Duffy's or Harold's on the beach for adult refreshments????
In true Westfield Blue fashion, our tryst advance party did what any of us would do. They went to both.
It did look like the Blue players were up at the crack of dawn anticipating this year's 600 mile TRAVEL tournament. The crew arrived by mini van, Westfield taxi, and rumor has it that Len, Jared, Devin and J Rod arrived at Newark International via hovercraft. Funny how we all seemed to converge on the Continental Airline Group travel desk within minutes. The boys looked great in their collared shirts, carrying pillows, IPODS, back packs and steamer trunks.... and yet others had carry ons. But you should have seen the looks on the dads' eyes when the Westchester Lightning Team Rawlings 13u team showed up at the check in with us. Since it was Sunday am, I figured I'd have a chat with the big guy. My little prayer went something like this...
Dear God, its me, Mono, (Mono I):
Please protect the boys from injury and please also let the boys play to their capabilities, have fun and enjoy the trip.
Well, that's not really how it went, It really went something like tis:
Dear God, its me, Mono, (Mono I):
No, change that please don't let the boys get hurt, BUT PLEASE let the boys play outrageously. Let them play like they never have before. Let them swing their new 2 3/4 big barrel bats like thunder and Lord, please let the pitchers (especially my boy) throw the ball with great precision and with the speed and force of lightning. And Lord, if you cant see fit to come through on the thunder and lightning stuff, please, please please let this Westchester team that I am looking at in Newark Airport be 13u!!!
We all made it through security relatively unscathed although the TSA agents did take a good hard looks at a few of the Blue's birth certificates....Has anyone seen the upscale mall at Terminal C?
All was going well as we headed through the shopping gallery in the terminal. Who goes shopping at Newark Airport's Terminal C for upscale clothing? We almost lost a few boys (and dads claim ing to buy coffee) at Brooks Brothers and Brookstone. NJ has great clothing sales taxes, but this is ridiculous. Gucci, Armani, I even saw a PB Fitness wear outlet....
The flight was full and uneventful. Whoever booked the seats forgot to get all the seats together but the boys made due. Only casualty was Liam when Matt got bumped to first class. A number of Blue players did check in on Liam and had planned on sitting with him, but the middle seat and the size of the woman on the aisle lets just say did not work in Liam's favor. That being said, the flight was landing in less than an hour and we were off.....NOT....
In a scene reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode, we waited on line longer for the vans than we were in the air. I wonder if it had something to do with Matt L asking if it was still legal to drink and drive in South Carolina???? Just when we thought we were on our way, they could not find the second van, they had to clean the second van, they had to pull the second van around the airport. The parking lot attendant was nice enough but worked in South Carolina time, not 12 year old baseball coach who has 24 players and dads waiting to get to the beach, check out the house and out of the sun time.......
Just before noon we were off, Drivers Matt and Matt were in control and we zipped out of the airport and onto the highway. In what would be a pre cursor to the van travel throughout the trip the Matt C van arrived at Almost Paradise ahead of the Matt L van. (Likely did not have anything to do with the Matt L GPS not working though.....)
The welcome party was there to greet us and the boys. The ensuing chaos of boys looking for rooms and roommates, exploring the house checking out the game room, and to my horror the miniature pool, was muffled by the need for the dads to find the cold ones waiting for us thanks to the recon part's early arrival the night before. We had the beer, no food for lunch as Greg and Dave were attacked by a band of marauding South Carolina Gamecocks the night before who stole the cold cuts, condiments, veggies and humus they had secured the night before. Fortunately Dave and Greg were able to save the important stuff, Coors Lite, Gatorade and and Charmin.....
Seriously after a run to LGA food store we were in business making sandwhiches, pouring drinks and organizing the next run.
BASEBALL? That's why we're here
We had to be at Ripken, 30 mins away, for meetings, practice, parades and skills competition by 2pm and we were off. To outstanding thoughts when we arrived, (1) its hot (but cooler than NJ) and (2) all of these boys are BIG.
Practice was fun. We had 45 minutes to hit and do some fielding. There were hard coder teams that really knew how to run a condensed practice, then there was us. But in true NJ fashion, we got swings for all the boys and we found an empty practice field way, way, way down towards the end of the complex, Navin Filed. Cool field with dimensions of 203 to left, 310 to center and 182 to right. Trivia question, Navin field was the home to what Major League baseball team before their current stadium was built?
Practice was followed by a picnic for the boys and coaches, pizza, dogs, gatorade and Wendy's frosty's contributed to our white Westfield canvases (I mean jerseys). The boys had a blast!
The Parade
All of the teams lined up for the Opening Ceremony Parade, as the dads had the flashbacks to the Avis counter from earlier in the day. If was fun to see the other teams that we would play, a we met up with the Moorestown team, stood next to the Maryland Cardinals, Georgia Titans and the Miami Bengals. We also met the Rizza Rockers from Illinois. Finally we stood next to the only International team and our semi final opponent, the Whitby Chiefs, who in true Canadian fashion, carried in a big Canadian flag.
The ceremony was capped off by a coach's dance contest. Frank represented us well but had NO chance against the guy with the grey wig or the guy that did the splits. Those boys from Texas certainly came to compete....
Skills Competition
Turn 2
We were second up in the Turn 2 competition and struggled on the first round but Liam, Kyle, Jake K, Jared, Justin and Harry improved the second round and turned 4 double plays in 39 seconds, respectable but well off the 29 second record that won the event for the MAryland Cardinals.
Bean Ball
Bean Ball was a throwing accuracy event. Jack P, Eddie, Mono, Devin, Chris and Jake K cae up with an average of 8.8 score which was good for second in our group of 8 an for 4th overall. The object was to hit a dummy in the head, chest or body and each player was awarded points.
Home Run Derby
We saw some prolific home run hitters in this competition. The clean up hitter from the Tennessee Thunder. He hit 8 homers and all were BOMBS. Jack C gave it his best. The dads were happy to have it end quick so we could get headed back to the beach for fireworks.
The Fireworks
The house was 1 block off the beach, located in the Cherry Grove Section of North Myrtle Beach. A band of dads and all the boys headed to the beach for the fireworks around 9pm.
Coach Frank was the only one with foresight to bring a beach chair. The beach was mobbed with everyone facing north but thee were INCREDIBLE fireworks displays flashing south down the beach for miles. The boys were digging holes and occupying themselves as we watch the rockets red glare in the distance. By 10:30 we were convinced that the Cherry Grove fireworks were not going to go off as planned. Much o our surprise when they shot off at 11pm.......
Lights out was 11:30 since we had 2 early games on Monday. Recap on Day 1:
- Travel: Smooth. We arrived safely, no one lost made it to field on time.
- Ripken complex: As Chris C Sr said, Baseball Heaven.
- House layout and location: Awesome.
- Fireworks: Dramatic. Except someone forgot to tell the neighbors that we had an 8am game. Fireworks went off in the street until 3am....
Too bad no one told the neighbors as there were fireworks, M 80's, botto rockets going off until almost after 3am.......
No comments:
Post a Comment