June 1, 2024: Rain Dancing

posted in: Cubs, White Sox | 0

We’ve been very lucky this baseball season. No, not the Cubs, and definitely not the Sox, my son’s team. Yes, we’ve been lucky because we haven’t had a single game rained out or cancelled due to field conditions; it’s been crazy. Even the one day the majority of games were cancelled due to heavy rains, we happened to be playing on one of the two fields where the games were played. Even our practice earlier this week… it was raining on the way to practice; it had already rained earlier in the day. Yet, we got to the field, and we were good. Not soon after we left the field, the skies opened up; I doubt they practiced/played much more after that. This brings us to this Saturday’s game; we would be rain dancing again.

The forecast called for rain most of the day, starting at about 10am. Our game time? 830am. I was thinking in my head; let’s not mess around. Let’s get in and get out. I decided to put one of our best pitchers on the mound. Of course, he walks the first kid of the game… this pitcher’s first walk of the season! He comes around to score. He settled down after that until his final inning of work, the 4th, where he was touched with 2 more runs; another walk that came around to score. When he finished his day, we were leading 4-3 heading to the bottom of the 4th. Our offense came to life, scoring 3 runs; we now lead 7-3. I stuck with my pitching plan, bringing in another one of our best pitchers; this time it was my son.

The top of the 5th went like this for our opponent: strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. Yep, my son came in and promptly struck out the side. It was the bottom of the order, but still. He didn’t mess around. It had started to drizzle a bit… We tacked on one run in the bottom of the inning, stretching our lead to 5 runs; my son didn’t need it though. He finished the final 2 innings with 2 more strikeouts, allowing 1 run, and closing out our 9-4 victory. That’s the way to start a weekend!

So what happened to all that rain? We stood around talking for about 15 minutes after the game; still nothing. We got in the car to drive home, and then it happened; here came the rain! It didn’t stop either. It rained ALL DAY. Soon after we got home, we got an email saying all the games the rest of the day were cancelled. We did it again! We escaped the rain and got out game in, another W too! Our record sits at 5-2-1; not too shabby. Our next scheduled game would be the next day, the final game played on Sunday.

I really like our team. The kids are having fun. Winning certainly helps that, but they all seem to get along. All of the kids want to pitch; I move them around on the field all over the place. I move them up and down the batting order. It’s been a blast. Coaching this team has been just what the doctor ordered for me this year. Can’t wait to see what’s next.

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