Tournament Season
I'll give a rundown on our first baseball tournament of the year, then go back and catch up on our abbreviated Triple-A season.
Emmett plays for The Mets in Triple A in the Albany Little League. He's also on the traveling tournament team for 9 y.o.'s, the Albany Eagles. The tournament season overlaps just a bit with the regular season, but basically runs through the summer as different communities host their kid sized baseball tournaments. It's not just Little League but Pony League and JOBL and it's a different world for me. For one thing, I get dragged off to outlying communities in which I have very little interest like Concord and Fremont and Burlingame. I think of these excursions as traveling to The Land of the Tri-Tip. It's all about the tri-tip steak sandwiches out there for reasons which are mysterious to me.
The Eagles first tournament was in Sacramento over Memorial Day weekend. This is the only tourney where we stay overnight since Sacto is just outside a comfortable daily driving range (about 90 minutes one way if you're lucky). Most of the kids stayed in a hotel with their coaches and families, but we stayed with my best man, Alex, his girlfriend of many years Kris and their 18 month old baby daughter, India. We'd stopped by to see them on our way back from Tahoe this winter so Emmett and JZ already feel comfortable with them. They came out to the games and supported us, and gave us a place to flop. Emmett and Alex and I had Nerf dart-gun wars in the front yard around the inflatable baby pool. After our first game, we attended a cookout with their friends who had a gorgeous little pool. Emmett spent the entire four hours in the pool (especially impressive since he can't really swim yet). What did they serve at the cookout? Tri-Tip! Very tasty.
There are times when your life seems to telescope and time contracts, and I had that moment watching Emmett play in the pool with Alex while I dandled baby India on my knee. I've known Alex since we were 15 years old. We went to college together, drove across country together. He lived with me and my parents for part of high school. It was his girlfriend I was hugging at the moment my Mom died. I've watched him and Kris both struggle to sobriety and rebuilding their lives over the course of their 20 year relationship. He was the best man at both my weddings. My friendship with Alex is so wrapped up with the core of me, with the beginnings of my adult self. It was odd and beautiful to sit there with his pretty babygirl in my lap while he swam up and down the pool carrying Emmett on his broad did-the-butterfly-in-high school swimmer's back.
First game was mid-day Saturday. Gah! Our manager, Marcelo, picked Emmett to be the first pitcher in the first game. It's always stressful watching your kid pitch, but it seems harder when they start the game. Emmett gave up a hit to the first batter. Then struck out the side. First time he's done that this year. I should note that our team was the only 9 y.o. team in the tourney. All the other teams were 9-10. After that I don't remember much except that Emmett made two excellent plays at second base in one inning. One was a hard shot which took a freaky bounce off a pebble and almost took his head off. He snatched it anyway and made the play. Next ball was hard hit and low. It's very common to shy off a grounder after you've handled a bad hop but Emmett stayed down on it and got the out again.
Emmett hit pretty well in the first game, continuing the trend he's had with the Mets of hitting hard grounders through the middle or the hole to get on. He knocked in the tying run with two outs, which would've been more significant if we didn't go on to win 12 to 3. The pitching requirements in these tourneys are difficult to finesse. This one had strict rules about who could pitch and when, so Marcelo used one pitcher per inning in the first game. We're fortunate to have six guys who can pitch on our team (LL games are six innings long, incidentally). The rule was that if pitcher a threw more than one inning then he couldn't pitch the next day. Very tricky in a three day tournament.
After the first game we went to the cookout with the pool and the tri-tip, then back to Alex & Kris place where Emmett made them watch Invader Zim.
Sunday we had two games. The first was at 8am. We had to be there at 7am for warmups. Ugh. We played a team called the White Sox and they were excellent. We played them even-up for five innings. It was tied 4-4 when we went into the sixth. Early in the game Emmett hit the ball harder than I've seen him hit it all year. A screaming liner that went 155 feet on the fly, took one bounce and went over the fence for a ground-rule double, scoring two runs in front of him. Their team was well-coached and talented - though a bit bigger than we were. They had a girl on their team playing catcher and firstbase and she was one of the best catchers I've seen at this level. Not only an excellent receiver but she had a gun for an arm and picked off one of our players at second base. She was tall and strongly built - pretty, with brown wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail. Good hitter too.
The whole game was extremely well played and had many excellent defensive plays and timely hits. Our left fielder caught a ball going over his head, and two pitches later our right fielder made a running shoe string grab coming in. Then they threw out one of our runners at home the next inning on a relay play. They scored two in the third. We fought back and went ahead on Emmett's ground rule double. They scratched back and took the lead. It was 4-3 when Marcelo brought Emmett in to pitch the fifth. First pitch and the batter pops up high and shallow, in the difficult to cover area between catcher, pitcher and third baseman. Emmett called off his teammates and made a reaching nab for the first out. Second pitch and an easy groundout to second. Amazing pitching efficiency! Next batter walks. Next batter drills a clean double into the gap and it's first and third. On the steal, our catcher foolishly throws down and they steal home on the back end. Stupid! Next batter hits a soft liner to our third baseman. Easy out! Except...not. He drops the ball. Then neglects to tag the runner right in front of him. Terrible. But Emmett maintains his poise and strikes out the next batter. All tied up.
Then they scored three runs in the top of the sixth, all well earned with rocketing shots to the gaps. We couldn't catch them in the bottom of the sixth and we lost 7-4. Some of our guys were crying - it was a really hard fought game until we made some defensive lapses. Still, it really was a pleasure to watch and Emmett had been nails. JZ was getting a big ol' parental crush on Emmett again, just watching him be so poised and strong and on top of the game.
Our next game wasn't until 3:30 so we went back to Alex and Kris' place and shot each other with Nerf-darts. Emmett crashed and napped on the way back. Back to the fields for our second game of the day by 2:30 after we'd lunched. JZ's cousin Gia, and Gia's daughter Nicole - who live in Sacramento - came out to our afternoon game. They had attended our wedding and we'd put teen gothlet Nicole at Jilli and Ple's table. Emmett and Nicole had bonded strongly over the family Easter celebrations so it was lovely to see them. Also, the ten year old Tournament team from Albany was hanging around and that included players from Emmett's teams from this year and last. So we had Eian and Nathan from this year's Mets, and Eli from last year's Angels. It was great having them sitting in the stands rooting Emmett on.
He responded in force by absolutely crushing the ball all game. He's been batting second with the Eagles this year. Matthew got on first with a clean, sharp single. Emmett smoked a line drive right at the third baseman, who dropped the ball, but had the presence to force Matthew at second. So Emmett was at first. Then Jack, our catcher and slugger came up. Jack is Coach Wayne's son (and we love coach Wayne). Jack's a tall, strong, freckly faced, flop haired boy. One of Emmett's good friends at school. He'd been slumping a little bit lately, but came up and got every bit of a pitch, driving it deep into center. Emmett took off running, got waved in and scored from first on Jack's double. We batted around that inning. Next time up Emmett walked, and Jack hit a triple. Emmett again scored all the way from first. We batted around in that inning. Next time up, Emmett scorches yet another liner - a real Willie McCovey job - into the deepest gap toward center. He rounds second and the coach is wheeling him into third, but telling him to get down. Emmett slides in ahead of the throw, the ball gets away and Emmett comes into score. A triple with an overthrow error, but his teammates all run out to mob him at home plate like it's a home run and his friends are all yelling in the stands we've got about seven people just in our group whoooping and hollering.
At that point, I got him a root beer and went with Nicole to deliver it to the dugout. He was red-faced and winded, but had a big smile when he saw Nicole. They traded Tombstone quips (She muttered, "You ain't no Daisy!" at the pitcher when Emmett his his triple). He played centerfield for much of the rest of the game and ended two innings on flyballs out there. He also did an excellent job of cutting off two hits in the outfield to stop the runners from taking second - one time making a very flashy bare handed grab-and-throw after a high bounce. I almost forgot - Emmett made a great play at shortstop too, nailing a runner at the plate on a relay throw from centerfield. It was a particularly tough play because the ump and the pitcher were between him and the catcher so he had to turn and throw the ball up and over them but with as little arc as possible. Jack showed great concentration by following the ball, making the catch and getting down the tag. We won the second game 18-8 and fully expected to go to the championship rounds on Monday.
Alas, another team that went 2-1 had a better tiebreaker (which was based on runs-allowed, instead of run-differential. I think we would've gone forward if it had been run-differential). The kids were bummed but they played exceptionally well - particularly against teams of 9-10 y.o.s. And Emmett played his best baseball of the year by far. (This will become more apparent after I update on the Triple-A season.)
Your 2006 Albany Eagles (That's Emmett's dyspeptic "I hate getting my picture taken" face. He's far left back row, of course. Jack is second from the right, back row. Matthew - Marcelo's son - is second from the right, front row.)
Emmett in his Mets uni
Emmett plays for The Mets in Triple A in the Albany Little League. He's also on the traveling tournament team for 9 y.o.'s, the Albany Eagles. The tournament season overlaps just a bit with the regular season, but basically runs through the summer as different communities host their kid sized baseball tournaments. It's not just Little League but Pony League and JOBL and it's a different world for me. For one thing, I get dragged off to outlying communities in which I have very little interest like Concord and Fremont and Burlingame. I think of these excursions as traveling to The Land of the Tri-Tip. It's all about the tri-tip steak sandwiches out there for reasons which are mysterious to me.
The Eagles first tournament was in Sacramento over Memorial Day weekend. This is the only tourney where we stay overnight since Sacto is just outside a comfortable daily driving range (about 90 minutes one way if you're lucky). Most of the kids stayed in a hotel with their coaches and families, but we stayed with my best man, Alex, his girlfriend of many years Kris and their 18 month old baby daughter, India. We'd stopped by to see them on our way back from Tahoe this winter so Emmett and JZ already feel comfortable with them. They came out to the games and supported us, and gave us a place to flop. Emmett and Alex and I had Nerf dart-gun wars in the front yard around the inflatable baby pool. After our first game, we attended a cookout with their friends who had a gorgeous little pool. Emmett spent the entire four hours in the pool (especially impressive since he can't really swim yet). What did they serve at the cookout? Tri-Tip! Very tasty.
There are times when your life seems to telescope and time contracts, and I had that moment watching Emmett play in the pool with Alex while I dandled baby India on my knee. I've known Alex since we were 15 years old. We went to college together, drove across country together. He lived with me and my parents for part of high school. It was his girlfriend I was hugging at the moment my Mom died. I've watched him and Kris both struggle to sobriety and rebuilding their lives over the course of their 20 year relationship. He was the best man at both my weddings. My friendship with Alex is so wrapped up with the core of me, with the beginnings of my adult self. It was odd and beautiful to sit there with his pretty babygirl in my lap while he swam up and down the pool carrying Emmett on his broad did-the-butterfly-in-high school swimmer's back.
First game was mid-day Saturday. Gah! Our manager, Marcelo, picked Emmett to be the first pitcher in the first game. It's always stressful watching your kid pitch, but it seems harder when they start the game. Emmett gave up a hit to the first batter. Then struck out the side. First time he's done that this year. I should note that our team was the only 9 y.o. team in the tourney. All the other teams were 9-10. After that I don't remember much except that Emmett made two excellent plays at second base in one inning. One was a hard shot which took a freaky bounce off a pebble and almost took his head off. He snatched it anyway and made the play. Next ball was hard hit and low. It's very common to shy off a grounder after you've handled a bad hop but Emmett stayed down on it and got the out again.
Emmett hit pretty well in the first game, continuing the trend he's had with the Mets of hitting hard grounders through the middle or the hole to get on. He knocked in the tying run with two outs, which would've been more significant if we didn't go on to win 12 to 3. The pitching requirements in these tourneys are difficult to finesse. This one had strict rules about who could pitch and when, so Marcelo used one pitcher per inning in the first game. We're fortunate to have six guys who can pitch on our team (LL games are six innings long, incidentally). The rule was that if pitcher a threw more than one inning then he couldn't pitch the next day. Very tricky in a three day tournament.
After the first game we went to the cookout with the pool and the tri-tip, then back to Alex & Kris place where Emmett made them watch Invader Zim.
Sunday we had two games. The first was at 8am. We had to be there at 7am for warmups. Ugh. We played a team called the White Sox and they were excellent. We played them even-up for five innings. It was tied 4-4 when we went into the sixth. Early in the game Emmett hit the ball harder than I've seen him hit it all year. A screaming liner that went 155 feet on the fly, took one bounce and went over the fence for a ground-rule double, scoring two runs in front of him. Their team was well-coached and talented - though a bit bigger than we were. They had a girl on their team playing catcher and firstbase and she was one of the best catchers I've seen at this level. Not only an excellent receiver but she had a gun for an arm and picked off one of our players at second base. She was tall and strongly built - pretty, with brown wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail. Good hitter too.
The whole game was extremely well played and had many excellent defensive plays and timely hits. Our left fielder caught a ball going over his head, and two pitches later our right fielder made a running shoe string grab coming in. Then they threw out one of our runners at home the next inning on a relay play. They scored two in the third. We fought back and went ahead on Emmett's ground rule double. They scratched back and took the lead. It was 4-3 when Marcelo brought Emmett in to pitch the fifth. First pitch and the batter pops up high and shallow, in the difficult to cover area between catcher, pitcher and third baseman. Emmett called off his teammates and made a reaching nab for the first out. Second pitch and an easy groundout to second. Amazing pitching efficiency! Next batter walks. Next batter drills a clean double into the gap and it's first and third. On the steal, our catcher foolishly throws down and they steal home on the back end. Stupid! Next batter hits a soft liner to our third baseman. Easy out! Except...not. He drops the ball. Then neglects to tag the runner right in front of him. Terrible. But Emmett maintains his poise and strikes out the next batter. All tied up.
Then they scored three runs in the top of the sixth, all well earned with rocketing shots to the gaps. We couldn't catch them in the bottom of the sixth and we lost 7-4. Some of our guys were crying - it was a really hard fought game until we made some defensive lapses. Still, it really was a pleasure to watch and Emmett had been nails. JZ was getting a big ol' parental crush on Emmett again, just watching him be so poised and strong and on top of the game.
Our next game wasn't until 3:30 so we went back to Alex and Kris' place and shot each other with Nerf-darts. Emmett crashed and napped on the way back. Back to the fields for our second game of the day by 2:30 after we'd lunched. JZ's cousin Gia, and Gia's daughter Nicole - who live in Sacramento - came out to our afternoon game. They had attended our wedding and we'd put teen gothlet Nicole at Jilli and Ple's table. Emmett and Nicole had bonded strongly over the family Easter celebrations so it was lovely to see them. Also, the ten year old Tournament team from Albany was hanging around and that included players from Emmett's teams from this year and last. So we had Eian and Nathan from this year's Mets, and Eli from last year's Angels. It was great having them sitting in the stands rooting Emmett on.
He responded in force by absolutely crushing the ball all game. He's been batting second with the Eagles this year. Matthew got on first with a clean, sharp single. Emmett smoked a line drive right at the third baseman, who dropped the ball, but had the presence to force Matthew at second. So Emmett was at first. Then Jack, our catcher and slugger came up. Jack is Coach Wayne's son (and we love coach Wayne). Jack's a tall, strong, freckly faced, flop haired boy. One of Emmett's good friends at school. He'd been slumping a little bit lately, but came up and got every bit of a pitch, driving it deep into center. Emmett took off running, got waved in and scored from first on Jack's double. We batted around that inning. Next time up Emmett walked, and Jack hit a triple. Emmett again scored all the way from first. We batted around in that inning. Next time up, Emmett scorches yet another liner - a real Willie McCovey job - into the deepest gap toward center. He rounds second and the coach is wheeling him into third, but telling him to get down. Emmett slides in ahead of the throw, the ball gets away and Emmett comes into score. A triple with an overthrow error, but his teammates all run out to mob him at home plate like it's a home run and his friends are all yelling in the stands we've got about seven people just in our group whoooping and hollering.
At that point, I got him a root beer and went with Nicole to deliver it to the dugout. He was red-faced and winded, but had a big smile when he saw Nicole. They traded Tombstone quips (She muttered, "You ain't no Daisy!" at the pitcher when Emmett his his triple). He played centerfield for much of the rest of the game and ended two innings on flyballs out there. He also did an excellent job of cutting off two hits in the outfield to stop the runners from taking second - one time making a very flashy bare handed grab-and-throw after a high bounce. I almost forgot - Emmett made a great play at shortstop too, nailing a runner at the plate on a relay throw from centerfield. It was a particularly tough play because the ump and the pitcher were between him and the catcher so he had to turn and throw the ball up and over them but with as little arc as possible. Jack showed great concentration by following the ball, making the catch and getting down the tag. We won the second game 18-8 and fully expected to go to the championship rounds on Monday.
Alas, another team that went 2-1 had a better tiebreaker (which was based on runs-allowed, instead of run-differential. I think we would've gone forward if it had been run-differential). The kids were bummed but they played exceptionally well - particularly against teams of 9-10 y.o.s. And Emmett played his best baseball of the year by far. (This will become more apparent after I update on the Triple-A season.)
Your 2006 Albany Eagles (That's Emmett's dyspeptic "I hate getting my picture taken" face. He's far left back row, of course. Jack is second from the right, back row. Matthew - Marcelo's son - is second from the right, front row.)
Emmett in his Mets uni
