Noah's turn to bat

My favorite thing about baseball is the randomness of the sport. In any other sport, when the game is on the line, the ball or play goes through the best player. Need a last second jump shot? Design a play for your best shooter. Need a yard with no time on the clock? Either your quarterback or your running back are having their number called. Baseball is different.  Bottom of the last inning with your team down a run? Who do you send to the plate? Whoever's turn it is to bat. I love that.

Well, Saturday night the Titans went into the bottom of the last inning down a run.  We tied the game and the winning run was on third. Then it was the next guys turn to bat. Noah Sullivan's turn.


Fall Baseball 2014

I know fall is supposed to the a time for football and hunting.  For us though it's just time for baseball.  The boys made a huge jump this weekend to their very first kid pitch tournament. The boys played so well and I couldn't be more proud of all the boys.  It's also the first time since the state tournament in June all the families were about to see each other. As much as the boys and dads have bonded, we are crazy lucky the moms and siblings mesh together also. We have one more tournament this fall and then we have a long break.  Excited for more good times. 

Farewell #2

The problem with having 2 phones and a camera on a trip is its hard to gather all the photos together for an album.  Okay, it's not "technically" hard but it's all about finding the time. So until I  can find the time I'll just let you know we had a great weekend.  An unexpected highlight of the trip was dinner at the T-Rex Cafe.  How awesome is that place? The game was great.  Jeter got a hit and scored a run.  The Royals prevailed though on the backs of two huge home runs so there was drama and there was some offense. Noah was crazy into the game to the point he wouldn't let me take his picture when the Royals went ahead.  It rained during the day so we didn't get much pool time. The kids were up late two nights in a row but spirits were good and they were troopers.  Here's a pic until I can get it all compiled.

2013 World Series

One long strange set of occurrences happened last weekend that resulted in a spare World Series ticket.  Another set of happenstance and the ticket fell to me.  Thanks to the DiCarlos for making a lifelong dream come true.  Thanks to my wife for letting me bail on a family weekend in Branson to mark this off my bucket list.  She may not have understood it then, but eventually she got how big of a deal this was to me.  And thanks to Kara for letting me crash her own bucket list dream.  The whole night was surreal and awesome.  From the opening introductions to the crazy wild finish on a player obstruction call, the game was everything I dreamed it would be.

Paint the Park Pink 2012

The Naturals hold a benefit for Komen every year.  This is the same one a few years back when Jenna threw out the first pitch.  This year she was asked to be part of a group of survivors recognized before the game.  This kids had a great time.  If it hadn't been 12000 degrees we probably wouldv'e stayed past the 5th inning.

Blueclaws go undefeated!!!

I'm sure if we kept score it would've been a successful season but the kids think we were undefeated so that's what we'll go with.  This was Noah's last teeball season as he'll move on to pitching machine next year.  He's definitely ready in batting and his catching/fielding came around big time in the summer league.  It was a fun group of boys.  The summer season was way more crammed in versus the spring season so I don't feel I got to know the boys as well as past teams but they all had fun.  That's the main goal anyways.

"...hurt and injured aren't the same thing..."

Noah's really gotten into baseball since they started playing kickball at school.  When I told him I used to play baseball he asked me to be his "teacher." Never mind it was 101 at 530PM yesterday.  My boy wanted to go play baseball so we did.

We had a lot of fun and he ran the bases like a champ.  He's getting a lot better at hitting the ball each time too.  

The best part was the conversation when we got home.  He scraped his elbow pretty good with a fair amount of blood.  When his Momma say it she asked him what happened.  He bravely replied "I got hurt.  Daddy said hurt and injured aren't the same thing so I had to keep playing baseball." She shot me a look and I found something really interesting on the ceiling to look at.

Here's a video of the young Joe Dimaggio.

Good follow through but needs to extend...

Noah has decided he wants to hit a baseball right handed but the legacy of holding his hands like a lefty lives on. Yesterday, we decided to play the game where he tries to hit the ball off the tee and hit me. Of course he smoked the first few right at me and had me dodging and weaving. This is the best one after I finally got the camera out.

Lefty Sullivan and the case for well-paid mediocrity

I know just the shear fact that I'm writing this down is going to jinx into not being true. Here goes anyways. I think Noah's left-handed. I don't want to break my credentials out but after 13 years of pediatric practice and being a medical expert on the upper extremity.............I really think he's left-handed.

If you don't know why this is a big deal to me, you haven't been listening the past few years. Although the world is made for right-handed people, being left-handed gets you one clear advantage. A mediocre left-handed reliever can make a good living in baseball. And by mediocre I mean-all things being equal between a right and left handed pitcher-the lefty will make more money. I have made a hundred jokes about tying Noah's right arm behind his back until he was 8. I didn't resort to that but it may have come true anyways.

The only reason I haven't declared him as a lefty yet, is because he still swaps hands a lot on fine motor tasks. Gross motor though the boy is going to shock me if he changes hands. Watching him hit a wiffle ball off the tee right vs. left is no contest. He's 10X's better from the left side. What has me convinced happened late yesterday afternoon. Jenna and I were planting in the front flower bed and the boy had had enough of us not playing with him. So he got out his golf clubs which is an instant Daddy-Pay-Attention-To-Me-Toy. He got a ball and put it on the practice mat (yes I have a practice mat). Typically I hold the club head behind the ball with the shaft where he's supposed to be and he'll walk up to it and get his grip right and then swing away. He'll hit 1/4 with the others hitting the ground about a foot behind the ball. He has a hitch on the downswing that looks like Charles Barkley (if you've never seen Charles Barkley hit a golf ball-I demand you go to YouTube right now). When he hits it I'll take the club and he'll run and get the ball and put it back on the mat. Rinse/repeat.

Yesterday was different. After about the fifth one. He said "No Dad, I'll hit over here." He walked around to the other side of the mat. I wasn't going to argue with him, so I jumped to the other side of the mat. He then preceded to hit 4 straight golf balls left-handed with the back of his right-handed clubs. Obviously they didn't go in the air but they went all the way across the yard. I had my back to Jenna so I just said "Are you watching this?" and she answered "Yes" in a bewildered-I can't believe I'm seeing this-voice. He hit every ball this way. He never whiffed and he didn't hit the ground. Every swing had some part of the clubhead hitting the ball.

So here I sit at 12:15 AM about 30 hours after all of this has set in. Figured I'd post this news on the blog since I couldn't sleep. I fixed some water, came to the living room, and sat down to tell you about all of this and to order left-handed clubs for my son from Golfsmith :)