With boys, especially ones who love and play sports like ours do, so many of your Saturdays are jam packed with drives all over town, or to nearby towns, for games of some sort. Soccer. Basketball. Baseball. Cross country or track meets.
And, of course, I love it. Every single minute of it. Watching my boys compete on an athletic field, hands down, is my greatest joy in life. It pains me terribly to think about the void that will be left in the not too distant future when neither JP nor Joe are playing anything other than middle school or high school sports. In a way, we're halfway there, now that JP has narrowed his athletic focus to running.
If you're lucky, as a parent, you have the rare Saturday where it all falls into place for your boys, or girls. For me, yesterday was one of those.
Rather than tour Notre Dame, JP decided to run in the Trinity-Valkyrie Invitational in Louisville, KY, where he set a PR (15:19) last year. Gabe and Wynn decided at the last minute to run it and JP wanted to join them. Jude and I thought it was the right decision, especially on the heels of his mildly disappointing race in Huntsville last weekend (15:20). Late in the week, we hastily booked a hotel room and made plans, arranging for Jude to go with JP to Louisville, so I could take Joe to his soccer workout Friday night and his baseball tournament games in Murfreesboro on Saturday.
Yesterday morning, I got up early as I typically do, and drove up to Dose for coffee. Joe slept in. As I drank my coffee and tried to figure out if I could get live updates of the race in Louisville, I met the parents of one of JP's sophomore cross country teammates. They were on the way to Dickson to watch their son (and the other boys who didn't race in Huntsville) race. Very nice people.
I am superstitious, although I know I shouldn't be. As I bounced around on the MileSplit (Kentucky) website and the link to the Trinity-Valkyrie Invitation, I couldn't find any live race results. It felt similar to two years ago, when Joe and were at Dose for coffee and breakfast, as we tried to get live race results from NXR in Cary, NC. That, of course, was a memorable day in JP's racing career, as MBA finished second and qualified for NXN in Portland, OR. I was hoping, yesterday, to have a similar experience.
Turns out that I did, as JP ran 15:05:03 (12th overall in a very fast field). The ever more elusive PR and ever so close to breaking 15:00:00. It was a race JP needed, I think, to boost his confidence. He raced extremely well in the fastest field he will see the entire season. When I talked to him on the telephone immediately after the race, I could tell how excited, and relieved, he was.
Later in the morning, I drove Joe over to Murfreesboro for his first tournament game of the fall with the Redbirds. In what is another story for another day, Joe landed with the Redbirds after Brian Harris unceremoniously folded his tent and shut down Harris Baseball Club in July. Not surprisingly, the messaging ng to HBC parents wasn't handled well by Brian, as a result of which 150 + boys were left scrambling to find baseball teams to play with in the middle of tryout season.
When Joe and I arrived at the baseball complex in Murfreesboro, his coach asked him if he was ready to pitch. "Sure," Joe said. "Good, you're staring." Kyle replied. This will be interesting, I thought, as Joe hasn't thrown a bullpen in a while or otherwise worked on pitching. No matter, because Joe is Joe. Mentally tough. Dependable. Always ready to take the ball.
In four innings of solid work, Joe struck out stayed around the plate and stuck out six batters. His control was good, as he only walked one batter. He didn't throw particularly hard and two or three batters put good swings own the ball for extra base hits. Still, he threw to contact, as he so often does, and he added nifty play on a ball hit back up the middle. He gave up three runs, only one of which was earned.
The only real mistake, other than a two out walk in the fourth inning, was an 0-2 fastball he left out over the plate to the second to last batter he faced. He would have liked to have that pitch back, as the boy laced a line drive to center field to plate the third run. Joe left with the score 2 - 3. He was out of gas at 60 o so pitches. The final was 2 - 7, as the next pitcher in for the Redbirds struggled.
In the second game, Joe played shortstop and batted second. After a weak pop fly in foul territory to the first baseman in the first inning and a towering pop fly that he misjudged for an error, Joe settled in at shortstop. In the last inning, down 1 - 2, Joe lined a ball to right center field for a base hit that advanced the leadoff hitter to third base. He stole second, then was thrown out at home to end the game as he tried to score on a single to right filed. I was proud of how Joe played, although there is room for improvement . . . for Joe and the whole team.
Joe has gone from being the youngest player on his HBC teams to, suddenly, being one of oldest, most experienced players on his Redbirds' team. It's time for him to lead.
Jude rushed Joe straight from the second baseball game in Murfreesboro to Franklin for a Bucket Squad basketball game. That didn't go was well, as his team lost a game they probably should have won. I skipped the game but, according to Jude and JP, Joe didn't shoot much at all and wasn't a real factor in the game.
Still, it was a great Saturday, for the boys and for Jude and me.
No comments:
Post a Comment