Wednesday night my nephew Caden had a baseball game in Walworth, WI I went
to with my sister. Tracy stayed home and put the kids to bed. My other
nephew, Austin, had a game at home so we dropped him off, and left for
Walworth. Walworth is about 15 miles from Hebron just over the border of
Wisconsin. It's interesting seeing these small town teams travel all over
to field a game while I could round up enough players to field a game just
in my subdivision. My other nephew Austin actually plays on the 14U team as
a twelve year old because they don't have enough players.
Caden played catcher the first few innings and outfield in the later
innings. There are all these rules now in Little League that were
interesting to me being a baseball player when I was younger. The pitcher
can only pitch two innings. Runners can't steal home. I'm sure there's
many more I didn't catch. Caden is 10 years old and I was surprised and
impressed when they started practicing before the game. They were better
than I expected. The game wasn't that exciting. Lots of walks and strike
outs. It was tied 2-2 until the last inning when the team from Walworth had
a big inning and scored four runs. We finally got them out while they had
bases loaded and stopped the bleeding. Caden was the 6th or 7th batter in
the last inning. It was unlikely he would get up based on how things had
been going. A few walks and strikeouts later and Caden was on deck (next
batter up for you non-baseball people). The batter before him ended up
walking, and Caden came up with bases loaded. He was the tying run. He
took a strike and dug in for the second pitch. BAM - it went flying down
the right field line. I was sitting directly in line with the right field
line so I could see it was going to land fair by six inches or so. The
umpire called fair and off he went around first base. He ended up at second
base and could have made it to third, but the kid in front of him was really
slow and not sure if he should keep running. Our whole side of the stands
were standing, clapping and cheering. When he got to second base. he
paused, and looked over at us and had the biggest smile on his face I've
ever seen. I was so proud and happy for him. I remember hitting a home run
in Little League and jogging around the bases with a huge grin on my face.
Trying to stop because I was embarrassed, but deep down so happy. I knew he
had the same feeling at that moment. Seeing that smile was definitely my
favorite part of the day. The next kid struck out, and the game ended
abruptly a 4-6 loss for the Alden-Hebron Giants. None of the kids even
cared, especially Caden. They shook hands, and Caden came running over to
me as excited as he was standing on second base a few minutes before. It
was awesome to see the youthful excitement he and the whole team displayed.
Before the game, I promised Caden if he got a double or better I would take
him to the Dari. Ironically, on the way back my other nephew called and
said they won their game so the coach was giving each kid $2 to go to the
Dari. I told him we'd meet him there and off we went. It was great seeing
all the kids talking about their games with ice cream spilling down their
shirts and all over their faces. A high school friend of mine randomly
stopped by the Dari to pick up dinner which was interesting. I hadn't seen
him in at least ten years.
nephew, Austin, had a game at home so we dropped him off, and left for
Walworth. Walworth is about 15 miles from Hebron just over the border of
Wisconsin. It's interesting seeing these small town teams travel all over
to field a game while I could round up enough players to field a game just
in my subdivision. My other nephew Austin actually plays on the 14U team as
a twelve year old because they don't have enough players.
Caden played catcher the first few innings and outfield in the later
innings. There are all these rules now in Little League that were
interesting to me being a baseball player when I was younger. The pitcher
can only pitch two innings. Runners can't steal home. I'm sure there's
many more I didn't catch. Caden is 10 years old and I was surprised and
impressed when they started practicing before the game. They were better
than I expected. The game wasn't that exciting. Lots of walks and strike
outs. It was tied 2-2 until the last inning when the team from Walworth had
a big inning and scored four runs. We finally got them out while they had
bases loaded and stopped the bleeding. Caden was the 6th or 7th batter in
the last inning. It was unlikely he would get up based on how things had
been going. A few walks and strikeouts later and Caden was on deck (next
batter up for you non-baseball people). The batter before him ended up
walking, and Caden came up with bases loaded. He was the tying run. He
took a strike and dug in for the second pitch. BAM - it went flying down
the right field line. I was sitting directly in line with the right field
line so I could see it was going to land fair by six inches or so. The
umpire called fair and off he went around first base. He ended up at second
base and could have made it to third, but the kid in front of him was really
slow and not sure if he should keep running. Our whole side of the stands
were standing, clapping and cheering. When he got to second base. he
paused, and looked over at us and had the biggest smile on his face I've
ever seen. I was so proud and happy for him. I remember hitting a home run
in Little League and jogging around the bases with a huge grin on my face.
Trying to stop because I was embarrassed, but deep down so happy. I knew he
had the same feeling at that moment. Seeing that smile was definitely my
favorite part of the day. The next kid struck out, and the game ended
abruptly a 4-6 loss for the Alden-Hebron Giants. None of the kids even
cared, especially Caden. They shook hands, and Caden came running over to
me as excited as he was standing on second base a few minutes before. It
was awesome to see the youthful excitement he and the whole team displayed.
Before the game, I promised Caden if he got a double or better I would take
him to the Dari. Ironically, on the way back my other nephew called and
said they won their game so the coach was giving each kid $2 to go to the
Dari. I told him we'd meet him there and off we went. It was great seeing
all the kids talking about their games with ice cream spilling down their
shirts and all over their faces. A high school friend of mine randomly
stopped by the Dari to pick up dinner which was interesting. I hadn't seen
him in at least ten years.
Thursday we woke up and cleaned up our area, as we were going to Tracy's
parent's house in Buffalo Grove via train. We got to the train station just
after lunch. We quickly realized the mid-day trains to the city are filled
with crazy people. After being chatted up for twenty minutes by a lady who
was quite out there, the train arrived. It's about a 40 minute train ride
to Tracy's parents' house. The seat backs flip back and forth so you can
face the way the train is going which the kids found very interesting.
After the kids had some fun flipping the chairs back and forth we told them
to settle into a seat and relax. Davis and I played Tiger Woods golf on my
phone, while Tracy taught Arden to blow bubbles with her gum and chatted.
Thursday night we went to Tracy's sister's house for dinner, which was
really cool because all of her nieces and nephews were there. I think it
was the first time in a while that all the grandkids from her side of the
family were together. The kids played, while Tracy's sister Rachel and her
husband Brian cooked dinner. We ate outside which was nice. It was great
seeing all the kids playing together in the yard. We left around 7:00 to
get the kids home to bed. We had an early flight the next day to get back
to Denver for my friend JB's wedding weekend. The kids were nervous going
to bed, realizing we were leaving in the morning for two nights.
parent's house in Buffalo Grove via train. We got to the train station just
after lunch. We quickly realized the mid-day trains to the city are filled
with crazy people. After being chatted up for twenty minutes by a lady who
was quite out there, the train arrived. It's about a 40 minute train ride
to Tracy's parents' house. The seat backs flip back and forth so you can
face the way the train is going which the kids found very interesting.
After the kids had some fun flipping the chairs back and forth we told them
to settle into a seat and relax. Davis and I played Tiger Woods golf on my
phone, while Tracy taught Arden to blow bubbles with her gum and chatted.
Thursday night we went to Tracy's sister's house for dinner, which was
really cool because all of her nieces and nephews were there. I think it
was the first time in a while that all the grandkids from her side of the
family were together. The kids played, while Tracy's sister Rachel and her
husband Brian cooked dinner. We ate outside which was nice. It was great
seeing all the kids playing together in the yard. We left around 7:00 to
get the kids home to bed. We had an early flight the next day to get back
to Denver for my friend JB's wedding weekend. The kids were nervous going
to bed, realizing we were leaving in the morning for two nights.
goodbye, and there were a few tears but I'm sure the grandparents spoiled
them rotten the whole day to make up for it. We got back to Denver around
lunch time and to our house around 1:00. It was weird walking into the
house with no kids or dog. We laid around most of the afternoon, ran a few
errands and left for the party about 7:00. Tracy is sleeping in this
morning, and I went out to breakfast to write this post. Looking forward to
getting back to IL. We're going to the city Wednesday and Thursday and will
be able to take the kids to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game which will be fun.
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