Images - I can't believe he missed it!

I took this at Mad's game last week too. The ball looks like it is just about to hit the bat, but somehow it he missed it. He ended up getting walked both times up to bat and scored one of those times. His team still lost that game, but won today's game. The team they beat had been unbeaten so far this season, but now they have a 5-1 record. Mad hit one this week, but it popped up and the pitcher caught it.

Two Wins

Today was another game day and both boys won. Sul's team shut out the opposing team with a final score of two goals to zero. He made one good save in goal where he had to dive on the ball to gain control of it. Afterwards he punted the ball all the way to the other end of the field. He also had an assist on one of his teams goals, so he had a productive game.

Mads' team won by a score of 3 to 2. They were leading 3 to 0 for most of the game but their last pitcher hasn't had much experience and he let a couple runs in before he could stop them. The final play of the game was a big pop fly to right field. It was actually going foul but the boy out there caught it. He looked in his glove and realized that the ball was in it and then got really excited. The whole team ran together into a big pile. A much better day than last week. Each team now has a 1 win and 1 loss record.

Can has started walking on his cast. He and Mom are counting down the hours until his visit to the "broken-leg fix-it doctor" on Tuesday. Hopefully the cast will come off and stay off so that he can go back to running instead of hobbling.

My ignoble debut as an assistant soccer coach

Saturday morning marked the start of baseball and soccer games for Mad and Sul, respectively. We were supposed to be at the baseball field at 8:15 for an 9:00 game. The coach is a pretty zealous and wanted plenty of time to warm up and go over strategy. I was on my own with all four boys for this game because Nae was busy running the Cary Road Race 10K, which she completed in just over 50 minutes (I told you that she is a wonder woman). I brought gameboys for the non-baseball playing boys, which seemed like a good way to keep them entertained except that they spent most of the time fighting over who got to play which games. The only toilets available at this field were porta-johns, so I had to force Dec, kicking and screaming, to stand in one long enough to complete his task. After I got to the field I realized that Can hadn't gone yet that morning, so I tried to get him to go in and he wouldn't release the death grip from my neck long enough for me to get his pants down past his cast. I tried to talk him into peeing on a tree but he didn't want to do that either. Fortunately, he has an iron bladder when he wants to hold it, so we didn't have any problems there. Oh, the baseball game. It wasn't a very good start to their season. Mads' team lost 4 to 1. There wasn't much action on the field for most of the game. Nobody could get a hit on either team because the pitchers were throwing too fast. They've instituted a new rule where each boy can only pitch 2 innings, so after four innings we had to resort to our third string pitchers and they walked a number of runs in before we could get out of the fifth inning. We managed to get one run in the sixth, but that just wasn't enough. We all survived, despite the fact that I was on my own.

In the afternoon we went to Sul's soccer game. I sort of wandered into being appointed as an assistant coach, since no other parents stepped up to help the only coach. I'm not sure that you can blame me for the 4-1 loss of this game, but I probably didn't help much either. Sul played two quarters in goal. He was scored on twice in the first one, but he had no help from the rest of his team and the goal is at least twice as big as the ones he was defending last year. He made several really good saves and even stopped one with his chin. After the game the ref said that the other team was the best he had seen all day. They had better ball handling skills than our team and they definitely out hustled our team in getting to the ball.

Dec doesn't start his T-ball games for a few weeks, but he had his first practice on Friday night. Although he is catches and throws the baseball right-handed, he has always swung the bat left handed. Nae said that when the coaches put him up by the T to hit the ball, they lined him up right handed and so he had a hard time swinging the bat correctly. We'll get them straightened out at the next practice.

Baseball is starting again

Tonight was Mad's first baseball practice of the spring season. He is excited because coach Jim is his coach again and he has some teamates from his previous two seasons. His throwing and catching skill were a bit rusty but he demonstrated that he remembers some of the things he is supposed to be doing out there in the field. It was good to see him giving advice to some of the new kids.

Mom went to the middle school open house, so I took all four boys with me. This was a little tricky because I had to keep Can entertained, since he can't get around very well with his broken leg. Also, I had to leave in the middle to take Sul over to the cub scout pack meeting and then I had to come back and pick up Mad.

Sul's soccer coach called tonight to let us know that his team name is the Flames. His first practice is Thurs. We're headed for a busy time. Fortunately it is fun to watch them play.

Images - Play Ball

I took this picture of Dec a few years ago, but it was cute. After church he wanted to play baseball in the front yard and wasn't happy that I just wanted to take his picture. (taken 06/06/04, Lakewood, CO)

Baseball to the face

This morning we got up and went to the Museum of Nature and Science. There was an exhibit on space that the Mom and the boys wanted to see. It was kind of fun, except the parents spent a lot of time trying to keep track of the two littles who had a tendency to wander off through the crowd. Can love all of the fish and turtles in the NC wildlife exhibits. Dec loved the huge replica long-neck dinosaur.

When we got home I decided that I should go out and play with the boys. Dec and I played some catch with his new Christmas mit. He is doing really well at throwing and catching. Skills that will serve him well when he starts T-ball in a few weeks. Ok, it probably will not make much difference, since they do not keep score. Sul beat me in three straight times around the world. The sad part was that I was really trying to get the basketball through the hoop and he still beat me three times in a row. The trauma of the day was when Mads and I were playing catch and he did not quite get his mit up in time to stop the ball from careening off of his face. I felt really bad but I think that he felt worse. If you look really close you can see the marks from the laces on the ball and I think that there is a faint imprint of the word "Diamond" from the brand name label. I told him that he needs to come up with a really good story to tell everyone at school, because this will probably look pretty ugly tomorrow.