The Riverdogs

Jake is nearing the end of another great baseball season. I've gotta be honest, I kinda dreaded minors because, instead of an accurate machine, the boys are the pitchers. This year, score was kept, by a scorekeeper, not by Jake who went about 40 and 0 in coach-pitch because he kept his own score each game. It is a little more intense, even more so when Jake is on the mound pitching.

He is fun to watch, he's made some definite web gems. Like the time he made a diving stop at short stop (his primary position), he looked very Jeteresque, but no one was covering their base for him to throw it. Then the next play where he turned 2, it was sweet! But my favorite was the diving catch at short stop. The ball was hit over his head and he turned around to track it down and dove/kinda stumbled and came up with the ball. He pumped his arms and was all grins the rest of the inning. (He's never been one to hide his emotions well, everyone knows exactly how he's feeling)

Hitting has been a new challenge. He has always had pitches right down the pipe, so it's a little more difficult when the ball is elsewhere in the enormous minor's strike zone. But it's been fun watching him get better. The highlight of the season came a few weeks ago. Bases were loaded and he came up to bat against his best friend Brenton who was pitching, he hit the ball opposite field right up the 3rd base line. It was hit just hard enough that it got past the 3rd baseman and past the left fielder. He circled the bases for a grand slam. He was so happy. He got to the dugout and took off his helmet and wouldn't you know it, his cup fell out. He exclaimed, "I did that with my cup in my helmet" Later, he tried to tell me that he was going to put it in his helmet all the time because it was lucky. Baseball players, you gotta love 'em. They are so superstitious. But luckily for him and everyone, he has forgotten and just puts his helmet on, and usually his batting gloves in his back pocket when he comes up to bat (but not all the time).

Jake is an amazing boy and great son. He works hard at everything he does and I'm happy for him when he succeeds because I know he's worked his tail off to be good - including making me or Jeremy or Grandpa Dale daily play catch, pitch to him , or him pitch to us.