Baseball

We went to the final game of the little league championships for my husband’s nephew this evening. The game was at 5:45pm. The league is age ten and under. They have a limit of an hour forty-five minutes to play their game, but must also complete six innings. So, as long as they’ve completed six innings, whenever they hit an hour and forty-five minutes of play time, that marks their final inning. The other night, their game went long, but only by 20-25 minutes. But yes, that was still long for them to play over their maximum game time. Tonight, however, the game went very long. It didn’t end until 8:05pm.

That’s two hours and twenty minutes, a full forty minutes over their normal maximum play time.

But then… – yes, indeed, there is a but here – they, the undefeated team in the playoffs, lost the game by one run, which was gained in the final inning.

So, since the other team had been the winner of the loser’s bracket, now both teams had lost one game. (Yes, I know. The winners of the winner bracket should have already won the whole thing, but they do it having the winner of the winners’ bracket play the winners of the losers’ bracket.) So, they had to play another game to find the winning team, as both teams had had a single loss, while the rest of the teams had all lost twice.

And when might this second game be? After a brief ten-to-fifteen-minute break.

Haha

So, when we confirmed the game was still happening directly afterward, as originally planned, before the first game had run way over time, my husband and I rushed to the car and sped on over to the nearby Costco for a dinner of hot dog and pizza.

We brought back pizza for the kids, and they each had one of the small slices while they were at bat – it was close to nine at night, and none of these kids had had dinner; they needed nourishment to keep them going, for sure. We also had pizza and drinks for our extended family who were there, and shared our excess pizza with this very kind deaf couple whose son was on the team – also deaf, I discovered, when I saw his hearing aid and witnessed how he told his mom that he couldn’t find his hat (almost no sound at all, just lips and a bit of minor signing) – and whose daughters were growing very hungry and bored at their brother’s very long baseball outing.

Note** They hadn’t know that Costco had pizza or that you could get a whole pizza there OR that it was only $10. Let alone that it might just be the best regular pizza in town. They were very excited to discover all of these facts. After tasting the pizza, they were all the more excited to have learned about it. So, yay! Glad to share such wonderful food and with others, while supporting a company that seems to be genuine and morally sound.

Anyway, the boys played the second game loads better. There’s a five-run maximum in the leafy per inning. In the first game, the other team got the five runs in the first inning, no outs. Not a good start. When they hit the second game, however, the nephew’s team had stepped up to their true usual playing level, and they got the five-run max in the first inning this time. At the last inning, the score was 10-5, the nephew’s team winning. They were first up to bat in the inning. On the second batter, the players on the field seemed to miss what was actually going on, despite the fact that they had been forced to crowd around the pitcher and close to home plate before the pitch (first batter had stolen to third at this point), and the pitcher fielded the unfortunately-short-hit ball, and threw it to first base…

There were no outs. The team was up by five. They only needed one run to win the game, because, even if the other team went to bat afterward, they had a max limit of five runs per inning. So, a lead of six points would end the game immediately.

When that pitcher turned around and tried throwing to first – and no one there was ready, because the first baseman was up by home plate with all the other infielders – the kid on third made it home with ease (as did the kid at bat, who is very slow at running, make it to first safely, incidentally), and the entire team and its coaches exploded out onto the field in joyous chaos.

I’m not sure the other team fully understood how they had just lost the game. But they certainly figured it out, what with all the screaming and jumping and running around like monkeys.

And they were all great sports, which was awesome to see at the end. They got special somethings for the second place team, and the winners, the nephew’s team, got championship rings. Shocker, I know.

Anyway, it was cute and we had a great time. But it was a very long time to be at the baseball fields. The game ended at 10:33pm, and we didn’t leave until after 11pm. That’s five hours just for watching. Phew!

Anyway, goodnight.

Thank you, God, for this evening of entertainment and kindness and joy. Keep my husband safe, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024