Opening Day!

Yesterday was our 8th annual Little League Baseball opening day! This will be Brady's 8th season in Little League, although he's actually a Junior this year, playing on a larger field with open bases (runners can steal at any time, and leading off is permitted). His team this spring is the Astros, which is great because it's easy to get gear to wear in the stands.

Opening day is the day when all the teams are announced and the kids run out on the field, sing the National Anthem, say the pledge of allegiance, the little league pledge and throw their hats in the air. Then there are booths and moonwalks and a barbecue, and some games thrown in.

Here are the Juniors Astros getting ready to run out on the field:



Note the redhead pointing to . . . I have no idea what.

Juniors are 13-14 year olds, and they play pretty hard. Can you guess who the opening day pitcher was for the Astros?



I was stunned. Proud, but stunned. Brady's never pitched on a big field at all, much less on opening day. He's played on the big field for the last couple of years in select ball, but never pitched, or thrown a pickoff throw, or tried to hold runners on base.

He did very well for the first game, pitching 1 2/3 innings (the coach had them all on a strict pitch count - 39 pitches per player) allowing no earned runs and only 1 unearned run.



He was 1 for 2 at the plate, and the Astros won the game 10-4. That sweet boy patting Brady on the head in the above picture is Anthony Reed. He's on the Warriors, too, and is now one of my favorite people in the world courtesy of this picture. So much of middle school is kids picking at each other (even when they are friends - it drives me crazy) that any spontaneous show of kindness warms my heart.

On that note, my sister and I were talking baseball quotes on Friday, so here are a few of my favorites:

Baseball is a harbor, a seclusion from failure that really matters, a playful utopia in which virtuosity can be savored to the third decimal place of a batting average. ~Mark Kramer

Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection. ~Red Smith

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. ~George F. Will, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, 1990

Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off... the right pitch will come, but when it does, be prepared to run the bases. ~Rick Maksian

Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first. ~Frederick B. Wilcox

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
Hank Aaron

One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something.
Nolan Ryan

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
Babe Ruth

Now these two aren't exactly inspirational, but they just make me laugh becaues I've met real people like this:

If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, 'Sorry, Mom,' but nobody beats me. ~ Leo Durocher

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base. ~ Dave Barry

One game down, 13 to go! Say a prayer for the boys (and coaches) to remain injury-free, and for the parents to remember that ultimately it's only a game. :-)