Batting .1000

Full count, the score was tied in the bottom of the last inning and the mighty Sam, number 12, swung smoothly, with control and the high fastball lifted into right field just out of reach for the right fielder. Sam roared down the baseline towards first and hit the base with his foot just microseconds ahead of the first baseman’s foot. “Safe at first” was the call. What really happened here was that Sam hit a nice little single to the right fielder and he hustled off to first base but when he got to the bag there were really two bags there, Sam didn’t know which one to step on so he jumped them. [I have absolutely no idea why two bags] the first basemen caught that Sam hadn’t touched any bag so he hollered for the ball but it was a bad throw and he had to run out a bit to catch it and Sam, at the panicked urging of the coach, hustled back and touched the bag. [It sounded better the way I told it first doesn’t it?] Sam would soon cross home plate and his run would push the TNT Construction “Dynamites” into the win column over the Liptak Dentistry team. He was 2 for 2 in the hitting category for the game. You can sure tell that I’m just a little bit proud of my grandson’s first game of the season in his second year in instructional Little League.

He caught for the first inning for his first time ever. He caught the pitcher, during warm-up, just perfect. When the batter stepped up, that threw a different mix into the equation, and Sam froze. Worried about the batters bat I think. He hung in there just perfect as the photo shows but he didn’t catch anything except a couple of perfect pitches into his glove because he didn’t move his glove the entire inning. His glove didn’t move even once. I heard the umpire say “At least knock them down Sam, you are killing me back here”. Everything didn’t go good for the Mighty Sam that day but he is batting .1000. During the next practice the coach was having Sam work out as a pitcher. We’ll see.
Just like last year; the pitcher would throw the ball; the catcher would miss the ball and it would roll to the backstop; the catcher would fire the ball back over the pitchers head; the second baseman would not even see the ball because he would be busy kicking dirt; the outfielder would come in and fire the ball to the pitcher, right past the second basemen’s head because he is still kicking dirt, who may or may not catch the ball. Makes for long games but they are a laugh a minute as they all try so hard. Tomorrow is the next game.