Game 7 Update

Game 7 was a big game. It was the one where Luke was pitching and his grandparents from Vernon were coming to town to see him pitch. I think they even changed their schedule to accommodate this game. Not a big deal, right?

Wrong! You see, because Game 6 was rained out and because the league is very careful to make sure everyone stays in a proper rotation, the lineup for the previous game was supposed to be the lineup for this game. I tried to go with the next game lineup, but got called back to the scorekeeper's box. Twice. Once to adjust the batting order and then the second time to change the player's positions. I just fessed up and told her that I had grandparents in to see my son pitch and I really did not want to face the wrath of the grandparents, my son, and my wife if I changed him to another position (like left field, which was where he was supposed to be). She thought about it for a minute and then said: "That's cool. I have grandparents too. Here, just put him here, and him here and Luke at pitcher. There. That's good enough for me." I don't even know what she did, but Luke pitched, so I was good.

The game went OK, but it was the orange team - the team that runs all of the time. Knowing this and knowing I had my star pitcher on the mound, I altered our strategy and gave him the green light to get out anyone he thought he could run down. I would have liked to continue the fundamental building strategy of throwing the ball to the first baseman, but this picture will give you an idea why I did not.


This is Luke heading to third to field a ball. If you will look, you can see our second baseman looking toward third, following the path of the ball and hence, the play. But, if you also notice, you can see our first baseman looking who knows where, but definitely not third base. Had Luke thrown to first, it would have ended up near the green snow cone stand you see in the background and their runner (this team runs, remember) would have been running all the way to home plate. I wasn't going to let that happen and even my parents who were frustrated at the fact we were not throwing to first were in agreement that you had to play this team this way.

It brought up an interesting conversation with the head of the league about incorporating a one base and stop rule. He was adamant that he did not want to do this because it did not teach our kids true baseball rules. If they want to stop the play, he said, they should just run back to the mound. Which, I pointed out, is also not a true baseball rule and so contradictory to what he was advocating. I said it nicer than it sounded here and he seemed caught off guard -- like he had not ever thought of that. The nice thing about all of this was that a couple of parents came up after the game and said I was doing a great job, so that made me feel better.

The game itself went well. Luke had two outs in each of the three innings we played, the team picked up the last one each inning. Teigan fielded a ball about even with third (his position), the runner had begun to run as soon as it was hit, and Teigan still caught him about 2 steps from home plate. That one was a fun play to watch. We didn't hit well and they had a good pitcher, so they also got three outs each inning. It was a tie, but it was also a very weird feeling game. To be honest, I really did not like playing this team because we changed strategy and then you start wanting to beat them so bad... Bring back the girls who beat us like a drum, at least I don't feel slimy when the game is over.

Here are a couple of more pics.



Next game, Thursday night.