Life of Wry

Couple things to note in this picture. One, it’s not quite spring yet. In fact, it wasn’t that cold–not as cold as the blankets and woolens might suggest–but it was windy, which made it seem cold. Still. It’s not spring yet.

And two, these are my bleacher mates for the 2016 Varsity Baseball season. And I adore them all.. especially in the aggregate, as a species: the parents/supporters/fans of my kid’s team. All our kids’ team. We are so happy to be here cheering them all on.

Game hasn’t started, so don’t mis-read any of those expressions. Mostly, we’re being drowned out by some very loud music, and with a couple of exceptions, apparently, we can’t hear a thing, so can’t really engage in substantive conversation.

So, zigzagging through the stands, we have Tyler’s mom, Ryan’s mom, Griffin’s mom, Daniel’s mom, Ray’s dad, Peter’s dad, John’s parents, mystery man, Eton’s mom, Reed’s parents, James’ dad, Daniel’s uncle, Ryan’s brother, Ryan’s mom, Solly’s dad, Ian’s dad, another mystery man, Ryan’s dad, Pierce’s sister, Pierce’s mom, Griffen’s grandfather, mystery trio of standing guys and Eton’s dad. The other parent fans were there–every single kid had at least one related somebody rooting for them (as it should be)–just sitting in another cluster.

Shortly, I’m going to take my seat alongside Daniel’s mom, whom I could not score without.

~~

For the record, because someone’s always counting, like me: we won 13-4.

This game took place in the manicured stadium of Sacramento City College, a place we love to play when given the chance because it’s fancy. Peter started on the mound–a great big tall mound at that–and pitched solidly for the first three innings. First: He picked off a guy who’d reached on an error (beautiful pick off move, Frame to Henrickson–boom!); then a guy who’d gotten a nice hit was out on an even nicer Jury throw-down to second when he tried to steal; then a nice swinging strike out. Second: Three ground outs to the ever-reliable third baseman Gibson, with a triple in between that went for naught. Third: a three up, three down inning, thanks again to Gibson, and outfielders Holgate and Biers-Ariel. But then the fourth: a pop up. Good. Then two singles, another pop up, and walk and Dan pulled him. Overall, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 1 strike out, a nice pick off, in 3 2/3 innings of work. He left the game with a nice 8-3 lead and a 62.5% strike percentage. All good. And oh.. the guy he struck out? He is the 6’5″ son of a former NBA player, and was a first round MLB pick (as a pitcher, but is also the league’s #1 hitter with an average of .476). P struck him out on three pitches. Yay! Eton came in, pitched a very nice 3 1/3 innings and got the win.