The Sports Report

Lots of action going on all summer, but sadly the warm weather sports are all coming to an end.

All four grandchildren played house league baseball this summer. The two older ones played hardball, the two younger ones played softball.

Grandie Isaac's team, the Pirates, got into the finals at the end-of-year tournament, but lost the final game 8-7.... but were doing really well catching up. One more innings would have seen them on top, I'm sure!

Isaac spent two weeks at a boys Sports Camp in July, and had a terrific time, and is already planning to go again in 2020. It was sports all day every day, just the sort of life he loves. Now he has to persuade Mum and Dad to pay for it!

In August the family met at the Rogers Centre (used to be called the SkyDome, I still can't get used to the new name) for a Blue Jays game. We got there early enough to watch batting practice for both teams, but even though the boys (both big and little) begged and pleaded, they didn't get any stray balls thrown their way.

We watched the Toronto Blue Jays play Atlanta, but unfortunately, the home team lost, and we left just before the end of the game, to avoid the traffic jams.  Our beloved Jays have not done well this year, lots of lost games, but just wait.... we are going to be a winning team to watch in a couple of years. That's my prediction!!

And with summer coming to an end, winter sport is getting started.  We went to the home opener ice hockey game for the Stouffville Spirit, the local Junior A OJHL team. After watching baseball all summer, a game that's mostly slow and sedate with moments of wild panic, I was surprised by how fast and furious ice hockey can be!  It was a great game, but unfortunately, ended with a loss for the home team.

All the grandies will be getting their hockey gear together ready for the season to start at the end of September... they will all be practicing and playing every weekend so I'll be spending lots of time in the local arenas.

Coffee Mug

Last November my oldest grandson's Atom ice hockey team (ages 9 and 10 up to Dec 31) Schomberg Red Wings won their local tournament which was quite a welcome surprise as they really hadn't won many games all season.

However, this was a huge victory for them, and the team now qualified for entry into another tournament that was to be held in January 2019.

This was the International Silver Stick 2018-2019 Tournament Finals held in the Niagara Region. There were over 100 ice hockey teams competing in 13 different arena locations, from all over Canada and some teams from the US.
The team played 4 games, won 2 and lost 2, so they were pretty happy with the results!

Before the hockey games kicked off, there was some social time scheduled, and  time was allotted for pin trading, so of course, if you swap team pins, you have to have somewhere to pin them.  I made each member of the team a pin banner to hang on the bedroom wall. They loved them and the banners were soon covered with souvenir pins.

And as an unexpected thank you from the team, I received this delightful coffee mug..... pictures of the team, all 17 of them, displaying their pin collections on the banners. What a great souvenir.... I'll be enjoying my morning coffee and cheering the team on at the same time! Go Red Wings!