South Carolina is Hot in the Summer - Chick Fil A Edition

Charleston, South Carolina is really hot in the Summer.  I mean really hot.  Think about how hot it is where you are right now.  That is nowhere near how hot it is in Charleston in the Summer.

With this as a backdrop, C had his annual baseball field trip for his AAU team.  Three years ago, it was Flemington, New Jersey.  Two years ago it was Omaha, Nebraska.  Last year it was Reading and Hershey, Pennsylvania.  This year, we were on our way to the Lowcountry.  At least it was an interesting area outside of baseball.

Day 1.  The team won handily in its first game, beating a team from North Carolina (or South Carolina, I get those places mixed up) at the College of Charleston's baseball park, which is actually in Mount Pleasant.  C played LF and walked a couple of times.

No Bueno

In the second game, C was scheduled to pitch.  It was what I was told to be the best team in our pool.  C came out firing the ball.  An uncatchable pop up was the only difference between a goose egg and one run.  We were down 1-0 after one half inning.  As we're warming up to hit in the bottom of the first, a storm cloud appeared out of nowhere.  The oppressive heat was shoved aside by 40 mph winds.  Not long after came the downpours.  And Jesus did it rain hard for a couple of hours. It didn't stop us from making a sprint for the car after the game was cancelled.

Day 2.  For some reason, C was brought on to pitch the following game on the following day at a high school field on Daniel Island (where I will retire one day).  Questionable decision making by the coach since C was telling me about his dead arm that night.  The game did not go well after the first couple of innings.  Usually throwing the ball in the low to mid 80s, C's fastball was more of a batting practice fastball.  After 3 runs in 2 innings, C was taken out.  Although we rallied toward the end of the game, we ended up losing 4-2. 

In the second game at Charleston Southern University (A division 1 school that I had never heard of), we played arguably the worst team.  C was playing CF this game so he was hitting this game.  After two more walks (or maybe a HBP, who knows) and 4 stolen bases, C hit a deep fly ball to Left Center.  It was well struck and it is.....Caught a few steps from the fence.  We ended up winning this game a lot to a little.

College of Charleston - Brett Gardner Territory

Day 3.  For some reason, C was brought on to pitch against the team he pitched against on Day 1 back at College of Charleston.  Serious deja vu right now.  The Coach was so pissed at another kid for screwing up a bunt play that apparently he didn't notice that C was barely getting the ball over the plate yesterday, and when he did he was throwing it about as hard as a 10 year old.  Maybe he thought this team would be flummoxed by change up after change up?  Regardless, C gutted through a tough outing, giving up 4 total runs in 4 innings.  The coach ended up giving up the game and we lost a lot to a little. 

Now the waiting game was upon us.  We were 2-2, and gave up 15 runs.  Runs allowed would determine whether we made the playoffs or not.  At the end, we were found to be the 8 seed.  While the playoffs are nice, we would have to win 4 more games to win the tournament.  With our pitching in shambles, this was not going to work out that great.  Unfortunately, I was right.  We ended up getting a mercy rule game in the 8-9 play in game.  Tournament over.

Jesus, its Monday early afternoon and we don't go home until Thursday.  Well at least C had a good time with his buddies for most of the time (I forced him to go to dinner with me once and forced him to go to Fort Sumter as well).  Me personally, I spent the next tow days walking around in the oppressive heat and humidity and then went to dinner with friends.  All in all an enjoyable time.

Next weekend?  That's right, G on the Cape.  Or is it playoffs in New Hampshire and Maine?  I can't keep track.  

My Last Game as a Youth Sports Coach

I was checking around G's baseball team to see who could make it to a playoff game, when the mom of one of my best players, said what can only be described as fitting words.  Her son had stopped playing baseball and was hanging up his spikes.  After 250 baseball games, 120 basketball games, 50 football games and 10 soccer games, JMR has stopped coaching and is mercifully hanging up his spikes.

One of the few games where I coached C and G together.

C was just 7 years old when I started to get the coaching bug.  Soccer of all sports was my first foray into coaching after LC thought that I should get into it.  Everyone will agree that I am a terrible parent when watching my children play sports.  I tend to bitch and moan a lot - sometimes at the coaching and some times at the umpiring.  I talk trash to opposing teams - the "wooing soccer mom syndrome" rattles me every time.  And I have a vicious competitive streak, to such an extent that LC will slowly move away from me as the game goes on.  She thinks that I don't notice when she does it, but I do. 

The thing is is that a lot of that generally went away when I coached.  I was still very competitive - A referee once told me to get my nitro out as I was screaming after a play ended in 3RD GRADE FOOTBALL - but the screaming wasn't vicious.  G would get mad at me because I would bat everyone everywhere in the order and wanted everyone to pitch. A basketball referee actually asked ME to calm my head coach down after a terrible call.  Coaching had a soothing effect on my vicariousness.

These basketballs sure look lonely

And the amount of coaching that I did tended to be on the ridiculous side.  There were some years where coached C and G in baseball, coached G in travel and Rec basketball and coached G in football. Coaching in 2012 and 2013 was like another full time job.  And just when I started dialing it back with the boys, I started coaching DLG in Summer, AAU and travel basketball.  Why did I do this to myself?  These were the best of times because I loved spending the time, but it was also the worst of times because it affected my work and I was always exhausted.  I would lay awake thinking mostly about football.  Saturdays and Sundays in the Fall were all about watching film, drawing up game plans and thinking about how to get an edge.  Yeah, LC doesn't miss those days.

But sometimes, I do.

The last coaching I did was for G's Junior Baseball league.  Once the kids were done with the Cooperstown team as 12 year olds, interest started to wane.  It was always a struggle to field 9 kids, even though I had 15 kids on my team.  But there I was trying to win games and make the kids a little bit better.  It was sometimes a drag because of the weather or because I was busy at work, but once I got out into the field, all the juices came back.  We were like the Celtics because two of our best players never showed up tot he games and we still went 8-2.  (That tie was a win in my books).  Because C was young enough to play in Juniors himself, I tried to talk him into playing with us.  Except for some Summer League games, I never got the chance to coach them together...they were probably fine with it.

Yeah, I'll be back next year.

Maybe the Celtics' Opponents Just Aren't Very Good?

A lot has been made about the Celtics' 2018 playoff run.  After a shaky 4-3 series win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Celtics cruised through the conference semifinals with a 4-1 victory over the upstart 76ers and are up 2-0 versus LeBron James and the vaunted Cavaliers. A lot of reasons have been discussed about the Celtics run without their two best players, Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, even suiting up, much less putting 20 points up per game.

He really doesn't have anything to do with it.

Brad Stevens is the most important person on this team, some reports have stated.  Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have emerged as the next superstars of the NBA, other reports have exclaimed.  Scary Terry Rozier and Marcus "trash talk" Morris have come out of nowhere to put up huge numbers when just a couple of months ago, they were nice complimentary pieces expected to work 10-15 minutes a game.  But I have it figured out.  And these reasons are not the REAL reason for the Celtics 2018 playoffs.   

Maybe, just maybe, their opponents suck?

Brad Stevens is not any more a coaching genius than I am.  He's a good Xs and Os coach who has good out of bounds plays and can't settle on a rotation to save his life.  Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are good young players.  Of course they will average 18 points a game, though, if they are logging 35-40 minutes on a team that doesn't really have natural scorers.  Terry Rozier and Marcus Morris are having good series as starters, but they are not difference makers.  All the hype though may get us a first round draft pick for Rozier so I won't complain.  Thief Danny will find some lousy team to deal Rozier to in the off season, I'm sure.

But frankly, its the team defense and sharing of the ball that has led to the Celtics' success.  In a league of superstars, me-first mentalities, touches and general selfishness, defense and passing almost seem like novel concepts.  Believe it or not, the closest parallel I can think of is the UConn Women's basketball team.  They practice sharing the ball and defense almost exclusively.  The sets that they run and suffocating defenses they play have led to what seems like 50 years of dominance.  All an NBA team has to do to win in this league is commit to passing the ball and defense.  Maybe this has something to do with Stevens, but that is a mentality that comes with being the underdog because of injuries.

The unselfish passing I'm seeing with this team has been leading to open threes and layups.  the Cavs look old, tired and disinterested in playing defense.  They simply look like they suck.  The best thing I saw in Game 2 was James going off and still losing by 10+ points.  That means that someone else needs to step up to win this series with James.  Won't happen if everyone else sucks.

The suffocating defense has been leading to open jump shots and layups in transition.  It has been leading to terrible shooting and decision making.  That game against the 76ers, where Boston kept stealing the ball during out of bounds plays, was a perfect example of a defense that had something to prove.  Do you think that defense shows up if Irving and Hayward were out there?  Probably not because they don't have anything to prove.  Thee 76ers believed their own hype, but unfortunately, they suck.

So let's win two more games, have the Warriors and Rockets beat the snot out of one another in the Western Conference Finals and finally raise Number 18.

So Ball-Hawking is a Thing

So we finally had our day in the Fenway seats.  Although this was the first game our season tickets could go to, Ive had these seats - and was looking forward to this game for months.  Not only that, but it was the first game against the retooled Yankees and G wanted to see Aaron Judge and GianCarla Stanton. But when G informed me that we had to take one of his buddies to the game so they could "ball hawk," I was intrigued.

On the ride in, we started talking about it.  G and his buddy started talking about this guy named Zack Hample and his 10,000 baseballs.  They started to watch his videos and talk about the games he was at.  I had a lot of pressing questions that I kept to myself.  For instance, how can he afford to go to so many games in so many cities that he could collect 10,000 baseballs?  Finally, I piped in with a question.

"Where do you keep 10,000 baseballs?" I asked.  They were stumped but G's buddy said that he would eventually sell his baseballs before he got to 10,000.  He figured he could sell his baseballs for 25 dollars a piece.  I stifled a laugh.

Hour 1 of 7...

But undeterred, they started plotting out their night.  They had Yankee hats so they could hang out by the Yankee dugout without repercussions.  They were able to get in early to watch batting practice (but it was cancelled!) and to generally pester ushers to get closer to the bullpens.  They had their seats lined up when the game got late, and they knew what to say to the bat boy to try and get balls.  Seriously, I wish these kids spent this much time on their homework.  But because we had gotten in to park two and half hours early, all we could do was stare at each other.  The kids just played catch.  Little did I know that this would just be a fraction of the entire time I was in there.

But there was a game too.  Almost from the beginning, you knew that it was going to be the Red Sox's night.  Mookie Betts hit a laser beam double of the monster and scored on a Hanley Ramirez single.  They took a 4-0 lead in the Second Inning when Benintendi hooked a triple down the Right Field line and scored on another single from Hanley.  It seemed like that would be enough since Chris Sale was throwing the ball WELL.

After Aaron Judge smacked a 440 foot home run into Center field to make the game 5-1 int he 5th inning, the Red So absolutely went off.  JD Martinez hit a bomb 420 feet for run scoring Double.  And After a Sacrifice Fly, error and Walk made the score 10-1, Mookie Betts came up again and hit a bomb over everything in Left Field for a Grand Slam to make the score 14-1.  The park was going crazy!

Now after a score like this and the 35 degree weather, I would have talked my crew into leaving.  But not tonight.  When the 8th inning started and Yankees fans, who came in droves, started leaving the dugout area, G and his buddy made their move.  Although the protective netting had been extended to the Foul Ball alley, there was an area  near the dug out that was (apparently) a prime area to get a ball from the ball boy.

And boy did they try.  Remember, we got into the park at 4:30.  At 11pm, 30 minutes after the last pitch was thrown, I get a text from G.  They were coming back in about 10 minutes.  There was no one left in the stands or on the field.  What the Hell were they waiting for?  Any way, at 11:30 they finally get back.  They both ended up with baseballs that they got from the ball boy.  I'm not sure, but G's buddy may have given him a ball.

When we finally get home after Midnight, I decided that G should find a different hobby than ball-hawking.

The Last Time at Epcot Center?

First in 2009, we discovered how one could visit the countries of Europe and enjoy a lovely time exploring various cultures (wink, wink).  Then in 2012 we journeyed back, a couple of years older and a couple years wiser (we stayed at a place that allowed us to walk to Epcot - and easily walk out of Epcot).

As the kids have gotten older, I am now starting to wonder if our 2017 trip to Epcot is going to be the last one we take as a family.  Our schedules are taking us in a million different directions, and our pockets are clear out of spending money.  Sadly, this may be our last sojourn into the future world.  But before we get all moisty-eyed, lets discuss this trip.

5 million people just out of focus

It was a couple of days after Christmas.  I picked this day after an enjoyable day at Busch Gardens thinking that this might be one day that won't be crazy - midweek, weather was not going to be great, and everyone would go on the weekend.  We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and took the tram to the park.  Although it was mid day, I was heartened by being the only people on the bus.  Sadly, there was a good reason why no one was on the bus, they were all at the park.

When  we get to the park, we were struck just by how busy it was.  We tried to see what Fast Track and Soarin' were up to in wait times and it was impossible that the lines could be that long. The fast pass system has changed in the last 5 years; they were all sold out.  3-4 hour wait times at Fast Track? Even G wasn't up for the wait.  We then walked over to Soarin'.  The wait was only 90 minutes and I liked the trivia game that you could play while you waited.  Lets do it! So while DLG and LC were getting caricatures done near France, the boys and I started our slow march to the ride.

2 hours later, we get off the ride.  Of course it wasn't worth that long of a wait, but it was enjoyable once we got there.  We go back and meet the girls and have some pizza in Italy.

It's now been 4 hours since we stepped foot in the park.  We now have one ride, and a 35 dollar pizza to show for it.  We walk around to see what the other rides are like.  Spaceship Earth was going to be two hours.  Even rides like journey to the imagination had one hour wait times.  So back to Soarin' we go.  This time with all five of us.

After our second time through the line, (Make it 7 hours at the park), we decided to go to a different place for dinner outside of the park, thinking that the rides at night would not be as long since the families with the small kids would be leaving.  But if anything, the crowds got bigger!  It was now night time.  All the rides had two or three hour wait times.  Even past the time that the park closed for Gods sake.  The countries were packed like we walking past Times Square.

We even tried Test Track one more time.  I became nervous when they closed the doors behind us. Uh, were the last riders of the night? That cant be a good thing, hurdling down the track with a bunch of tired 22 year olds looking to go out at the club.  Lets take a couple of pictures and go home, I declared.

The constant walking led to the kids agree with my declaration.  The frustration with the lack of rides and the 5 million people wore us all down.  Everyone just wanted to go back to the hotel room and relax for our long trip home in the morning.  At least we got quality time with the kids in the room instead of screaming time in the park.  Not so bad.  And maybe this wont be our last trip.