No one got hurt but Coach

Once again we got to enjoy another practice session for the newly named T&T Construction team. Most of the practice today there were at least 3 separate practice things happening on the field all at once and danger was at its highest and sometimes there were 5 things happening. To our right were ball players being pitched to from the side by an unused father and hitting into the back of the backstop about 6 feet away; A hit-a-way was set up on an unoccupied soccer backstop and was being used by one boy at a time; 6 or 7 boys were in the outfield catching pop-ups from another father; All of the bases were occupied by different fielders who were shagging balls from the hitters who were hitting away as they were pitched to by another unused father; Coach Tony was catching would-be-pitchers as they tried their best to impress him. Always balls were coming in from the outfielders as they over threw the father hitting pop-ups; Balls were going every direction from being hit by the batters; practice, from behind the backstop, was also causing balls to seek unauthorized flight paths; and Coach Tony would occasionally miss a pitch from a pitcher. It required super-quick reflexes from us in our nifty new grandparents chairs at the center of it all.

At some point Coach Tony moved to the catchers position behind home plate as he instructed each boy on nuances in his home run swing. Tony did have a catchers mask on which allowed him to go home recognized by his wife and kids. What coach Tony did not have was a supporter and cup nor did he have a chest protector. He took 2 hard hits to the center of where his chest protector should have been and one hard hit to the exact location of where his cup should have been. Tony’s wife just gave birth to their 7th child. Tony felt that after today he probably would limit the size of their family.

What baseball practice is complete without a dog running around so my daughter brought Boo [the name comes from To Kill a Mockingbird] to practice because the other dog, Randy, didn't work out very well. Boo escaped at one time, and it took the entire team to catch him. He paid them back for the capture by eating a baseball. My wife and I ended up our evening at Dick’s sporting Goods where I purchased a new glove for a mere $39.95. I noticed that Sam needs a lot of work and I have him for about one and one half hours before school and a little bit of time after school. Red Sox here we come!!!

MORNING UPDATE on practice between Sam and his Grandfather. Ist warmup pitch I threw him bounced out of his glove and hit him in the ear because he was trying to use a catchers mit. Really got made at me as it must be all my fault. Settled down and we had a good practice until the Old Muser jumped for an errant ball and pulled a muscle in his back. More Ibprophine. Note to self: Do warmup stretching exercises in AM.