There is no 'I' in Coach

Last week, Hunter's coach went out of town, so that left me holding the reigns to coach his team. We had a game Thursday night and we got killed 16-6. Our team got three hits and we just could not play defense - the kids did not know where to throw the ball or what base to cover. So, on Friday night I held a practice in which we broke the team into two groups - one group went in the outfield and one of dads throw pitches at them all night - the other group came to the infield and I hit balls at them all night and worked with them on who covers what bases, etc. After practice, I knew that I would need a pitcher for the game on Saturday, and two of our pitchers were out of town, and the other pitcher pitched on Thursday. So, I had all the kids go to the pitcher's mound to see who could pitch. One kid, Cameron, didn't throw very hard but he was accurate, so I decided to have him pitch on Saturday. After practice, I had several parents come up to me and tell me that was the best practice we had all year. Saturday's game came and sure enough, I had Cameron pitch. We had a rough first inning were the kids were making great plays on defense, but then they would throw the ball around like a circus and the other team would score. The other team ended up scoring 5 runs that inning. I pulled the kids aside and told them to quit doing that, but to just make one play. We went out the next inning and held the team scoreless. The following inning the other team scored one run. Cameron pitched threw innings and threw more strikes then any of our other pitchers did for the whole season! He was great! Our team also belted out 16 hits, which is by far the most we have had in any other game - our previous high was 7 hits. We scored 8 runs in one inning which is the max that you can score before the inning is considered over. Then, I brought our 'best' pitcher in to close the game and he gave up 4 runs before we got three outs. But we won the game 14 - 10!! Our first win of the season (record 1 - 7) ! I was not sure who was more excited to win - the parents or the kids. In the last inning, the parents were on their feet screaming and yelling with each out - holding thier breath with each hit ball. Man, it was a great feeling to win and quite a few parents congratulated me after the game. But the kids really came together and put on a good game. We beat a team that had 5 wins for the season, so they were a good team. It feels even better to wind since the head coach thinks he is such a fantastic coach and the reason we aren't winning is because of the kids on the team. I DON'T THINK SO...

Hunter went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs and played catcher the whole game. He loves being catcher!!

Who Dresses You?

This morning I got to work and went about my day. Soon, two attorneys come stumbling into my office laughing. One attorney, Reed Allen, says "Do you notice anything different about me?" I look at him and said "Other than the fact your shirt is extremely wrinkled?" He looked at me funny and said "Umm...no." So, I looked down at his shoes and he was wearing two different shoes to work. Apparently, he just grabbed two shoes from his closet and put them on without really looking. What an idiot! The other attorney, Emily White, and I proceeded to make fun of him for the next couple of minutes, saying things like "Do we need to call your wife to make sure she dresses you in the morning?" and "How the heck does that happen?" By the end of the conversation we were laughing so hard. Honestly, what kind of guy does not notice he is wearing two different shoes? Obviously, the color and style would give it away, but what about the feel of the shoes? Well, it wasn't two hours later that looked down at my own shoes and notice that I was wearing one black shoe and one maroon shoe! True story. I had to go face my shame and show Reed. I was laughing so hard and crying by the time I got into his office, that he wasn't sure what was going on. But once he found out we had to go show Emily - pretty soon the whole firm was laughing and calling us "clowns" and saying "What kind of guy does not notice he is wearing two different shoes?" I also believe that someone called Stacey telling her to start dressing me in the morning.

Baseball Infusion

So, Dad just spent the last week with us. He flew out last Monday, July 6th and that night Hunter, Ryan, Dad, and I went to a Rockies game. The Rockies won the game 1 - 0 behind Jason Marquis's pitching. It was an exciting game! Plus, the game didn't last very long so the boys weren't hard to deal with. On Thursday night, Dad and I went to another Rockies game and watched the Rockies play the Braves. The Rockies ended up winning the game 7 -6 after coming from behind to win. Dad and I decided to splurge and we bought some sweet tickets 3 rows behind the Rockies dugout. What a view of the game we had!! We are definitely going to have to try those seats again sometime! Saturday night, Dad and I hit another Rockies game, but this time the Rockies went down in defeat 4 -3. It was a very close game. It was so much fun to attend the baseball games with Dad and to just visit. Cari will be happy to know that he only said "The pitcher just balked" one time in the three games. Man, does he love baseball...

The family also had a wonderful time visiting with Dad throughout the whole week. Of course, we had to hit Ci Ci's and Lamar's Doughnuts, but we did not mind that at all. On Wednesday night I had to go to scouts and so Dad took Hunter and Ryan to the park to practice baseball. They loved that! Then, on Saturday both Hunter and Ryan had baseball games, and they loved having Grandpa there to watch their games. The week went by way too fast, but it was great that Dad (Grandpa) could visit us for a week of fun-filled baseball games!