Life is good in the outfield when the sun shines.
Weird but fitting picture for Ivan’s last baseball game
of the season on Halloween weekend.
In the last few weeks we have been going to the weekend athletic activities with jackets and it was starting to feel a little cold and with the leaves collecting on the grass in the yard it has become most obvious that fall is in full bloom. This is the time when the athletic activities of the kids also come to an end, which I take as a good opportunity to collect some of the nicest pictures taken and describe some highlights.
Ivan’s First Home Run: The second to last game of the season Ivan hit is first quite unlikely home run. I am quite sad I did not record it, I was about to, but kind of thought it was not going to be interesting. It turned out to be the most memorable play of this season. So, here is how it all happened. Ivan was up to bat and he had been able to connect with the ball a number of times before so he was clearly in good spirits. He missed the first but on the second try he hit the ball not very hard in the direction of the pitcher which should have caught it but did not so Ivan’s run to first base made sense but the pitcher picked up the ball and threw it towards first base and I thought he was going to catch it but he did not. I was happy and thought Ivan was taking this as an opportunity to stay at the first base. Ivan though had a different reading on the situation and sprinted towards second base, the first basement gained control of the ball quickly and threw the ball towards second base and the ball arrived certainly quite ahead of Ivan but, the second basement missed the catch and Ivan made it and I was glad and thought that was it, but Ivan kept on the run as the ball was missed and people scrambling. By now there were first shouts of team mates and coaches to stay on safe grounds but Ivan was going. He would have been caught on third base again but it happened again the ball was not thrown very well and the catcher missed. By now the recommendations to Ivan were very audible to just play it safe but Ivan had other plans, he was seeing the home base and was going for it full blast. I was sure he had pushed it too far as the catcher actually was one of the older kids who would not miss a catch. I was already feeling sorry for him that he would loose this nice run and even mildly upset how you could be so irresponsible to just not play it safe but magic was in the air and the catcher missed the catch and Ivan brought it home. At this point everybody was cheering and he got a roaring applause in the bull pen…. He took a big risk, but the turn out was awesome. The home run, not sure but maybe even the only one of the season for the entire team put quite a swagger into our oldest step.