Tournament Time

Summer is on the wane, evenings are getting noticeably shorter, it's the middle of August already and that means softball season has come to an end for my grandchildren. That's too bad because the young players have just started to come together and work as a team. Another couple of weeks would have been perfect timing. They are finally thinking ahead and planning baseball strategy.... and as you know, baseball is full of strategy.

But it's not quite over. Just one last blast on the town's baseball diamonds.... the highly anticipated annual Baseball Tournament!

Our family has been ably represented since June by numbers 3 and 4 on the "5 and under' Yellow team and number 5 on the "8 and under" Red team. And now it's time to challenge for the championship!

 "5 and under" Yellows played against "5 and under" Reds at a well attended 10am game on Saturday morning. Lots of enthusiastic mums and dads, and aunts and uncles cheering them on. And at least one Nana.... me.

I have no idea if the Yellows beat the Reds or vice versa, I don't think anyone was keeping accurate score, but after the game each player got a drink, a slice of yummy pizza, and was presented with a "solid gold" trophy by the coach with a handshake and some words of praise. And you have to hand it to the coaches.... they are teaching basic baseball skills to five year old children who really don't have a clue what it's all about, and the coaches do it with kindness, loads of patience, smiles and a huge sense of fun.

"8 and under" Reds took on the Black team in an early 8:30am game, then challenged the Blues for the final at 11:15am. Skies were mostly blue with some grey clouds, so we all had fingers crossed that the rain would stay away.

It was a hard fought game. Reds led from the start with some snappy fielding and a couple of spectacular home runs, but Blues came from behind in the final innings to take the game 13-12.

 After the game, a drink, a slice of pizza and another "solid gold" trophy for each player. As the coach gave out the trophies, he gave each player an individual pep talk noting their considerable baseball achievements during the summer such as memorable home runs, double plays, spectacular base running, and how each person had improved, what they need to work on for next season, and his hopes for them in the future. Hooray for the coaches of these teams, they deserve "solid gold" medals!

 And the happy recipient of a trophy. He's going to join the rep team during the winter to hone his baseball skills ready for next season. He really really REALLY loves baseball.

Note: I was surprised to find that this is blog post number 899, just one more to go for 900! Perhaps I should have saved this comment for the next post. Thank you to all the bloggers around the world who have read my ramblings since I started this blog in November 2006 and have left me comments.... Happy Blogging to you all!