Bitter Sweet

Baseball is officially over! It has been a really long- like 8 months long- sport season. We are happy and sad. The boys both had great experiences this year. Garrett was able to really improve as the season progressed. He was the new man this year on a team that has played together for three years. I think he struggled at first to really feel like he was a part of the team. But now he is just one of the boys and made some great friends. We learned this season that Garrett is FAST. He struggled with several different things throughout the season, but never with stealing. He is amazing to watch on the bases. He takes a HUGE lead off and loves to taunt those pitchers. Stealing bases is definitely his biggest contribution to the team. His coaches always look to Russ or I after he steals a base to say, "Man, he's fast".Russ and I learned a lot this season. Russ can now throw several different pitches (curve, change-up, four seam and two seam fast balls, etc.), is an expert in bat sizes, and now knows that baseball is almost as expensive as fly-fishing. I learned the baseball lingo, about tournament rules, and how to get red dirt out of white pants with navy blue piping down the sides that prevents the use of bleach!Grant was the youngest player is his league, yet did really well. He played with boys that were 10, 11, and 12. He had the opportunity to pitch, play short-stop and third base, and gained a lot of confidence. He was chosen to play on the 10 year old All-Star team. He was very excited. Grant is an amazing kid. He is so positive, always happy, and truly loves life. We were thrilled that he was able to have the All-star experience (even though he was out of baseball mode). His baseball season had ended in May, and we didn't find out he was playing all-stars until July! The best part was he got two cool new shirts, a new baseball hat, and little more experience.