UNTI FAMILY

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Picture's Stories Coming Soon

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Go Birds!

This week Max's team the Orioles had their end of season league tournament. There were six teams in the league. The teams in first and second got a bye. Max's team was the fith seed in the tournament. The first game they played the fourth seed. The games are six innings long and Max pitched the fourth and the fifth. The first inning went well but in the fifth the other team scored a few runs off of him and he got upset with himself. There were many lead changes in the game. When the game went to the bottom of the sixth the Orioles were up by two but the other team scored two to send the game into extra innings. In the bottom of the seventh our team was able to drive in one run. Max was playing short stop during the last inning and before our pitcher started warming up I saw Max go over and say a few words to him. It was going to be tough to protect the lead but our pitcher did an excellent job of shutting down the first two batters. When the last batter came up he hit the ball in the gap between first and second. The second basemen was a young second grader who was playing up with the third and fourth graders. He is probably the smallest boy in the league. But he was quick and made an excellent read on the well hit ball. He ran on an angle toward first base and right field and just when he was getting near the outfield grass the ball took a sudden long high hop. The second basemen reached out fully extended and was able to grab the ball. He spun around counter clockwise and made the throw to first just in time to get the runner out! The team went wild and the season would last at least one more game.

A day later we got an e-mail from the parents of the boy who did a great job pitching four innings in that game including the last inning. Max apparently told the boy who pitched the last inning, "We win as a team, we lose as a team" and told him to just go out there and pitch. I think I was more proud to hear those words than I was of the win.

Friday we found ourselves back at the park to watch Max and the Birds face the number two seed in the tournament. It was a team that had beaten them twice this season. Max had four innings of eligibility left to pitch in the tournament. We were the away team again and in our first at bat we scored four runs. Max went out and pitched his best game of the year protecting the lead for all four innings. He gave up some runs but held it together. It seemed every ball they hit was a pop fly to Max or a ground ball back to him. At one point they tried bunting but he scooped it up and made the throw to first. There was a scary moment in the fifth when our best pitcher was hit with a ball in the leg and we were not certain if he would be able to come back and pitch the sixth but he shook it off and closed the game out. With an 8-5 win the birds were now in the championship game!

Saturday morning at 10:00 AM the Birds faced an undefeated team in the championship game short two of their best arms. This team had not lost a game all season long and as much as I would like to say we had a fairy tale ending, this team turned out to be just too much for our guys to handle. However we did rally late in the sixth to give them a game. With the score 9 to 5 and two outs Max came up to bat and hit a ball to the third base side of the infield. It was a bang bang play at first and by bang bang I mean Max ran over the first basemen. The runner on second scored and Max quickly got up and ran to second. We were getting to the best part of the line up and the other coach called a time out and gathered his players together at the mound. Our next batter hit another ball to the left side of the infield and I thought Max would score the seventh run but the other team made the play at first and the Oriole's season came to an end!

It was a great tournament and experience for these boys to start out as a fith seed and come together and string together three strong games all as underdogs. They never quit and always encouraged each other. Just when we thought baseball was over we got word this week that Max has made the All-Star Team and will be playing in two tournaments. Practice starts next week!

Monday, May 25, 2009

My Cup Is Bigger Than Yours

Jake started playing catcher this year and thus needed a cup. He actually played one game without the cup and took a shot to the nuts and went down. The following day I found myself at "Dicks" sporting goods looking to buy a cup for my 8 year old. That's correct - the store's name is "Dicks" and for those of you on the west coast who don't have "Dicks"; well let's just say I feel sorry for you. Great store, excellent staff with plenty of support. The perfect place to buy a cup.

Now when I was a kid playing little league I too played catcher but the equipment bag came complete with bats, balls, and a cup which was shared amongst the team and reused every year. When it was your turn to catch you dropped the team cup in your underwear and squated down behind the plate. Sure it smelled and there was some sort of fungus on it but you wore it! Occasionally it might slip out a leg hole and you had to make some adjustments but at the end of the day you were well protected and stayed fertile.

Today everyone has to have their own cup and they come with special underwear. Not so much a jock strap but tighty whities with a pouch. So we picked out a cup complete with the underwear and rang it up and took it home. When we got home Jake had to show Max his cup. Then they had to get Max's cup out and compare the cups. As it turns out Jake's cup was bigger. Jake spent the next hour notifying anyone in the neighborhood who cared to hear about his cup size. We also had to show off our new cup to everyone on the baseball team and all parents who cared to listen. At some point in the game there came a loud cry from the bench when someone found the cup in their helmet.

Later Max requested we return to "Dicks" to upgrade. In the end I guess I learned that sometimes size does matter. Especially with brothers.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Next Week

Next week my friend Vicki is coming to visit from Detroit. I can't wait! Here are the boys...just hanging out with their silly selves.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Things I adore...

I have a killer cold so this is gonna be short and sweet...a few of my favorite things:

Little boy freckles & baseball...

Good friends & chardonnay...

Springtime...

Tell me yours :)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad

We went down to DC to celebrate my Dad's birthday last month. Our adventure started with a Metro ride downtown.

In DC we visited the Spy Museum and learned a lot of cool stuff that I'm sure the boys will put to good use someday. Then we took a very shakey elevator ride way up to the top of the Olde Post Office and had an incredible view of all the DC landmarks. The best part was that just as we got to the top of the lookout, the security guard announced that the President's helicopter would be landing for us to see. We learned that Obama flies with 2 other helicopters as well as the one he is actually in. The first one pretended to land at the White House but flew back up at the last minute. The 2nd heli actually landed and had the President inside. The third circled around the White House several time before taking off. It was all quite interesting especially since we had just learned all kinds of exciting things at the Spy Museum.

We stopped for lunch and then headed home where Grandaddy blew out his candles and was adored by his fan club. Here you can see why his fans love him...because he is fun and free-spirited and humors us in the silliest ways (like when I ask him to make funny faces with scary masks)!

Check him out rock climbing at Jake's birthday party. You Rock Dad! Happy Birthday.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Upper Allen Talent Show

Max and some of his friends performed take me out to the ball game at the school talent show this year. They wore their all star baseball uniforms and invited their principle to particpate as the umpire. Max had his first trip to the principle's office prior to the show so he's gotten to know the principle quite well as of late. Let's hope the trend does not continue........

Max is number 46 and plays the catcher if you look close you can follow him through the performance. Part of Max's job at one part of the performance was to argue balls and strikes with the umpire.