Thursday, March 18, 2010

Baseball

Caleb's baseball season has begun, and I got my first taste of the tension that can be felt in the stands on Tuesday. His game was much anticipated, as half of his team from the fall plays on the Angels (opposing team) while the rest are with Caleb on the Red Sox (don't even get me started on his team name this year- it almost pains me to cheer for the Red Sox when he plays...but he's out there so I'm over it real fast!)

Anyway, the coaches of both teams are all friends and many of the kids are too, and there had been a bit of trash-talking, so the air was ripe with anticipation. The first two innings passed and nothing. Third inning comes along and Caleb's team scores! We all went crazy.  Fourth passes - no scores. Fifth comes - wouldn't you know it, the Angels get a run. So it was tied 1-1 as they entered the sixth. Little League games generally last six innings or 2 hours. These kids had played their six in 90 minutes, and since it was still tied, they entered the seventh. Still, no score with 12 minutes left. So here they go into the 8th inning. The kids looked tired, but by this time, I think they really wanted to beat them. And man, that's what they set out to do. Caleb's team scored another run! Finally, the Angels are up at their last turn and our pitcher strikes 'em out. One down.  The next batter came up and got two strikes. 

Then all of the sudden, time's up and they call the game.  Yup, one strike and one out away from winning, and the game's done. It was such a let down. All this anticipation of winning, by this point, had built up not just in the kids but in the stands, too, and I can't even describe how it felt to settle with a tie! I've gotta hand it to the kids, though, I think they took it better than the grown-ups!

All in all, it was a great game, and I'm glad they didn't lost. But I sure would've like to have seen the win! Oh well, they'll play again April 15th.  I'll keep ya posted! (P.S. No pictures because I forgot I had my camera until the end of the game. I was all set for the cheering that takes place after a win...but that never happened. There was nothing to take a picture of at this point, hence, no photo.)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The older they get the more intense the games get. I love games like this, Conner had one the other day that was intense. It is sad the adults trash talk and make things rough. Sadly, we have had many bad experiences with our little league. It would be hard to cheer for the Red Sox.

Carrie said...

Well Julie, in this case, it was the kids doing the trash talk! But it was all in fun, as they are friends. That's what made it so intense! Caleb got his best baseball friend, who's been on every team since he started until this year, out at first. (Later the boy made the one run, though!)

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