Kid Stuff

I’ve been very slow to provide weblog updates lately.  I’m sure one reason is that it seems that within 8 hours or so of a session I hold, 2 other people have blogged the same session better than I ever could, so why bother.  Maybe I should just stick to posting photos!  I remember a time when I was one of about 5 or 6 boardgame webloggers out there and I thought an interesting hook might be nice photos of gaming sessions.  Now there are 10+ gaming podcasts alone, including a high quality video podcast, and probably over a 100 weblogs related to boardgames.  I gotta find a new niche or just keep reminding myself that I do this primarily for myself.

Spring is always a busy season for our family as both boys continue to play competitive baseball with very demanding practice and game schedules.  We spent last weekend in the greater Bend / Sunriver area for our annual baseball tournament weekend.  Matthew had 5 games in La Pine, while Jacob had 5 in Bend.  Much driving commenced between those two towns (fortunately Sunriver is in the middle) but their schedules were mostly agreeable, causing me to miss only one of Jacob’s games.

Jacob continues to shine as a catcher and first baseman.  His fielding skills in those positions are excellent and his hitting continues to improve.  He has a very high on-base percentage – he’s a disciplined hitter and gets a lot of walks for someone his size (over 5’ 4” as an 11–year-old).  The pitching is starting to get much more challenging, with some kids throwing in the 65–70 range with some real junk (curves and change-ups).

Matthew is in his second year at the Midget level (he’s got one more year there) and is playing at the same level that Jacob did for the past two years.  He’s mostly pitching and playing first base, and is the strongest hitter on his team this year.

Oh yeah, I’m head coach for Matthew’s team this year.  After helping out with Jacob’s team last year, I decided to take the plunge and step up to coach a Midget team myself.  I’ve got two great assistants and the boys are having a blast.  We’ve had good pre-season tournaments but are currently 0–2 in our league play – we’ve seen two really tough teams so far.  This week has back-to-back-to-back games Tue-Wed-Thu so I’m hoping the team can climb back towards .500.