Another last game of the season before we start tournaments next week. I LOVE these late night games. Perfect weather. Great opportunity to practice some night time photography. Awesome color.
I got to the game just after it started and I was shocked when I saw Upside Down #5 McKay PITCHING...what??? McKay never pitches. He always wants to, but there are usually a lot of other boys ahead of him. Apparently tonight was the night to try out an alternate pitching plan. Everyone pretty much got to try that position.
But if I'm being perfectly honest, I have to say that I really don't love when he pitches. It's too much pressure...on ME. I get so stressed out with him in that high profile position on that mound, I can barely breathe. He's not a bad pitcher, but he's a better catcher, I think. So when he put all that catcher's gear back on in the next inning, I was very relieved.
He had a couple of great hits tonight against a REALLY good little 9U pitcher.
This game was so exciting that we were tied almost throughout the whole thing. This picture of the game winning run coming up to bat with the scoreboard in the background is my favorite. It sort of says it all right there.
Bring on the tournament! Love these boys. LOVE this game!
Baseball season has (officially) started again for us. Although with McKay around, baseball season is sort of a perpetual thing.
Our team was a little late coming together before their first game, so the parents opted for matching royal blue t-shirts, socks, and hats with grey pants instead of ordering professionally made jerseys. One of the moms found some iron-on numbers for us and POOF! team uniforms came together.
McKay's first game was Saturday night at 8:00p and as usual, we had about 4 million other things scheduled for the day. I ran around with the girls to their various activities in the morning, ran home in between to trade out cars and kids, grab cameras, and hurry out the door for the next thing. By 3:00 that afternoon, I had found all the pieces of McKay's uniform and dragged the ironing board out to quickly iron his number on the back of his shirt before I had to run out the door to the next thing. I'm not an iron-on expert or anything, but I was pretty impressed with myself for centering the number and ironing the whole thing on without any problems. It was quick, easy, and for the first time in about 3 years, his whole uniform cost less than $20. (...hallelujah!)
I handed the shirt to McKay to make sure it looked as perfect on his little body as it did on the ironing board, and I noticed that something looked weird to me...
What do you think? Anything look funny to you?? Yep, what I thought was supposed to be a 2 was actually a 5. Eek! So much for my newly acquired iron-on skills. With three more things to do and less than 4 hours left before the game, there was no way to get a new shirt and a new number. McKay was mortified. But we consoled him by assuring him that if he could live with it for this game, we would figure something else out before the next one. He's a pretty easy going kid, so off he went with Craig to the ball field for pre-game practice, while I went to the church to be a photographer for an event. (more on that later...)
During some downtime at my event, I had this happy text conversation with Craig...
Instant confidence boost. In about five minutes I went from "ridiculously inept with an iron" to "clever." I'm good with clever. And McKay no longer wants me to get a new number or fix his shirt. He would like me to stop calling him "upside down #5" though. We'll just go with #2. Because underneath all that catcher's gear, you can't even really see what number is on his shirt.
McKay had an amazing game this afternoon. After the first inning, when I showed up, they were down 5-1.
McKay played first base until the third inning and made an awesome play. I have to say, I totally held my breath the whole time he played first. He doesn't usually play that position and I was a little worried. When they got up to bat again, they hit 5 runs and were up by 1.
Some amazing hits later and two awesome pitchers and we finally won the game, 13-12!
Holy cow! That was the most intense baseball game I've ever been to. So MUCH FUN for the Grs to watch him do so well.
It's baseball season again, which means there are cleats, gloves and socks spread from one end of my house to the other. It means little boys are camped out in the front yard playing catch until all hours of the night. And it means our weekends are pretty much committed to the ball field from now until June.
But McKay LOVES baseball season.
He's playing 2nd base this year which is exciting. He has been an aspiring pitcher for the last two seasons, but just a move from outfield to infield is pretty satisfying right now.
I decided last week that since I will be spending so much time at that ballpark, since I desperately need the photography practice, and since there aren't any other self-appointed team photographers, I would drag my camera with me and get some practice taking action shots. It's hard, guys! I can't get the white balance, the shutter speed, and the aperture all coordinated with the cloud cover, direct sunlight, and moving subjects in time to catch the shot. (sigh...) So, after missing the first two innings, I relented and set my camera back on AUTO (I know, don't tell Vernetta, ok?) BUT...I did try that little tip from my friend, Chad...you know, the one about taking a bazillion pictures because the odds are good that you'll get at least a handful of shots that are great. I also set my camera on continuous shooting mode so that I could take multiple pictures really quickly.
Here's what that does...
Instead of just getting one shot per second, you get three to five shots per second. Awesome for capturing things like batting...
sliding into home..
or pitching...
Pretty cool, huh?
We're all very excited about this season. The team is mostly made up of kids who are brand new to baseball, so that makes McKay feel pretty confident since he's already played for two seasons. They are great boys who are all working really hard together. And I LOVE the red jerseys! McKay has already had lots of opportunity to get better at his batting and fielding skills. He's so enthusiastic about trying everything he learns. And he's made some pretty great new friends.
I love this place where we live that has so many opportunities for my kids to grow and launch and find their super powers. We are grateful everyday to live in Allen.
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