Another eventful Baseball Game

Many people say that baseball is a boring game. For some reason I have never felt thay way.
I feel that there is always something that happens in every game that makes it memorable. Whether it's a great diving catch or a grand slam at just the right moment, there is always the moment you will talk about after it's over.
Sunday was no exception.

Ben's team was scheduled to play a double header with a team that we have played often. They never beat us, but have given us a run for our money in the past.

The kids are required to arrive 1 hour before game time to warm up and get ready. Game time was at 10am and by 9:30 we already had 2 men down with bad injuries. One player was in the batting cages and took a ball to the face. It was totally an accident. He was in the second set of cages and a player in the first set of cages hit a ball and it came through a small opening in the netting and hit him square in the face.

The second player was just finishing up warming up his arm on the field when he turned to head to the dugout, he was hit in the back of the head by an overthrown ball. He was down for quite a while on that one. He was seeing double in 1 eye and felt like throwing up.

So a team of 11 was now down to 9 players. Well, you say, that's all you need to play a game, right? You are forgetting that Ben cannot play still. We are at 8 players and looking at a forfeit of 2 games.

The coaches come to Rob and I. It's totally our decision a to whether these 2 teams can play or not. They want to put Ben at 1st base and have him NOT throw the ball. Their plan is to have the 2nd baseman assist Ben if necessary. I want to know how you can get through a baseball game with the 1st baseman never needing to throw a ball. We tell them that we will try and see how it goes. Ben is told to NOT throw...No matter what.

To everyones relief, the game begins.

Ben's first at bat, BAM...home run! As always with his homeruns, I like to collect the ball and save them for him. One of the dads from the team offers to go get the ball. Keep in mind that behind the baseball field is a lot of long grass and a swamp. I offer to go as well because I saw where it landed. We are looking for the ball in the long grass and as always I am very aware that an alligator could be residing there. I am listening and being very careful.

Still not finding the ball, I decide to turn and look in another spot and there it was! Nope not the ball, a big long DEADLY water moccasin! These snakes are not afraid and will defend their territory to the death. He was hissing and really aggitated.

I am frozen. There is a big snake between me and the exit of where I am standing. If I go backwards, I am in an alligator swamp, forwards will perhaps bring me to my death by snake bite. Since I am writing this, you know it turned out ok, but I am sure I lost at least 1 year off my life for that scare. When I got back to the field, the players said they heard me scream. I don't actually remember screaming but I would be surprised if I hadn't.

As you can guess, Ben will not have that homerun ball on his shelf.

Back to the game: It became a homerun derby that day. There were 9 homeruns hit all day by our team. Three were hit by Ben, 2 by Andrew, 2 by Jeff, 1 by Zack and the first one ever by Cal (I love the FIRST homerun..it's always special). Only 2 balls were recovered, thankfully one was Cal's.

The other team began complaining that our kids were hitting so many homeruns. They were saying that our fences were too close. NOTE: They are regulation 200 feet deep and 8 feet high. What's funny is that they would say that when their kids are playing on the same field. It was very unusual for our kids to hit so many in one day, but it was fun!

Ok, so if you think that's enough excitement for 1 day...your wrong. We are winning the second game 7-2 when the other team gets 5 runs in 1 inning and ties the game. The other team is getting pumped up and really wants to beat our team. Win or loose, I love close games. Our team has a couple more homeruns and we go up 15-7. Our coach calls a "bok" on their pitcher (that's when the pitcher makes an illegal move when pitching). The umpire calls BOK and the other team freaks out! They call all the kids off the field and start yelling that the umpires are cheaters. The other teams coach comes out on the field and spits a mouthfull of sunflower seeds into the face of the umpire!

Their parents are screaming foul language at the umpires and yelling at our team for some reason I still don't know. It was another terrible example of how parents and coaches get too involved in the game. All they needed to do was to call time out and have a grown up discussion with the umpires. Instead, the kids from the other team who were doing really well, were pulled from the field and had to hear their parents and their nasty mouths acting like a two year old having a tantrum.

When you play as much baseball as Ben's team does, you are bound to have games like that, but I am always shocked and saddened when it happens.

I told you that baseball is not boring. By the way...our two kids were fine. Xrays were negative and all is well with the Infinity Team!

Oh, yeah, Ben played 1st base both games and never threw the ball. He did great and whenever Ben got the ball, he would make the play at first and then the second baseman (Garrett) would come over and Ben would hand him the ball and Garrett would throw it to the pitcher. The other team never could figure out what was going on. They thought there was a sneaky play going on, but couldn't catch them at it. FUNNY!

Have a good week and stay out of the grassy swamps! Smiles, Lynne