Baseball prayer

As we are cleaning up from the week in Dallas, I came across a letter we wrote to Brady before we left. Coach Williams asked each parent to write a prayer for their son and give it to them to hold onto during the tournament.

I'm not a great prayer writer (I generally stick to the traditional, already-written ones), but before it gets lost forever in Brady's bag, I thought I'd share it:

Dear Brady,

You have wanted to play baseball since before you could walk, and we’ve always been happy to encourage you. Baseball teaches you so many lessons that help you in life.

You have to be ready when you are called upon. Whether it’s for one out or a 10-inning game, you have to be ready to step up when asked. Whatever your role is, you do the best you can at it. Every out, every at-bat matters. Make the most of what you are given. God gives us each unique gifts and we have to be open and ready to serve Him and to do whatever is asked of us.

The most important thing is to live in the moment. Whether you strike out or hit a home run, make a spectacular double-play or make a bad throw, that moment is gone. Take what you can from it and get ready for the next one. God calls us all to live each day as if it were our last. Focus on the now. Tomorrow will come in it’s time.

You are part of a team. Baseball is a sport where one person can’t win it alone. You have to count on each other, support each other, and build each other up to be successful. God didn’t put us on this Earth alone and he didn’t put you on this team alone. Trust in each other.

Never give up. The game isn’t over until both teams have their at-bats. As long as there is one out remaining, the game continues and both teams have a chance. Never stop playing until it’s time to line up and shake hands.

A few last things we want to make sure you know. The first is that the clichés are true. If they weren’t, people wouldn’t say them. “The two most important things in life are good friends and a good bullpen.” “Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off... the right pitch will come, and when it does, be prepared to run the bases.” “Swing hard, every strikeout brings you closer to the next home run.” Keep those old sayings in mind and bring them out when you need them. They work.

Finally, don’t worry about making us proud in Dallas. We’re already proud of you. Your character, perseverance, and attitude make you a winner already. We are so proud to wear the Warriors logo in the stands and show the world that you are our son and we love you. No matter what.

Our prayer for you and your teammates is that God will help you be strong, keep you safe, and bring you together as a team. “There is no challenge in front of you greater than the power within you.” Believe in yourself, and know that we believe in you.

Day 9: Home, home again

We drove home yesterday (no pictures, though) and all is well. Cookie was mad at us, but he's over it today. Brady is sad because he really wanted to play more baseball. Other than that, everything is about the same as usual. The Warriors are taking off a month or so, then they hope to play some more tournaments in the fall.

I'm playing around with changing the color scheme of the blog. There's only so much pink I can take. LOL

Day 7: The Challenge

Well, it gets extremely hard from here. Today, we play at 10am. If we win, we play at 12pm. If we win that game, we play at 2 pm. And the forecast is temps over 100 again today. I guess the other teams have the same challenges we do, so I'm going to try to relax and just see what happens. Regardless of what happens today, it's been a great week and a great tournament. I think Brady will remember this experience for the rest of his life. The girls have had a blast, and Abby is already sad that she won't have so many friends within a few hundred feet once we get home.


The team started the day with breakfast downstairs. Then they all load up and head over to the fields for the game.




Update: It's over. We lost 10-9. Brady had a good game, though. He had 2 hits, walked, and was hit by a pitch. He also scored 2 runs. Here he is on third base after his walk:

Poor Abby got hit by a foul ball from another field right on the arm.

The tournament is over, sadly. The boys played great, though, and it's been a great ride!

Speaking of rides, we're off to Six Flags! It was over 100 degrees again today (6 days in a row according to the news). Here's Abby cooling off while we wait for Brady and KC to finish riding the Mr. Freeze ride.

Here is the Mr. Freeze ride.

We can actually see this one from our hotel. Brady didn't know this was the ride when we got in line. The wait was inside, so we were happy to get out of the sun for an hour to wait in line. Bill, Abby, and I decided not to ride before we even saw what it was. I am so thankful for that! Not a roller coaster person. This incline the coaster is on goes straight up then straight down backwards. The hill behind it the coaster does upside down. Yikes.

Brady decided to take a break from the coasters for a bit, so KC and Bill headed over to ride Batman (a hanging coaster) and Brady kept Abby company on the Batwing ride.

We rode a log ride and then headed over to drive the cars. Abby chauffeured me while KC drove Bill and Brady.

It was fun, but we were so tired when it was over. We leave tomorrow morning to head for home. I think Brady will have lots of good memories from this tournament, and the few problems he had I think will help him grow as a player in the future. Overall, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Thank you so much for all the good thoughts and wishes for the Warriors!

Day 6: Wow, has it really been 6 days?

Today we have one game at 2pm against the Lamar Blue Stars. This morning we are doing laundry and cleaning up and restocking the pantry from Abby's party. Hopefully the boys will do well today and stay in the winners' bracket. Crossing my fingers . . .


We had a pep rally for the boys this morning before the game. The Williams girls decorated bags for each of the boys and they each got sunflower seeds and bubble gum.

Update: They lost. In fact, they got smoked 12-2. It was ugly. But they still have some hope. From here on out, it's win or go home. If they keep winning, they will play 3 games tomorrow (in the heat - yikes!!). Any loss from here on out ends it.


It was kind of a mixed bag for Brady today. He did have two base hits:





but he made his first error of the tournament on a routine ground ball, then made a spectacular snag of a line drive in the next inning (he said he knew he had to make it up to the team). No runs scored as a result of his error (luckily) but he was still really upset about it. BTW, the bandage thing on his ankle was because he got spiked yesterday really badly on the ankle when a runner slid into second. He got the runner but a nasty cut, too.


Anyway, we made a few errors and bad plays and the Lamar Stars hit the ball really, really hard. And of course we think we had horrible calls from the umpire, but I'm sure most teams feel that way when they lose (LOL).

After the game we had a team dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Brady was really down and wasn't sure if he wanted to go, but we all felt better after eating.






I also shopped a bit (I have never shopped at Cracker Barrel before), and I bought a Texas A&M cap, a few Halloween decorations (I know it's July, but they were cute), and a rolling weasel/ball thingy for the girls. . .

As we were leaving, we had an impromptu cartwheel exhibition from some of the sisters. Abby did her cartwheel very well:





KC did a very nice one-handed cartwheel!

The most impressive performance had to be Bailey and Hannah's side-by-side back handsprings. Wow!

It'll be extremely difficult from here on out. To actually win the tournament from this point would require us to win 7 games over the next two days. I don't know that our pitching can possibly last that long, but someone has to make it to the championship game from the losers' bracket, so we have as good a chance as anyone. Coach Williams says that the boys have yet to play as good as they are capable of playing. Even if they don't win the next 7 games, how wonderful would it be to see them really step up and show the greatness that we know they have inside?

Go Warriors! No matter what, we are so proud of you all!!

Day 5: Playoffs and a Birthday

Twenty-four teams made the playoffs, and we ended up as the number 11 seed, so we play at 8am again this morning. We play the Gulf Coast Whitecaps, who we beat in the very first game 7-3 (which doesn't really mean anything because they may have a different pitcher today). If we win, we play again at noon. If we lose, we move to the losers' bracket and play tomorrow. Two losses and we are done. In either case, we are definitely here for another night at least. Go Warriors!

Today is also Abby's 9th birthday. I can't believe my littlest one is 9 already! We'll try to sneak some sort of celebration in for her today, too. Should be a busy day!

Update: We won both games today (yea!). We beat the Gulf Coast Whitecaps 7-5 (came back from being down 5-0 to win), then we beat the Pearland Rockhounds 6-3. So we stay in the winner's bracket for now. Hotter than you-know-where today. 102 according to the reports.

Here's Brady's hit of the day. He was 1 for 4 today and made some good plays in the field.

Here's his one hit (off a lefty!).




This was a tough play. The shortstop and center fielder collided (you can see the center fielder on the ground on the left). Brady yells to throw the ball, and the shortstop will grab the ball and toss it to second and get that guy who's already sliding in. It ended up being a great play, although Jordan (the center fielder) had to ice his knee and collarbone after the collision.

Here's another runner caught stealing by Cody and Brady. They got two in the first game and one in the second.

Here's Brady catching a pop-up, also in the first game.

The girls threw a surprise party for Abby's birthday! They made a poster for her and saved up their bowling coupons to buy her a crown for her birthday. It was really sweet . . .

Here are our party girls:

Bill and Brady and most of the dads and boys went to the Airhogs baseball game.

We play the Lamar Blue Stars tomorrow at 2pm. Supposed to be a cool front coming through because of the hurricane. They are forecasting it may actually drop to 97 tomorrow! We may have to bring coats - LOL.

I watched the girls left over from Abby's party. Everyone is finally in their own rooms, but I am just too tired to post pictures tonight. Hopefully in the morning. Good night!

Day 4: Bright and Early

The game was at 8am this morning, which meant getting up at 6am to get ready. We figured it would at least be cooler. It was a bit cooler, but still ridiculously hot as the morning wore on. The good news is that we won the game 10-3!!

This was our last pool play game, so Coach Williams rested Brady and a few other starters, so for most of the game Brady got to hang out in the dugout, out of the sun. He's still pretty congested, although his throat isn't sore anymore (thankfully).



Brady played 2 innings in the field and batted once. The sun was shining right in our faces, so the camera had a hard time getting good pictures. Bill decided to shoot some video, so KC (who was also pretty congested) decided to take some pictures for us. She got this shot of Brady tagging a runner on a pickoff move (the runner was safe, but it was a pretty good picture).

I borrowed the camera and managed to catch a shot of Brady's hit (it was a great hit - line drive right up the middle - finally he got to face a right-handed pitcher!).

KC had a good time taking pictures, and she did a good job, especially considering the sun issues (the bright light made the camera shorten the shutter speed, so the pictures were coming out really dark). What I thought was interesting was some of the shots she chose. She definitely has her own perspective on selecting and framing shots. None of these pictures is cropped or edited in any way by me except to reduce the size.

She decided to take a picture of home plate.

She chose this angle of Brigham scoring.

She also took a few pictures of the spectators in the stands. Way closer than I would have:

Looking at the pictures she took, I rather like them. I like her perspective on things. Maybe she'll decide to be a photographer some day.

After the game, we rested for a bit and then the kids opted for bowling (in the air conditioning). The kids had a great time!

Here's Brady's rather unusual bowling technique:

Here's a very determined KC (with a gallery of girls on her team).

And Abby's approach:

Bill also played and his team ended up winning a few dollars in the last game (the kids played for fun, fortunately).

Between the first game and the bowling, a rather strange thing happened. Bill was napping and I was watching Law and Order (and probably napping, too) and all of a sudden Coach Woody is walking into our bedroom. He seemed surprised to see us, and asked where Hannah was (his older daughter). We've had girls here pretty much nonstop since we arrived, but mostly the 11 and under set. Hannah is 15. He walked back into the living room and checked the girls' room again and we followed him. I told him we didn't even have Lilly (his 5-year-old) today (just KC, Abby, Victoria, Sydney and Bailey). He still seemed puzzled and said he really hadn't expected to see us here. When we assured him we hadn't seen Hannah, he headed out and looked at the door and realized (much to his embarrassment) that instead of room 3301 (Hannah's room) he was in 2301 (our room). The room layouts are identical, so he hadn't even realized he was in the wrong building! He apologized a few times and even called back later to say he'd found Hannah in her room and was really sorry and fully expected to get teased about this for the rest of the tournament. I think what surprised us the most was that he didn't seem upset that Bill and I were laying down in what he thought was Hannah's bed. Just wondered where she was.

It's not every day you look up to see a major league pitcher standing in your hotel room. And I guess he was surprised thinking his second baseman's parents were hanging out watching TV in his daughter's bed. For the rest of the afternoon, every time we heard a knock on the door, we'd shout at Brady, "If it's Coach Woody, don't let him in the bedroom." He finally shouted back, "What do you want me to do, just keep him in the living room?" Just improvise, buddy.

I think Coach Woody will check the room numbers carefully from now on. And I'm totally asking him to autograph a baseball when this is all over . . .

Day 3: First two games

You win some, you lose some. In this case, win one and lose one. The 10am game was great (although in the interest of full disclosure, it didn't actually start until 10:20). The Warriors beat the Whitecaps 7-3. Brady was 1-1 with a walk and made 2 excellent defensive plays.

Sorry that the pictures are a bit blurry. If you click on the pictures, you should see them slightly larger. Still blurry, but larger.

Here's Brady tagging out a runner trying to steal second base. It's a bit unusual for the second baseman to be covering on a steal, but it worked here. My favorite part of the picture is Anthony in center field helping the ump make the call.



Then the very next batter hit a line drive right to Brady's right, but he ran over and snagged it. The photo shows him right after he caught it, and he's getting ready to turn and throw over to third to try to double off the runner (the runner got back, but the next batter hits it to shortstop and gets thrown out to end the inning).

This is Brady's hit, a suicide squeeze. Nothing like trying to bunt with the runner from third heading straight toward you. He manages to get the bunt down, though, and the other team is so confused they don't get either Brady or Jordan (the runner headed for home).

He stole two bases and scored two runs in two at-bats. Great first game!

Game 2 was supposed to start at 4pm. The boys arrived at the field at 3pm to warm up. The temperature according to our Suburban was 102 degrees at 3:15. The 4pm game didn't actually start until 4:50, so we all sat around trying to stay in the shade. Cool wasn't an option. We just tried not to melt. The gal in the right foreground is holding up a "cooling collar" which they were selling for $1 (I have one around my neck, too). Dip them in ice water and put them around your neck to try to keep from overheating. At least the price was reasonable.

The boys tried to keep cool under Coach Trevino's tent. The red arrow is pointing to Brady, who is lying down trying to keep cool.

Second game was another good one for Brady defensively. He caught 2 pop-ups (one in the first and one in the fourth - this is the one in the fourth).

Brady went 0 for 2 in the second game, hitting it back to the right side of the infield both times. My excuse for this game is that he was facing a lefty for the second game in a row. Generally, Brady switch-hits, batting right-handed against lefties, but since he's been crushing it left-handed, the coaches want him to bat left-handed only for the time being. All four of his at-bats today were against lefties, which he's not quite used to yet. Tomorrow is another day (hopefully he'll get to bat against a right-handed pitcher).

So, we lost the second game 8-7 (sadly). Oh, well. The next game is Tuesday at 8am. The boys are meeting for breakfast at 6:30 am. Yikes.

After the games, we had a team dinner at Cracker Barrel (or, as Woody calls it, Krackel Barrel). Brady ordered chicken tenders covered with cheese and strips of bacon and a side of french fires. Plus ice cream for dessert!

Off to bed. More fun tomorrow. After we finish our 8am game (which, although really, really early, should start on time and be cooler) we have the rest of the day off. Brainstorming ideas for fun activities that aren't likely to lead to heatstroke . . .

Feel free to leave comments wishing them luck if you'd like (hint, hint). :-)