The weather has not been very cooperative so far this season. We have had several games and a tournament canceled because of rain, snow, and cold. This past week we had our first enjoyable regular season game on Thursday and then the weekend was our first baseball tournament. The weather was almost perfect, the boys were in it to win it. It was an awesome weekend. I really enjoy watching Matthew play. We stuck gold with this team we are on now. It is exactly what we were looking for. The head coach is awesome with the boys, he is knowledgable, consistent, level headed, good natured, good all around person. The other coaches are great too. The boys are a great fit for Matthew. They are helping him come out of his shell a little more. They all LOVE baseball, they are all talented and work hard to get better at it, they are good natured and have fun but listen when it is time to get serious and want to be competitive. The icing on the cake is the parents and families are pretty much all on the same page supporting the team, being positive, and fun to hang around with. For the most part we are all similar in our goals for wanting the boys to have fun playing baseball while learning some important life lessons like; hard work, applying yourself, dealing with success and failure, friendship, teamwork, dedication, self discipline, having confidence in yourself, etc. All these things make spending 12+ hours at a basball field enjoyable and fun. The girls have each made friends with some of the other siblings and have their snacks, toys, other items they want with them down to a science. They watch a little but then go play at the park, or explore around the fields with their friends. I had the pleasure of Ryan’s company for Fall Ball, but he has now become one of the assistant coaches so he can be in the thick of everything more. He loves doing baseball with Matthew. I think we are making some great memories.
The pictures above were taken by one of the moms who is a photographer. She takes some great pictures of the boys during their games and then shares them with us so we can have them. It is pretty awesome.
So the tournament was a great time, everyone watching was full of peanuts, popcorn and icees, a little sunburned, very dusty, emotionally drained, and raspy voices from cheering so much. Matthew and Ryan could easily recount every play and at bat for the entire weekend but I will summerize by saying by the end all the coaches and players were full of sunflower seeds, bubble gum, water, a little sunburned, covered in dirt, sore from bumps and bruises, physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted and over the moon excited that they won. Matthew played 2nd base for all the games except for a few innings they switched things around and he did short stop, center field, and pitcher. He had some great pop fly and line drive catches. With the exception of one game all the boys were pretty much on point and doing great in their positions. Matthew had several double hits, of course singles, several walks, and luckily only one hit from the pitcher to advance to first. I believe his batting average was 500 at the end of the tournament. He is still dying to get a home run, he did hit one to the fence but hasn’t made it over yet. He is excellent at stealing bases, and just running in general. He loves that one of his nicknames is Cheetah. He proves he is the fastest one on the team regularly in practice. Allison added another nickname to the list by calling him Cheetoh instead of Cheetah. When other people started using it too sometimes she was very proud of herself. I have to agree it is a funny thing for a sister to do.