Softball - Tournamet Style

For a Softball report we turn to Bob and Fred

Fred - First off, we'd like to appologize for this delayed report. During the summer BYU-Idaho runs on a quarter system (instead of the semester system run during Fall and Winter). Sean's computer has been busy with him writing final essays. We couldn't get in to write this.

Bob - Not that there is much to write.

Fred - Yes. Please Bob - continue.

Bob - In Tournament style if a team is ahead by 10 points by the third inning, the umps can (and will) call the game. After 3 innings, the Big D's were losing 12 to 2. This of course was because the Big D's let 9 runs in in the first inning.

Fred - How did Sean do?

Bob - Sean got up once and got out running to 1st base (he grounded to the second base man). Sean's fielding wasn't much better. He dropped the ball about three times. The big problem occured in the first inning when Sean went to slid to get to a ball. The sliding re-opened his left knee. He bled through his pants and down his leg. It freaked out the other team as well as his own. Sean is now limping again and it hurts more this time around the first time he injured it on Tuesday.

Fred - It's a good thing second quarter softball doesn't begin for three weeks. Time to heal.

Bob - Yes except WCB starts on the 8th.

Fred - Are we bringing the play by play on those as well?

Bob - You better believe it.

Fred - Well, until then, this has been a sucky softball report.

Another Softball Report

And for this weeks softball report we again turn to Bob and Fred.

Fred - Welcome to tournament season. This week begins tournament season for softball for BYU-Idaho. Sean is playing for The Big D's. (no - he didn't come up with the name). How did Sean do today?

Bob - Sean batted 6th tonight, 1 up from his usual 7th position in the batting order. During his first at bat, on the third pitch Sean hit a outfield ground ball to get on base. He ----

Fred - Wait! Sean actually got on base???

Bob - Yup. He was as surprised as you are and was actualy dancing on the first base and, in a little girls voice, chirping "I got on base. I got on base."

Fred - Wow, that's amazing. Did he stay there?

Bob - On the next hit on the next batter, the base coach told Sean to take third. The ball was there before Sean was. Sean slid anyway, tore his pants, and wounded his left knee. He was out.

Fred - It's important right now to mention to both Sister and Father that these were work jeans - not the ones either of them had purchased in the last year. How was Sean's knee?

Bob - It bled. But sean didn't care; he got on base. For his next at bat, Sean did an in field ground ball but was able to move his chubby butt up to first base before the ball and got on base. The next batter drove Sean to second. The next batter after that was the third out. Sean Never made it past second. For his third and final at bat, the bases were loaded with 1 out. Sean hit the ball pretty close to second base. The guy running from first to second got out, but San batted in a run. That's right Fred - Sean actually got an RBI!!

Fred - It sounds like Sean had his best day yet at the plate. How was his fielding?

Bob - Sean didn't have any pop-ups into right field, but he did stay in front of the ball all three times it came near him. He ran well and helped keep people on there bases. He did not get anyone out, though.

Fred - Did any one score off of him?

Bob - No. They just got to base before he got to the ball.

Fred - And the team - how did they do?

Bob - Well, after losing three times in the three games played in the regular season, the Big D's pulled out this time and won 11 to 7. On a bit of a ironic note, this was the same team they played last week and lost 25 to 10 to.

Fred - What now?

Bob - The Big D's advance to tomorrow. Sean has to make the descion to go to 12-step (which he hasn't been to in two weeks) or to go to the game where he will actually be needed. But the Big D's do move on.

Fred - What about Sean's knee and pants?

Bob - Sean's knee has been washed and cleaned and is now drying out. His pants are soaked with blood and he's not allowed to play in torn jeans. So those jeans will soon become shorts and he will take his last pair of work jeans with him tomorrow, if he goes.

Fred - How does Sean feel?

Bob - Today was a crappy day with ADG breaking up with him. As ~Gu~ put it "Sean, you just can't catch a break." But ending the day with an RBI and only 1 out on his scorecard. Sean's pretty stoked.

Fred - Well until tomorrow (probably), I'm Fred and he's Bob and this has been a softball report.

A softball report

For todays softball report we turn to Bob & Fred;

Fred - So Sean had another game last night. How did it go?

Bob - Sean got hurt during the warm ups.

Fred - It wasn't even during the game?

Bob - Nope. Sean was warming up playing catch when he missed catching the ball and got beamed in the left shoulder. However, instead of stopping and going home, he stayed to play.

Fred - How was Sean in right field this week?

Bob - Sean caught 2 pop-ups to get to people out. Additionally, Sean made a sliding stop to get in front of a ball and throw a person out at third.

Fred - It's a good thing Sean doesn't have a wife to complain about the grass stain from that sliding stop.

Bob - It's okay - he was in one of those pair of jeans that are work jeans.

Fred - How was his batting?

Bob - Sean hit all three times he was up. He never made it to base and was the last out of the game with three people on, but at least he hit every time. In fact on his last hit he almost hit the pitcher as well. Line drived it right at the pitchers chest.

Fred - How did the rest of the team do?

Bob - Instead of losing 32 to 2 like they did last week, they loss 25 to 10 this week. But they still suck. Their cheerleaders could probably play better.

Fred - How's Sean's pain level?

Bob - He hurts but not as much as last week. Maybe being active is really heping him out.

Fred - Well, until next time, This is Bob & Fred with the Softball report.

The music truck

Some of you, my wonderful readers, grew up in the sticks. Some grew up in the Suburbs. And an even smaller number of you grew up in the city. For people from the sticks, I'm not sure you had a music truck. I think the Schwan guy was the closes you got. For those of you who grew up in the city, it probably wasn't a truck but a guy with a little cart walking the streets and ringing a bell. But for those of us familiar with suburbia - there was the music truck. If you're unfamiliar with the music truck, it was a guy in an old mail truck that drove up and down the streets playing annoying music. He usually would wait outside elementary schools at the end of a school day to play music for the kids as they came out. Some kids would rush to his van and give him money. Mother said this was because thry liked his music, but that she didn't so we wouldn't give him money.

I don't remember at what age I found out that the music truck (with the music man) was not a music truck as my mother had told brother and I. It turns out that the guy in that truck sells ice cream. OOOhhh my mother - what a tricky woman. It was really an Ice Cream truck all those years. I could have been eating bubble gum ice cream or funnels or ice cream sandwichs or rockpops in my childhood instead of apples, if only I had known it wasn't a Music truck.

It is now summer here in Rexburg. Rexburg doesn't even have the Schwan guy. And definately no music trucks. I miss California.

Active

At the end of May, I could feel myself dipping into a depression. My therapist and I talked and he suggested that the reason why is I needed to be more active. I had just spent the past 4 months being very active at work (throwing beef). My body had grown used to it. I spent 2 weeks in Cali being semi active. Only to come back to school and becoming a paper weight. So my therapist suggested I run (yuck!!!!), ride a bike, or anything...just something. He actually suggested I sweat if at all possible. And he suggested I do this every day.

Then, ever so quickly, I got active. I'm now considered an active person - a chubby active person, but still an active person.

For example: On saturday I biked 8 miles on a handcrank cycle. Tuesday I played softball with my ward (congregasion)'s softball team (I had two ups, hit the ball twice, got out before reaching base each time.). On Wednesday I bowled. Today I went on a date with this really cute girl from Pittburg, Ca and we went with the school canoeing for and hour and a half. Saturday I'm going for a bike ride again. Next week will have the same sort of repeat performance.

This of course is all in addition to the rower I bought. I have a rowing machine in my room that I row with for 15 minutes each night. Suddenly I'm Active. Active I tell you.

An Idaho Adventure

This morning I picked up Steve with the intent of discovering some nice paved paths for cycles. Steve was riding the Scraab (looks like this) and I was on the Freedom Rider. For some reason, I really like riding the Freedom Rider. I think it goes back to the fact that I'm not a big fan of excerising my legs. That and living in Cali whose govonor is costantly quoted as saying "I'm going to pump you up."

Anyway, the first place we went to was the Idaho Falls Beltway. It's a bike/jogging route that runs along side the Snake River in Idaho Falls. It crosses the river twice, thus the name "beltway." And it's about 4.5 miles long. It went okay, but it was crowded. It was a beautiful ride, though. I've never been that close to the falls. They were truly beautiful. I wish I had my camera for it, but it is still in Target waiting to be purchased. The water rushing and the crystal clear water was just an awe to watch.

Next we went out to Shelley. This, as well, was a path that traveled along the Snake River. (Southern Idaho is the truest form of A River Runs Through It. The Snake River or some aspect of it runs all through the state.) We parked the truck at Steve's sister's house. After a breakfast of 2 oatmeal rasin cookies and a glass of water, we were off. This trail was 1.5 miles long and it was straight. (As in a very distict begining at the end of an elementary school playground and it ended into a park.) I think this was the trail that burned me. I was wearing shorts and for the first part of the day, NASA was probably having satelite problems, as my legs reflected the sun back up to the rotating satelites in space. I hope I didn't start any wars with spy satelites getting mixed signals off my legs. I'm sorry if I did.

I entered the trail at about 1/2 mile in. I rode/hand cranked down to the park. Right behind the park was an air strip for remote control planes. In the air above the strip were 5 gas powered airplanes having a "dog fight." 4 of the planes had ribbon or stream on the back of their tail wings. This really helped in seeing how close the planes were getting to each other. Every now and then the ribbons would smack each other and make a cool noise. Really Really close dog fighting in wooden planes. It was freaking awesome. Toward the end, one of the planes stalled out and crashed in a farmers field. I watched it crash. I actually watched it stall and knew exactly what it was doing, so I felt pretty smart.

Ever since Dun wrote his blog on his fasination with planes, I've been watching the skies and seeing the planes fly around. With it being summer, the Rexburg Airport (I use that last statement very loosely) has had a pilot flying a P51 Mustang over Rexburg and other areas. (the "other areas" because Rexburg is so small that just to get up to a cruising altitude, this guy has left city limits). I am in the process of building a plane and I think to myself how nice it is to have planes.


Anyway, I continued on the path after watching the other planes land. I did about 8 miles hand cranking today. Then I came home, rearranged my room, and did some more work on the wheelchair I'm building (WCB is only 1 month away. I've got to get my chair built and start practicing in it soon). All in all - it was a great experience. I might repeat it next week with a bike trip up to Island Park, or even Yellowstone.

***As a side note, I ate the raisin cookies without complaining. The food adventures are paying off. If I could just get over my fears of pickles and bananas I'd be doing great.

****As a different side note - I'm currently listening to James Blunt "Beautiful." (-: