The End is Nigh

For many things. I'm sure I'm going to leave out some things here, but hopefully I'll get at least the major updates covered.

I'll start with Jessie. The fifteenth was her Reading Rumble competition. I guess this is the second year they've done this competition in the district, and this was the first time for our school. The way it worked was they had split the elementary schools into three groups, based on size. The top three schools from each group went to the finals. Armand Bayou did well, but was not able to make the finals. Still, we're proud of all the work and time Jessie put into the competition. We have the lists of books for next year--and third graders are allowed to try out for the team as well, so next year Brennan's going to try to make it as well. Our current goal is to get started this summer (and Dee and I will read at least some of the books as well) and be as ready as possible next year. It will also help that the school will have a better idea of the way the competition works. The most exciting part of the day, though, was getting books signed by Margaret Peterson Haddix and listening to her talk.

That Saturday was also the last week of competition for this season's bowling league. Because of the Reading Rumble, Jessie bowled ahead of time, and had a great day. Her first game wasn't actually up to her usual level, but in the second game she got her first ever Turkey in a league game (for those who might not know, a turkey is three strikes in a row) and ended up with a 147 (Her high before this was 143 or 145). Her third game was over 100 as well. This Saturday was the party, and Jessie's team, despite being the youngest team in the division (and it was their first year in the higher division) came in 2nd place. So we're proud of them for all the hard work and improvements.

Jessie is also running for Student Council President. All last week we were working on posters, or things to hand out, or flyers, etc. She came up with some clever ideas. I think it has been a good learning experience for her. Today she is giving her campaign speech and presenting a slideshow that she made, and I believe tomorrow is the actual election.

The Story of the Meatballs

Jessie's class is working on fractions. They were given an assignment to find a recipe with at least 3 fractions, and either half it, double it, or triple it. For extra credit they could make the recipe and bring it in to give people samples. Jessie decided on meatballs. She had enough for everyone in the class to have seconds (and, apparently, a few more). The meatballs were a hit. Several people wanted more than the 2. One boy got two extras from other students. That afternoon he and Jessie were going to the park (along with Brennan and his friend Tyler), and he asked her to bring the leftovers, and he ate six more. Eventually kids started coming in from other fourth grade classes to try out the meatballs. When Dee went to pick the kids up from school, she went to help Jessie with the crockpot. As she walked down the halls she felt like a celebrity, as all the fourth graders were calling out to her about how good the meatballs were--including, to her surprise, some of those from other classes who had gotten tastes...

Then, the next day, the fourth grade had a picnic. Dee went in to Jessie's class to help out for a few minutes after, and the whole class was sad when she hadn't brought any more meatballs. Unfortunately, they weren't allowed to hand out food as part of the student council campaigns...

Brennan has still been very busy with baseball. The next week (after the last post), we were supposed to have a game on Thursday. But then the game that got rained out was rescheduled for that Tuesday. And then Thursday's game was rescheduled for Wednesday. Anyway, Tuesday's game was interesting because the scoreboard wasn't working. This game was probably the best hitting our team has done all season. Unfortunately, the other team hit even better, and so, despite two home runs, we lost, 15 - 12. The next day the Phillies again hit well, but something went wrong every single inning, and we ended up getting shut out, 9 - 0. Although, considering that the team we were playing averaged scoring 12 runs a game, our defense really did pretty well. As an example of the luck we had, in one of the late innings our power hitter (who hit one of the home runs the day before) hit a high fly ball back to the fence. The left fielder (who, I was later told, had never caught a fly ball before) moved back and to his left against the fence and made the catch.

The next Wednesday was the last game of the season. We were playing the Nationals, who had the worst record in the West. Like us, they had one win and one tie, and they had also just been shut out. It was a 5:45 game, which often aren't the best for our team, and we got off to a sluggish start. Brennan did field two grounders, but both times his throw was just beat out by the runner. Late in the game (after we had made something of a comeback), he hit a fly ball into the outfield, but it was caught (and it was fairly clear by the fielder's reaction he probably hadn't ever caught a ball before, either...). The Phillies lost, 14 - 10, cementing the worst record in either the East or the West.

Thursday I was umpiring a game. It didn't matter in the standings, and it was a fairly low-key game until the last inning, when the other umpire made a call that very greatly upset one of the managers (whose son was on our team last fall, and in coach pitch), and he ran out and started yelling and ended up getting thrown out of the game. At about the time that game was ending, the Wilsons were arriving to visit on their way back to Louisiana from Tucson.

Friday was our first playoff game, against the Tigers (Brennan's old team--although only the coach's son is a holdover from the past). For the playoffs, there's no time limit, so we play a full six innings unless the run rules come into effect (10 run lead after four, or 6 run lead after the fifth), or it's tied after six (no ties in the playoffs, of course). Brennan led off the game with an infield single, and later scored, as part of a five-run first. After two innings, it was 8 - 0. Somewhere in the early part of the game, Brennan fielded a grounder and threw to first. His throw was a little off-line, but the first baseman caught it and got his foot back on the bag in time for the out. Later, with a runner on second looking like he was going to steal, the catcher threw down to third. Brennan had to reach out to make the catch, but did so, keeping the runner at second. After three innings, it was 8 - 1. After four it was 10 - 4. By now Brennan had three hits. We didn't score in the fifth, and in the bottom of the inning the Tigers had some hard hits, and scored five runs, making it 10 - 9. Last inning. Brennan led off the inning, but this time they were able to throw him out. The next batter struck out. Our third hitter got a single, and then our big hitter came up. He hit a fly ball into left field. And that same left fielder who made the catch against the fence in the other game, while sitting on the ground, stuck out his glove and had the ball fall into it for the third out.

Bottom of the sixth. If the Tigers don't score, we win. If they score one, it's extra innings. If they score two, we lose and the season is over. The bottom two in the Tiger's order are up. They both hit line drives into the gaps in the outfield. Now we face the Tiger's big three. Their leadoff hitter gets a hit, scoring the tying run and leaving runners on second and third with no one out. We bring the infield in. The next batter strikes out. Now it's their power hitter. He pops up, and all the coaches have heart attacks as the left fielder, center fielder, and shortstop all start converging on the same place--but the shortstop makes the catch without getting run over by either of the others. Now there's two outs, and the infield can move back. The next batter grounds to the pitcher, who makes the throw to first for the third out. We're going into extra innings.

In the top of the seventh, we only score one run. So now it's kind of the same situation as before, except not the top of their order. The leadoff hitter gets a single. I believe the next batter popped out to the shortstop. The next batter hits a grounder towards third. Brennan takes a couple steps to the side, fields the ball, and throws to the shortstop at second for the force on the lead runner--and while that might be the normal play, I think it's about the first time this season, for any team I've seen, that play has been made rather than the throw to first. Now there's two outs, runner on first. The next batter again hits a grounder to third. Brennan calmly scoops it up, and once again turns and makes the easy throw to second for the third out, and the Phillies have won! Brennan was then awarded the game ball for making the last two outs (although to be fair, there were many other great plays from almost all of our players, such as the time with two outs and runners on first and third the catcher threw to short on the steal, the throw was off-line, but as the runner on third tried to come home the shortstop made the throw back to home and the catcher tagged out the runner). In fact, I heard more than one person there comment that it might have been the best game they'd ever seen at this level.

Saturday, we had batting practice (since we're still in the tournament). One of the assistant coaches was commenting to the manager about all the times we've seen the throw from third to first, and all of a sudden, when it's most important, Brennan makes the throw to second. I told them that Brennan had told us after the game that he had told the shortstop before the play he was going to do that. The assistant coach said, "I really got the feeling last night they boys were, 'OK, you've coached us to a 1 - 13 -1 record. We've got it from here.'"

Tonight is game two of the playoffs. Hopefully we can play at least as well as on Friday, and then we'll see what happens.