grinNberrett

T-y played in the City Tournament Championship game today. They played 6 innings. Which meant that T-y got up to bat three times. He struck out twice and walked once. I filmed the walk. You can check out the video here. Also, make sure you click on "More Info" to read why he got a walk.

He played a pretty good game. He had one error on third that caused a run to score. I think he was a bit nervous because that was the first hit that he has fielded while playing in the infield. They were beating the Tigers the entire game, until the bottom of the sixth inning. The Mets were leading the Tigers 10-9 going into the last inning. The Tigers rallied and scored the needed 2 runs to obtain the victory. T-y and his team were a bit disappointed to lose the game in such a manner. They took solace in the fact that the 2nd place trophies looked a lot better then the 1st place trophies. The 2nd place finish earned the team a berth in the State Tournament that will be held July 15-17th.

T-y got his first hits of the year at the game tonight. He got up twice, and hit the ball both times. I was pretty amazed. It seems like a light switch clicked on for him today. I asked him why he hit the ball today and he told me "I overcame my fear." What a awesome kid he is.

His team won the game today so they play in the championship game on Tuesday at 6:00. See you there.

T-y got up to bat once during the game today and fouled off 4 of the pitches. The first foul ball was about an inch away from being fair. T-y was already on first base before the umpire called it foul. He had a big smile on his face and promptly went and got back in the batters box.

It seems that T-y is a physic. There have been several games where T-y has told me that he was going to hit a Grand Slam. In each of those games T-y went up to bat with the bases loaded. Today was one of those games. While he hasn't hit any Grand Slams, he is having a great time. Today he told me after the game that he is having the funnest time ever playing baseball, and that this was the funnest game of the year.

His team only has two games left in the Post Season tournament. His next one is Friday June 27th at 6:45 on Field #2. The winner of this game moves on to play in the championship game on July 1st at 6:00 on field #2. The loser moves on to play for third/fourth place on Monday June 30th at 6:45 on field #2.

If his team receives a berth in the State Tournament, held July 15-17, then he will have been playing baseball for 2 1/2 months straight! That is about the same time that I have neglected working in my yard.

Uncle Rus flew in from Seattle to watch T-y's City League baseball game. Turns out that Rus might just be T-y's good luck charm. T-y got up to bat twice and made contact with the ball both times. In his first up to bat, T-y swung and hit the catchers mit, and then fouled the ball into the catchers knee. He got to take his base because of that. In his next up to bat, he grounded out to the first baseman. The first baseman beat T-y to the base by a couple of steps. The first baseman was lucky that T-y didn't run him over. They won the game, so they play on Field #3 at Fort Utah Baseball Fields on Wednesday at 6:45pm.

T-y has been struggling with his hitting in baseball this season. He does an OK job hitting the ball in practice, yet he is probably still dealing with some issues from being hit in the first game. T-y was the first batter up in one of the innings. Here is the discussion that T-y and I had.

T-y didn't hit the ball batting from this side of the plate. In fact, he walked on 5 pitches.

Back in the day, the Wall's used to live by us. Ben and I played on some various softball teams. During one of those games, Ben hit a ball one out of the park. T-y went and found it and had Ben sign it for him. T-y still proudly displays that softball in his room. Being like Ben Wall is definitely a good choice of a person to be like. I sure miss Ben.

The T-y asked me if he could come to work with me today. There isn't any school today so I said sure. He kept himself busy by listening to phone calls, watching a movie, playing video games, monitoring my teams break schedules and just hanging with dad. He had a blast.

Well, T-y got in the batters box today and kept his feet still. When it was his turn to bat, he calmly walked up to the plate and got ready to hit. He had a one and one count on him when the guy on first got picked off trying to steal second. That was the third out so I walked over to T-y to give him some words of encouragement. I put my hand on his shoulder and he started to get all teary eyed. I asked what was wrong and he said that he was scared. It was then I noticed that his heart was racing about 150 beats a minute. I told him that it was ok to be scared, but the only way not to be scared of something is to face it and conquer it. I told him that he faced his fear and that he is conquering it. I was pretty proud of him. He was probably scared spitless when he got up to bat.

He got up to bat two more time, hit a foul ball one of the times up and struck out both times. He was swinging his bat, and getting out of the way of a wild pitch. He says that he wasn't as scared the third time up and is going to get hits every time he is up to bat from now on.

I talked to my dad about this, and he said that I got hit by the ball a lot. In fact, he said that I actually leaned into the pitches to get hit. Hum, I guess I figured it was easier to get on base by getting hit then to actually hit the ball. He gave me some good advice about how to help T-y. He said that I should buy him an Iceberg shake for every hit that he gets. The only problem is that the new Iceberg's just don't cut the grain. You have to get an Iceberg shake from the original Iceberg location located in SLC at 3900 South and 900 East. I guess they will do in a pinch, or perhaps I will have T-y save up his hits and make special father son outing up to Iceberg after the season is over.

The team did a pretty good job. The wound up losing the game 6-5 in the last inning. The other team had a couple of good players that laid down some bunts to advance the runners into scoring position. I think they scored the winning run off of suicide bunt. It was a fun game to watch.

:: Posted by brb
:: Filed under /tyler

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Tue, 06 May 2008

Nice Bruise

Well, it was just as I had feared. Todays practiced confirmed that T-y is afraid of the ball. During practice today, T-y was wasn't as aggressive in the batters box as he normally was. I asked him why and he said that he was scared of getting hit. I related a couple of stories from my little league days about being hit by the ball as well as when I beaned a couple of kids when I pitched.

My neighbor, Jonathan Owens, is the head coach and has told the kids since day one to tell the picture "You're Mine" when they get up to bat. This has been a good confidence booster for some of the kids. I reminded T-y of that phrase and that if he is afraid of the ball then the pictures own him. I told him not to be afraid and that if he was afraid of getting hit, then he might as well quit cause every player gets hit at some point. Hopefully this was an inspiring pep talk. Only time will tell. Here is a pix of T-y's bruise from getting hit.

:: Posted by brb
:: Filed under /tyler

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Mon, 05 May 2008

Stop Hitting me!!!

We signed up T-y to play little league baseball this year. He has been very excited to play. He likes going to practice. Which is a good thing, because so far T-y hasn't been excited to go to practices for any of the previous activities that he has been enrolled in.

T-y is playing on the Mets and has an assistant coach that made the 1983 Holliday Pony League All-Star team. I don't know if that is really worth mentioning, but it is all the glory that I received in my illustrious baseball career. It's pretty fun getting to hang out with him and watch him improve.

This past week he had a couple of practice games and hit the ball really well. He got a couple hits off some guys that he went to school with at Wasatch Elementary. Needless to say, he thinks that he can get a hit every time he is batting. This is a great attitude to have.

Tonight was his first game and I don't think that he will have such a great attitude about hitting anymore. The reason for the attitude change is that he got hit in the thigh on his first at bat and got hit in right hand on his second time at bat. Poor guy. He had a rough night, but did an excellent job in the field. He played third base. This is the same position that I played in little league. It is a pretty tough position, as the the majority of hitters bat right so a lot of balls should be headed his way. They won the game 9-2.

We should be in for a fun baseball season. T-y has games on Monday and Wednesday evenings and practices on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. When all is said and done, T-y will be playing or practicing baseball for close to 8 hours each week.

I snapped a couple pics of him at practice and the game.

:: Posted by brb
:: Filed under /tyler

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Wed, 30 Apr 2008

Mr. Bean

I signed up to be a chauffeur for Tyler and some of his classmates for their field trip to the Bean museum. I have never been to the museum and probably never will go again. Tyler's teacher put together 20 questions that the kids had to find the answers to while looking at the various displays. We also had to sit through some type of presentation about Utah and its different eco-systems. It was so thrilling that I almost stayed awake through the entire presentation. It held Tylers attention and the rest of the kids seemed to enjoy it, so I guess it served its purpose.

The best part of the trip was listening to the conversations of the kids in my group. Here were some of the more memorable conversations:

kid1: My mom is like a hippopotamus.
me: Really? How is she like a hippopotamus?
kid1: She is as fat as a hippopotamus.

kid1: My dad is the best cook in the whole world.
kid2: No! My dad is the best cook.
kid1: If there was an election for President of Cooking, my dad would win.
Me: I hate to burst your bubbles, but Tyler's Dad is already the President of Cooking. Please refer to Tyler's dad as President Chef.

I also snapped some pics of the Tyler and the group.

:: Posted by brb
:: Filed under /tyler

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