As we usually do this time of year we spent the weekend at the ball field watching one of our grandchildren play.
This weekend it was our grandson Boone and his team, InnerGrit 12U, finished 5-0 and won their second tournament of the still young season. So far, weather has plagued each and every tournament we've been to. Rain, cold weather, then extremely hot weather has made things pretty miserable for players, coaches and family alike.
My good friend Greg Payne coaches a 12U team with his son Tyler and due to several rain delays this weekend in Athens, there was a game scheduled Saturday night at 10:30. Mind you, these are 12 and under kids and with some of them coming from an hour and a half away, they wouldn't get home until at least 1:30 AM on Sunday. So they did what was right and decided to forfeit their game on Saturday night and play in bracket play Sunday afternoon. This made all the sense in the world because the well-being of those children is of utmost importance.
My family is very familiar with late nights at the ball field. When my daughter Christi was 16, she played on a select 16U softball team and we were playing in the Southeast Regional ASA tournament in Greenville, SC. It rained hard all weekend and play was pushed back to Sunday evening. Our team was very good and we made it to the championship. The only problem was....the title game didn't start until after midnight, on Monday morning. We won the championship and we left Greenville around 2:00 in the morning. We arrived home just after sun-up and while we were muddy, and dog-tired we were still champions. That's not the worst late night at the ball field story I have.
In the summer of 1975 I had just moved to Chattanooga working as the Sports Director at WDXB radio. There was a Dizzy Dean World Series Tournament being played at Middle Valley. It was for 16 under boys and you guessed it....it rained all weekend. This was before any fields had artificial turf so there were several rain delays. I was hired by a radio station in Mississippi to broadcast the games. So, I sat in my car while it rained all night, waiting for the game to be played. Finally at 3:00 AM, the game began. I set up my table, turned on my equipment and did the game, arriving home to my Hixson apartment just before 6:00 AM.
That may seem to be a miserable situation for some folks. But to me.... it was wonderful.
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