Dixie State Tournament Baseball

Here we are at the Dixie State Tournament watching our next to the oldest grandson and his teammates on the Melissa Cardinals team vie for a spot in the World Series.

But before we got here, we had to finish a few projects on the Adventurer.  A traveling companion, David, agreed to help me with some of these before we took off again.  One was to install a tire monitoring system on the motorhome tires which we did and works fabulously.  Now I can check tire pressure and tire temperature right in the living space of the motorhome.  Talk about being spoiled, this is the cat’s meow in convenience.

Another project is to switch out all the existing light bulbs for LED bulbs.  In order to do this, a polarity check of each fixture is required to make sure the 12V system is wired with the correct polarity for the LED bulbs to work correctly.  (I learned this today and did not already know it.)  We used a LED bulb David had as an extra to do the testing and sure enough found about 1 of every 3 fixtures tested needed the polarity reversed.  Now it is a pretty easy procedure, although somewhat time consuming to make this change.  But I need to back up a bit to give a little background so you can appreciate what I am about to relate to you.

You see, the wives have gone this day to a Sunday School luncheon for women only.  I thought this is a great day for us (David and me) to tackle some of these piddly little items with just us guys around to give us something to do to pass the day.  Bibi left us baked potatoes cooking for lunch with some chopped beef BBQ from Bodacious for one of our favorite meals.  After we had worked most of the morning, the stomachs started calling for food so we took a break right after the testing of the fixtures for polarity to have lunch.  This is where the story gets a bit interesting.

We have prepared our baked potatoes and are enjoying them while discussing the plans for the afternoon.  Part of the afternoon would be spent switching the polarity on the fixtures.  Now to do this you merely reverse the current wired connections by swapping the wires on each fixture that needed to have the proper polarity.  We discussed this along with a few other things.  During a pause in the conversation as we are eating David asked me if I knew about butt splices.

I am going to let that soak into your thinking for just a moment as it had to in mine.  You see, this question was not asked with any context whatsoever connected with it so I had to search my memory like a computer would have to do a quick search of a hard drive to see if there was anything recorded about butt splices.  Nope, nothing.  Hence, my response was ‘not really’ thinking I would get some sort of explanation at this point.  Nope, nothing.  Except David did say, I will run over to the house for some butt splices after we finish eating and dropped the conversation at this point.

Well, I can tell you my brain is going 1,000 MPH at this point trying to figure out what is he talking about and what is this thing butt splices.  Evidently I was able to hide my astonishment and internal questioning because he never said another word about butt splices until he returned.  I will not list or regale you with all the possibilities my clueless brain came up with that day.  Suffice it to say, I was very relieved to find out there is nothing physical (think colonoscopy) involved with a butt splice.
 

You may have already jumped ahead of me here but this is what a butt splice is and when it is useful.  You see, he was talking about cutting the wires on the fixtures and using a ‘butt splice’ to reattach the wires with the correct polarity.  The butt splice allows two wires to be connected butt end to butt end for a continuous flow of current in the repaired connection.  Again, I have learned something new from David.  Now all fixtures have the correct polarity, inventory taken of the type of lights required and they are on order to replace existing bulbs when they arrive.

Yes Virginia, there really are butt splices!

So we are at the tournament enjoying the baseball activities.  The weather is cooperating with us and we had some marvelous temperatures to watch baseball considering it is the middle of July in Southeast Texas.  With the exception of a few hot afternoons with some higher humidity, we and the teams are comfortable enough, especially compared to what it could have been.

Kaden is an amazing ball player.  During the tournament he played catcher, pitcher, third base, shortstop, second base and first base.  He throws right handed and bats left handed.  He had some excellent defensive plays and great at bats.  He has just turned 12 (the week before) so he is the ‘oldest’ on this team of pure 11 year olds playing their hearts out every game.  One of his plays as catcher stands out for me.  In one of the closer games, he is catching in the sixth inning (last inning of play if no tie) with bases loaded and only one out.  There is only a one run lead for the Melissa Cardinals and the other team is home team so this is their final at bat unless they tie (score one run) or win the game (score two runs).

Here is our #1 (that's his uniform number too) catcher

If you are a baseball fan, you realize the predicament here for Melissa.  Just about any fly ball to the outfield will score the runner on third after he tags up which will tie the score since there is only one out so far in the inning.   A hard hit ground ball into the outfield could potentially score the winning run.  One of the stronger hitters is at the plate so the tension and nervousness abounds amongst both sets of spectators as this mini drama plays out.  After several pitches, you hear the distinctive sound of a great contact of bat and ball.  You watch as the fly ball floats toward right field and begins its downward trajectory.  The right fielder begins to position his body under the ball in order to attempt a catch.  His glove comes up and plop, he catches it for the second out.

At the same time, you glimpse in your peripheral vision the runner standing on third base as he takes off towards home plate to attempt to score the tying run of the ball game and send it into extra innings.  You also notice Kaden is standing at home plate looking towards right field with a quick glance towards third base.  What is he looking at in right field?  It is the ball headed towards him.  The right fielder has the presence of mind to actually pull the ball out of the glove and fire the ball towards home.  He has delivered a great throw that reaches the catcher in the air and Kaden whirls with both hands covering the ball in order to keep it in the glove; tagging the runner before he reaches the plate for the second out of the double play and the third out of the inning.  Thus ending the game with a Melissa win and continuing their march toward the World Series.

A grandfather could not be prouder at this moment of his grandson and pleased with the calm, almost as if this is a daily occurrence, demeanor exhibited by Kaden.  Yes, he is quite the ball player, just sayin’.  What particularly struck me about this team this weekend is the lack of superstars on the team.  Yes, I just described an outstanding play by two young players.  But there were many, many more and it seemed to be spread around the players.  There was not one single person doing it all by themselves but it was a team effort.  When one person had a bad outing, another would pick up the slack.  Each player contributed at some time or another during the weekend.

Now playing first base...

Now third base...

Pitching---- He's everywhere, he's everywhere

a little grandfatherly advice - - hit it hard and run fast!

The team won four of five games putting them in position to play in the championship game.  It was at this point there were three teams tied with only one loss all vying for the championship in the tournament.  Only the top two teams would be sent to the World Series.  There was a tie breaker procedure in place to determine which two teams would play first and then the winner of that would play the third team.  Since Melissa and another team had played more games than the third team, the third team had to play the loser of a coin toss between Melissa and the other team.  Melissa won the coin toss which guaranteed at least second place in the tournament and a trip to the World Series.

Talk about an emotional moment for the team when they all finally realized what the coin toss represented.  Needless to say there was great celebration that evening for Melissa players and fans.  The next day they would meet the winner of the game about to be played but for now, that seemed too distant to concern themselves with when they are going to the World Series.  Similar to the Casey at Bat poem, the next day the team reflected what spent emotion does to an athlete.

Try as they might, they could not get the bats going, the gloves did not work quite as well and yes you guessed it, they came in second place.  They fought hard but the long, hard fought games, heat and spent emotion took all the umph out of them for this one final game and they had to settle for the trip to the World Series without winning the Championship for the State Tournament.  We still could not be prouder of our grandson and his teammates for a wonderful showing and accomplishment.

Squared around to bunt

Hitting away - run Kaden, run

After one of the wins, coaches seem to be as excited or more so than players

Each game begins with prayer for the teams and officials at the pitcher's mound - a really good practice

This next tournament is held on the same weekend as a family reunion that has been scheduled for a year.  My sister’s family has agreed to move the reunion, in support of Kaden, to Longview where the tournament will be played this year.  What a great thing for us, we get to see everyone and continue watching the once in a lifetime season our grandson is having.  Just to have the opportunity to see and be a part of the fan base is important to us.  More important, I hope he realizes how proud we are of him and his accomplishments and that we were there to share these times together with him.

To make it even more special for us, we got to share some time with the 5 year old grandsons.  They made the trip with mom and the three of them stayed with us during the tournament.  It was a little crowded but everyone managed fine and we had a grand old time.  Swimming in the park’s swimming pool was especially entertaining and inviting.  Kenzie even joined us for a swim session.

We are going on a big trip after the World Series Tournament, so stay tuned for more baseball updates and as we take the Adventurer out on the highway for some more adventures.

A happy, tired and victorious Melissa Cardinals team and coaches

Our personal MVP - could not be prouder of him!

The Clean Up

After our recent grandchildren trip, we returned to home base and had the opportunity to catch up with our other grandchildren (the twin boys) this summer.  Mama attended a funeral service for a friend’s grandfather about an hour away and enlisted our help since the five year old boys are not known for their ability to quietly sit for this length of time, especially after being confined for an hour in a car.

Since it is summer and the days are very warm, we decided a water activity was called for and set about developing a plan to keep everyone cool and entertained.  After the last trip, the motorhome was in dire need of washing since we were parked next to major highway construction with hot, dusty, windy conditions present during our stay. 

The logical thing to do was to enlist the two guys help in giving the motorhome a bath.  However, most logically thinking people would say this was a crazy idea because they are barely tall enough to reach the bottom rail on the coach.  The other part of the argument would be the attention span could not possibly last to finish the assignment.  Typically I would agree with both these statements and even speculated as to how long this activity would capture their attention.

In a discussion with Bibi, I told her I thought one of them would last between 5 and 10 swipes of a rag against the side of the coach.  The other one would last longer (not sure how much longer) until he was distracted by the first one’s newer activity that beckoned him away from the “fun” of cleaning the motorhome with Gran.  Realistically I did not expect more than 30 minutes total, if that, of participation.

We were pleasantly surprised as to the interest shown and the endurance to stay on task by both boys.  Of course, the actual washing did not commence immediately.  When presented with two water hoses to begin the rinsing and wetting process on the motorhome, each hose manned by one of the boys, it did not take long for this to degrade into a full-fledged soaking and water fight.  It was like giving each of them a “water blaster cannon” with an unending supply of ammunition.  In fact, the supply was unending as will be evidenced by the water bill later this month.

Did not take long for the water fight to start!

One of them was getting the better of the other, so I had to step in and ‘even up’ the playing field by using my chosen combatant as a shield as I helped direct the spray directly at our antagonist’s face.  The technique worked rather well until they decided to team up against me.  I had not thought of that possibility before coming to the aid of the wetter of the two.  Note to self, leave future water fights to the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, and you will be much drier.

Take that Shawn boy!!!

After getting past the obligatory water fight with hoses, we commenced to washing said motorhome.  A bucket of suds was prepared for their use and a separate bucket for my use.  I did learn from earlier experience, their bucket of soapy solution would be a lot dirtier than mine.  This is due to the incessant dropping of the cleaning rags onto the ground picking up all matter of dirt, grass and rocks.  So the first rule is to use your bucket and not mine.

Fill em up, boys.

We set about scrubbing the front first as this is where all kinds of interesting things (i.e. bugs) end up against the body of the motor home and stuck in the grill.  What better way than this to keep a five year old boy's attention than to present him with dead bugs to identify and retrieve.  Of course, they did not see my obvious ruse to get the maximum scrubbing power from them with the ongoing chant of ‘get off of there you dead bug’ and the accompanying reward chant of ‘take that you dirty old bug.’  The enthusiasm exhibited during this process was astounding.  If I could bottle that and sell it, there would be no material want not met in our lifetime.

Look at them go.

......and go

and go some more!

Being the conscientious supervisor, I recognized the importance of taking a break to ensure a happy and eager workforce that could go the distance.  As the boys stretched out in the sun to let their wet clothing dry, they began to down a Sunkist orange drink.  Carbonation and young boys inevitably lead to a belch.  With Shawn it is most loud and intentional with the main purpose to entertain the ladies present.  Try as we could, Konnor and Gran could not outdo Shawn and I declared him the winner in the belching contest.  His response, "yeah, I know.  I win at everything."  So we further declared him., 'King of the World.'  This is a moniker he gladly accepted and thought it mighty fine to be the King of the World.

Break time.

Champion belcher in action, a/k/a King of the World and still undefeated champion!

All good things must come to an end, but I was the one left speechless by the length of time devoted to this cleaning adventure by the boys.  All told, they spent about 3 hours working with me on cleaning the coach.  Now this did include some distractions such as Shawn would find a dead bug and proceed to use the water hose to ‘wash’ it down some drains I have installed in the driveway.

When the bug would drop into the drain (either by force of water or if that was not quick enough he would manually pick it up and drop it in) he would exclaim his parting words, “Goodbye dead bug.”  Konnor was our stay on task guy, even if it meant washing the same tire 20 times.  There was even a small interlude to get Bibi involved in an Easter egg hide and seek game ( a year round activity around here using plastic eggs).  But eventually they returned to complete the task with me.

When we finished the motorhome, they had not had enough cleaning so I suggested they clean up the John Deere 4x4 (a miniature version they are fond of riding) since it was dirty.  They were determined to clean every square inch of the JD.  Interestingly enough, they were much more focused and planned their cleaning more strategically than when cleaning the motorhome.  I suppose size is the plus factor, since they are on a scale with the JD and actually tower over the height of the car.  As you can see from the pictures, they did a bang up, super cleaning job.

Cleaning is so much fun!

Especially when you are having fun with each other.

We had some good one-on-one times with them telling me all about their July 4 trip to watch fireworks with the additional fun activity of visiting the Build-a-Bear workshop.  Their vocabulary is expanding rapidly but not as fast as needed to fully express their feelings and sentiment.  An example of this was their response to what did the fireworks look like and how did they sound.  After a few minutes of excited and animated gestures by both of them, it was obvious they had run out of words and sounds to fully describe the events.  That is when Shawn abruptly stopped and said, “You need to go with us to see what we see” followed by Konnor’s full agreement statement when he said, “Yeah.”

What a great day.  I only hope they remember and treasure the day as much as I will.  Bibi was manning the camera so she has her own special memories created as she snapped pictures.  It is the little things in life that add special spice.

Not all Adventures in our Adventurer happen on the road.  Sometimes they happen right in the driveway.  We are off soon to see the next step in our middle grandson’s baseball season as they participate in the Dixie State Tournament attempting to win it and secure a spot in the World Series Tournament that takes place later in the month.  We will give a report on this activity later. Until then, adventure on!

The Wrap Up

Well the big day has finally arrived for both the future actress and the major leaguer.  It is Friday and the afternoon kicks off with a much anticipated second theatrical presentation.  As previously stated this play has a lot more action and singing with fewer lines.  Think in terms of ‘The Three Stooges’ and you will have a point of reference.

Granddaughter is playing the part of Alice Minion in ‘Minions’ Revenge’, an original presentation based upon the ‘Despicable Me’ movies.  The script, choreography and practice all happened in the space of four days with the presentation on the fifth day.  This camp was partially responsible for testing, putting into action, improvising and creating the characters during the week.

Again I had a hard time understanding the words (most of the actors are very young and have a high frequency voice which is hard on an old man) and the songs.  I did pick up on the fact that the Minions have a very limited vocabulary and the word “banana” is used a lot.  In fact, a real banana will set off frenzied activity to take the banana from each other.  I guess that explains why the minions are the color of a banana.  Here are a couple of pictures of the troupe in action.  Alice is the one with the big bow in her hair.

Alice Minion aka Kenzie

Opening Scene with 3 Minions

Exit Stage Left

Finale Dance Number

Again we were entertained by an energetic group of thespians.  The play and the costuming was the most outstanding accomplishment for the actors and there were a lot of proud parents and grandparents in attendance.

After leaving the theater performance, we headed to the ballpark in Sherman.  This is the regional tournament for the next to oldest grandson and our first chance to see him and his team in action on this trip.  This team is a 11 and under team which is made up of only 11 year olds. 

We have watched this group of young men play together as a team for several years now and develop into quite a baseball machine.  They have about 5 or 6 very capable pitchers, which is extremely unusual for this age group and out of a team of 10 players.  Defensively they are solid and not easily rattled when playing under pressure.  Example: An overthrow by the catcher to first base on a pickoff move to try and catch the runner being lazy looked like a disaster.  However, the right fielder was moving into position behind first base, picked up the overthrow and fired it to second base where the shortstop was covering and tagged out the runner as he tried to steal on the overthrow.  Not many major league teams accomplish this type of play, turning lemons into lemonade.

Anyway, we make it to the field and are pleasantly surprised to find the weather is once again cooperating.  We have partly cloudy skies with a gentle (for Northeast Texas) breeze that keeps it just right temperature wise to have a wonderful evening of baseball.  The grandson’s number is “1” and that is what he is tonight.  Playing catcher, he guns down a couple of steal attempts at second base, bats 100% with some very good hits into right center, has a couple of RBI’s along with scoring 3 or 4 runs himself.  We could not be prouder of him for an excellent game tonight.  The team performed just as well, winning the game under the 10 run rule after four innings.  Another win on Saturday night guarantees a trip to the State Tournament.

Okay, it is Saturday and the teams are on the field.  Interestingly, the game begins very strangely.  The opposing team’s pitcher is walking batters and before the next at bat is completed, the walked batter steals second, then third and finally home.  One of the players doing this is the grandson because he is the second batter.  The score is about 3 or 4 to zero before the first hit of the game occurs and there is no one on base when the batter gets a hit.

Regardless, this team is no match for the mighty Cardinals this night and never even scores a run.  Grandson is great once again.  This time at bat, he never strikes out and laid a textbook bunt down the third baseline that is not even fielded for a throw to first.  He starts out as catcher and tags a runner out for a double play at home.  He pitches for an inning retiring all the batters he faces and the team once again 10 runs the opposing team.  They are going to the State Tournament and the dogpile on the field speaks for itself.

Number 1 aka Kaden playing catcher

Number 1 playing pitcher and it is a Strike!!!

Number 1 scoring from third base

Number 1 receiving his trophy

Number 1 happy (and dirty, but very happy)

Melissa Cardinals 11's ready for next challenge at State Tournament

We had a great week with the grands and enjoyed a swim and pizzafest with them this Sunday afternoon.  It is our last day with them and we will miss them.  The activities we enjoyed were so entertaining.  We will see them again at a baseball tournament in a couple of weeks but it is not the same as visiting them at their home and becoming part of their lives for a time.  We treasure the time shared and hope it will always give them great memories of Gran and Bibi.  Maybe they can go with us sometime and share an Adventure in our Adventurer.  That would be awesome!  Well take care, we will post our next adventure soon.