:45pm last night. Ian had showered and was in his room, lying on the floor, reading, getting ready for bed. All of a sudden, he says, “Eeeeewwwwww! That was in my hair!” I go into his room to see the ant or spider I was expecting, only to find a friggin’ tick crawling across the floor.

To his credit, he didn’t freak out nearly like I would have expected him to, so he really was quite easy to “calm down”. I instantly started checking his melon for more (there weren’t any), Dawn disposes of the lawyer tick (sorry, wrong blood-sucking parasite), and all is returned to normal.

Except for the fact that this tick was flat (not round and full o’ Ian’s blood) and was crawling around (not dug into his scalp).

Which means it couldn’t have been there very long.

Which means it could have come from our very own back yard, where Ian and Adam played for a while last evening before shower time.

Crap.

But then, if it had come from our yard, wouldn’t we have found them long before now? Dawn said after her impromptu tick research on the interwebs that it was not a deer tick but rather a tick more prevalent in dogs, a tick that is found most often in grass. Wouldn’t we have seen them on our dog long before now? Yeah, our dog does get tick treatment regularly, but still.

So now I get to sit and wonder either how that tick lived on Ian’s scalp for a minimum of 24 hours without getting itself dug in, or else whether we’ve got some serious pest control issues in our backyard.

At long last

It’s about friggin’ time somebody finally said something about this.  I’ve been griping about this for a while now.  I’m the first to give moms- especially stay-home and single moms- big, BIG ups for raising kids, but let’s start showing a little love to the dads- especially stay-home and single dads- for once.  Not all dads are completely worthless Neanderthals.

Rock on, Brian Reid of Washington, D.C., and thank you to Hillary Rhodes of the Associated Press for writing the article.

Late-evening visitors

We had ourselves a couple visitors last night.

It’s about 9:45pm or so (maybe a tad later), Dawn and I are getting ready for bed, and we both hear this barely audible “tap-tap-tap-tap”.  She said aloud what I was thinking:  “I could swear someone just knocked on the front door.”  So I look out Ian’s window to see if I could tell who it was, if it actually was anyone, and all I could see was this white car, mostly obscured by the leaves of the maple tree next to which it was parked.

Then the doorbell rings.

So I quickly throw on some clothes (with any luck, they were mine…) and go answer the door.  I open the door up to see two of Springfield’s finest standing there.  The one officer explained that they’d gotten several calls about kids running around the neighborhood and going into people’s garages, and suggested I close mine.  I had obviously left the door up when we came back from our little Henson Robinson Zoo/Steak and Shake/White Oaks Mall excursion with Adam yesterday.  So I thanked them, went and closed the garage door (and did a quick inventory of bicycles, gas cans, etc.), and went back upstairs.  About 10-15 minutes later I went back into Ian’s room and looked out the window and the squad car was just then pulling away, which I thought was rather… I dunno… interesting.

It’s a tad unnerving to answer the door at 10:00pm and see the Popo staring back at you.

Ouch

Well, Ian’s Marlins team suffered their first pretty major thrashing last night, as the Cardinals beat them rather soundly 22-10. I knew we were in trouble when the Cardinals got their five runs in each of the first two innings, and I don’t think we scored until the fourth. It took a little while, but the Marlins started mounting a little bit of an offense; it was just way too little too late as the Cardinals were just too much.

But, in the Marlins’ defense, most of the kids on the Cardinals have played together for three years, and that really makes a difference, especially when those three years are nearly half of your life. Plus, their coaches really kind of seemed to be the hard-ass, “win or you’re all pussies” kinds of coaches. Maybe that’s unfair (and possibly not accurate), but that’s the read I got off of them. Our kids are still learning each other’s names. I’m not positive, but I think the only two kids on Ian’s team that knew each other before the season started are the coach’s two kids.

Anyway, no excuses; we got beat and we got beat badly. Ian had a pretty good game; he continues to jack the ball pretty well. Three hits and 2 runs scored. He played 2B, OF, and 3B last night. Even made a put-out at third. Still gets a little pissy when things don’t go the way he wants, but not quite as badly as he has been. I thought he was going to incite a riot when a Cardinals runner ran into our shortstop. “He can’t do that- he ran him over on purpose!!!” I had to do some fast damage control on that one before that situation got out of hand with the militia coaches on the other team.

Our next game isn’t until next Thursday. We can ALL use the break. Four games in five days; that’s a grind, especially for seven- and eight-year-olds. Not to mention 40-year-old fat out-of-shape dads trying to keep up with seven- and eight-year-olds. Ian’s going to spend Memorial Day weekend going “caving” (I hate using nouns as verbs) in Missouri with G&G. I’m not sure what Dawn and Adam and I are doing yet.

Maybe I can talk her into putting on a DVD for Adam downstairs and…

bow-chickki-bow-wowwwww

Yeah, yeah, I know she won’t go for it either, but it’s still a nice thought. >sigh<