Adventures in our Adventurer: 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.