The Legal Eagles

I've told you about Rachel's softball and Drew's baseball but I have yet to mention David's season. He was on the team sponsored and coached by Judge Paul Lawrence again this year. The core of this team has been together for about seven years, David joined three seasons ago. Two years ago they won the league three title, which is the championship that Drew just won this year. Judge Lawrence is a great coach. He knows a lot about baseball and he is always positive and upbeat. The two biggest things he has taught his team are good fundamentals and individual confidence. The team has a few breakout stars, guys who would do well on any team, but there are more of the average type player, guys who fill out the roster but don't particularly excel. These are the players that Paul squeezes the most from. That's what makes them fun to watch. There's no perceived hierarchy of stars and scrubs. They are a team.

They had another good regular season, with only one loss. That was a combination of skill and luck. We beat a couple teams two or three times, and our tough games were rained out. David played almost everywhere but catcher. He was one of the regular pitchers. They liked to use a pitcher for usually only one inning unless he was really doing well. (If they could get out of an inning with 10 or fewer pitches it was worth $5 to them. It happened a few times.)

It's fun to watch the progress a player makes from the beginning of the season to the end. David's ERA went down over time and his batting average went up. I think with a knowledgeable coach he could really be a decent pitcher. He has good form and good control, all he needs is some velocity. If Greg Maddux can throw 90, David ought to be able to throw 50.

We had a disappointing end to the season. For whatever reason, most of the team wasn't really mentally into the tournament. We met our nemesis, Jefferson's team (we split the regular season) in the semifinals, but we couldn't get over the hump to put them away. The mental fatigue continued in the following game and our season ended with a whimper. Still, it was a fantastic run, it was fun to see, and I wouldn't have wanted to be on any other team. It was a great situation to learn and play baseball.

As they do every year, they had a post-season party at the Judge's family home on Lake Bloomington. We did some swimming and some tubing. (and by 'we' I mean the kids). The adults ate, talked and took a pontoon boat ride. Paul announced that he intended this to be his last year as a coach as most of the team is going into high school and will undoubtedly be involved in many other things by next summer. However, we tried to convince him that we should have one last hurrah and give it another go next year. He wouldn't commit, but I'm keeping my hopes up. If it is the end, I'm glad we had the opportunity. It sure was enjoyable to see my son be a valuable contributing member of a winning baseball team.

You gotta get up pretty early to fool me

Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Unfortunately, it's also one of the easiest jobs to get. There are millions of unqualified parents in the world who simply wanted to have a little fun and instead got a little bundle of joy.

There is quite a bit of joy in the job, even though it's a pretty big responsibility. Your task is to turn out a decent human being that is more of a benefit to society than a detriment. The good news is that you get several years to accomplish this. The bad news is that you pretty much have to figure out how to do it on the fly. That's why people have more than one child - the first ones are practice kids. I'm sure that studies will show that the most successful children are not the firstborn (a common myth) but the secondborn. Those who were raised by parents who finally know what they're doing. Everybody knows that a poor dress rehearsal foretells a good performance.

It's tough, but it's fun too. There are times that you can enjoy the position of power more than you should. You think,"I don't feel like mowing the lawn", or "The garage could use a coat of paint", or "I need a cold drink but the refrigerator is all the way out in the other room" and you seize your authority and tell your child to do it for you. After all, what good are kids if they don't fetch?

You have to seize these opportunities as they arise, because the kids don't stay naive forever. You only get to pull the Let's-see-who-can-hit-the-softest trick once. Per child. Maybe twice for a firstborn. Until they mature and learn, you the parent are the smartest person they know. You answer all the questions they have whether you have the truth or not. They don't know the difference. You can tell them whatever you want for your own amusement. Of course, I would never do such a thing, as I am trying to raise decent human beings. Who believe that I am smarter than they are, which for the time being at least, is true. Someday that might not be the case, but for now is is fun to outsmart them.

Saturday is Drew's birthday and school starts tomorrow so last night he had two friends come over to spend the night. We gave them free reign to stay up as long as they like (as long as they were fairly quiet) since they could all sleep in today before school starts the next day. They only thing I told them was that if they were still up when I got up to go on my paper route (4:00) I was going to take them all out with me.

When I came downstairs there was a light on in the family room. Drew was in the chair at the computer with his feet up on the back of the couch, head back. Jacob was face down on the couch. Travis was back in the corner laying on the bean bag chair. There wasn't a sound from anybody. I decided that I wouldn't bother them and I left to do the route. My first few deliveries are just a couple of houses away, so I walked them over before I got in the car to do the rest. When I came back to the house, I thought I would test a theory. I walked around the back and peeked in the window to the family room. Sure enough, all three of them were up and about, thinking that they had fooled me. They were pretending to sleep so I wouldn't make them come with me. I went back to the front of the house, came in the front door, and slipped around the corner. Busted!

I did not make them go on the route with me because frankly, who does that punish? Me. I simply told them to go upstairs to bed, and I better not see them when I get back. When I returned there was snoring emanating from Drew's room so either they finally dropped off, or their deception is getting better. Regardless, I won that round.

I don't mind them having fun, since it was the last day of summer vacation, but I don't like the fact that they not only disregarded my instructions, but they tried to trick me on top of it. We'll have to see about that. I did happen to notice, the grass is getting a little long, and the van is pretty dirty....

An undefeated season

Two years ago David's American Junior Baseball team dominated their league, losing only one regular season game. They rode their momentum through the tournament to the league 3 title. This season, at the same age, Drew's team followed a similar pattern. They also rode the momentum to a league 3 title, but their regular season was unblemished.

We came into postseason play with a record of 16-0 and held the top seed in the tournament. After a relatively easy opening match, we ran into a difficult opponent in the second round. Our pitching staff had difficulty finding the strike zone and we quickly found ourselves in a 8-0 hole. We gallantly fought back (as we did several times this season) with 17 unanswered runs to advance to the championship.

AJB pulled out all the stops for the big game. They made sure the baselines were fresh, they dragged the field until it was smooth, and they even painted home plate white. The grounds crew took extra care to create a little decorative chalk design behind the plate.

In case you can't tell what that is, it says "L III, 305 v 308". We were the home team, number 308. They also had a temporary sound system and pregame player introductions.

It was a hot, mostly windless afternoon. The weather was no deterrent as the crowd was large and evenly split. After one inning we clung to a slim one run lead. After two innings we were tied. At the end of the third, we trailed by a pair. The magic fourth inning showed us putting a big six runs (the maximum per inning) on the board to lead by four. The fifth was another big one that put us ahead by an unreachable 8 runs with two to play. The almost unnecessary top of the sixth produced no runs, so we possessed a mathematically-insurmountable 8 run lead which clinched the title.

Here's Drew receiving his medal and trophy after the game.

The Champions:

The happy boy with his trophy:

Here's one of his best efforts in the big game. It was a grounder through the left side for an RBI single.

It was a beautiful ending to a perfect season. Coach Tony (to the left in the Cubs cap in above photo) worked his team hard and the hard work paid off. They played well, they had fun, and they were a pleasure to watch. Congratulations boys. Let's do it again next year.