Bleicher boys baseball day

We are all very excited to be going to New York for Ariel & Chris's wedding. After much coordination with Beth and Ariel, we are flying into Newark before the wedding and taking the train into Manhattan for one night. We hope to have dinner with Ariel and Chris and visit the Lego store before taking the Hudson Line from Grand Central Station up to Poughkeepsie, where the next day we should be joined by Mom, Dad, Beth, Gary, David, Sandra, Eric, Sarah, Terra, Karl and Roscoe. Cyndi's been planning the bridal shower for Friday at a tea room in an historic New Paltz building. The wedding is Saturday at the Mohonk Preserve a short distance from New Paltz.

The boys' baseball season is ending. In fact, Jackson had his final regular season game before tournaments, and Rylee has just one more game. It was a fabulous day Saturday. Ry, Jack and Cyndi took a long walk in the morning, while I cleaned up the yard a bit and watered.  By mid-afternoon, it was in the low 80s, sunny, with the slightest of a breeze to keep it all manageable. (Low, low humidity, of course.) The games were at 1 and 2 in the afternoon, with a pool party afterward.

Jackson has not been excited this year. At bat, he gets ahead of the ball and that's thwarted his confidence. But he still manages more times than not to get on base. Saturday, however, was a terrific game. He pitched. He was great. He looked good. He loved it.

He threw a lot of strikes, both swinging and called, and none of the wild pitches that the regular pitchers throw and that have cost runs all season long. He almost got a hard line drive right back at him and his adrenaline was pumping when he threw the ball to second. Oh, it was so fun to watch him play again. It was like last year when he was so into the game. He'd get into his stance on the mound and take a deep breath. His throws were right over the plate and into the catcher's glove. The fans were loving it, and they shouted enthusiastically and gave him glowing praise afterwards. So did his teammates.

Some of this enthusiasm and confidence has been building just in the past two weeks. Rylee always wants to play catch with me in the front yard, but only in the last weeks has Jackson asked or joined us, and the two of them play catch together a lot now. Sometimes Ry dons on his catcher gear and Jackson pitches to him. Rylee has been equally supportive of Jackson's pitching and I think he is very proud of him. The boys also had a good game of pickle with their cousin Brendan all afternoon on Mother's Day in Belen. It was fun, yet competitive, for all of them and it quickly honed some new skills and confidence.

Rylee started catching regularly behind the plate a couple of weeks ago. He catches about three innings a game now. At first, he seemed uncertain. He could catch okay but did not seem especially alert to what happened once someone hit. Now the catching is just second nature, hardly a thought, he's so nonchalant and easy behind the plate. The fun part is watching him throw off the helmet and make outs from the plate or guard the plate and tag players trying to come home. That's been exciting to see.

So this last game, I had just seen Jackson pitching at his game. I was so proud of him and delighted in his happiness. Then I watched Rylee play. He was on third base when he was not catching. Third base is where they put kids with strong arms. (Short stop is routinely reserved for the coach's son this year; last year at this level, Jackson played short stop.) Rylee, who is the smallest and, still 6, the youngest on the team, earned it when he made the first 5-3 out of the season a couple of weeks ago by running laterally and scooping up a hard grounder on the hop and rifling it over to first. He repeated something like that this weekend but he made another spectacular catch that ignited the stands. It was a high pop up. I watched his eyes intently on the ball, his glove above his head, as he kept peddling his feet backwards. To reach the ball, he had to dive almost backwards, and he got it and threw to second. He got the game ball that afternoon, and he's very proud of that. The other funny thing is, is that his fielding glove is falling apart and he needs a new one. He's breaking in a glove he uses for catching.

When we got home, Jackson got on his computer that evening and helped Ry build a new Lego set. Rylee played outside in the early evening, climbing on the fort David helped us build. I fixed a rickety bench and decided to paint it. I sanded it and found some old blue paint in the garage. Ry helped me paint it and then went on another walk with Cyndi.