Sunday was our official return to the sunshine state. We were greeted by yet more humidity, high temperatures, and abounding Trumpisms, but with all that, we’ve met up with Annalise and Emmett so the other stuff becomes bearable. Driving from extreme north Florida to Space Coast meant taking I-65 and then the Florida Parkway. That greeted us with four stops at toll plazas to pay anywhere between $7 to $2. Nice folks in the booth, just annoying and inconvenient to stop every 4 miles. But hey, if it means for a faster route across the state, I’m good.
Got to Space Coast and our battery charger didn’t fully charge, so the security guard came and jumped the escape and we were on our way to our site. Space Coast Encore is a very clean and nice park and only 3 miles from Emmett’s Space Coast Complex. And what a complex it is! 12 field turf baseball fields laid out in groups of 4. The bleachers are shaded by tarps which is very nice, but still it is very hot. Vicki does have one very legitimate complaint about the tournament so far. There are no cooling stations throughout the complex. It makes no sense not to have them. These boys are on field turf fields which when the temperature reaches 90. my guess is that the field is around 120. And with the humidity, my guess is the overall temperature may exceed 130. They could at least have fans and misters in dugouts for the boys to keep cool. But hey, what do we know? We’ve only treated a few rare cases of heat stroke in Washington, although this summer my guess is those are soaring there as well. The also issued the boys navy blue practice uniforms, an excellent choice in the hottest summer on record.
Monday we are able to watch Emmett as he played a scrimmage game against a machine pitch format. When they first started, they had the speed up just a bit too high and the machine was throwing a no hitter!! They adjusted and the kids really started to light it up. We then had a break and I got to enjoy a grandfather moment. We went to the Eason tent to look at bats. Emmett has his eye on a blah, blah, wa, wa, firebat (note that he was speaking in tongues when he told me the description and specifics of this particular bat) that will totally improve his game because it has pop! Sadly though, this tent did not have the particular bat he was interested in. So we then walked across the complex to see if they had the bat in the main stadium pro shop. Sadly they didn’t and to see the long face on my grandson would have melted your heart. So as we headed back through the food trucks, Emmett noticed there was another Eason tent. He scrambled over and saw they had demo bats exactly like he was looking for. Here comes the Grandpa moment. Emmett then asked the cost, it was expensive needless to say and to see his face yet again, but Papa suggested that he take a demo bat and try it in the hitting cage. He did an all 5 hits would have been long line drives. Frozen ropes as it were. Needless to say, Papa took out his credit card and Emmett has a new bat. 5 swings in the cage, a long walk through a baseball comples, seeing your youngest grandson’s face light up like a Las Vegas Billboard, priceless.
Now all I had to do was come up with the justification to the CFO. Thankfully she saw her Grandson’s face and all was good! After watching Emmett’s assessments we zipped home to have a country rib dinner with fresh corn on the cob. We then tried to go to the opening ceremony, but were unable to find a parking spot near the complex. So bitterly disappointed with this damn hip. I couldn’t have made the walk to the stadium and back from the farthest point east. There was a nice parking lot next to the stadium in a field, but just as we turned in a sheriff came running up and said we could park here. I asked what about the 100 cars that are all ready here, and he said they’re all going to be towed. Seriously?!? Folks have paid a good deal of money to have their kids attended and then you don’t provide enough parking? Cmon man!! Ron Desantis aside, this gives me yet another reason not to like Florida. And now we’ve discovered that there is a Cat 3 hurricane over the Bahamas and heading this way. We’ll be keeping a close eye on that as RVs don’t do well in hurricanes. We’ll keep you updated. Other than that, we are still loving retirement.
It is blog publication day and I’ve been somewhat amiss with keeping a daily tab, so this will be a huge entry. So to set aside the hurricane worries, it never developed, but weather did become a very important factor in our weather pattern of the week. The new bat definitely proved to be an asset as our first game of the tournament was a nailbiter to which Emmett became the hero. After finally entering the game as an outfielder, he came up with score tied 7-7. After taking a couple of pitches, he unloaded with an opposite-field triple to end the game and walk off! Standing on third he gave the hulk flex and shot the arrow of victory. Needless to say, the smile on all of us was huge. Not to mention Emmett’s as well. We then took a victory lap trip to Ron John’s for some shopping and people watching. There are some very confident women here in Florida as a woman and her boyfriend/husband we parading about in a swimsuit with less than 1/8 of a yard of fabric covering oneself. Not much left to the imagination for sure. Not that it’s a good or bad thing, just a thing. After Ron Jon’s we noticed the building thunderstorms and headed for a victory supper at Olive Garden. As we arrived, the skies opened up and to quote Garth Brooks, the thunder rolls.
The next day we were slated for 2 games. We won the second game handily as Emmett contributed by going 2 for 2, but for some reason only played the outfield. Played the position admirably even though it is not his real calling. This is where the saga of poorly prepared coaches comes into play. This tournament has a slew of placement rules for the championship bracket. Run differential is one. The more runs you score, the higher your difference and so a better seating. In the fifth inning of the second game, we’ve got one out bases loaded and play at the plate for the second out. Our third base coach seeing a collision at home, then tries to send another runner home even though a good hitter is about to bat. He was probably the easiest out of the tournament. Who does that?
We were hoping for a third victory and a bye in the single elimination part of the tournament, but it was not to be. It the third game, Emmett finally got to pitch, but this is where the coaching technique comes into question. He took his better players out of key positions and put in the weakest players as 3rd, short and the outfield. Emmett started the inning with a K but it was negated by a 3rd strike drop. Then the wheels came off the bus and there were 5 more errors leading to a 6 run inning and a loss. Emmett pitched well, 19 strikes against only 6 balls, but had no fielding help whatsoever. I put this solidly on the coach’s shoulder, but all he said in the post game was that it was ‘baseball’. Nothing more frustrating than that a coach who cannot admit he or she made a mistake.
So now instead of a bye, we are seeded 5th and will play the 12th seed. Not bad, but again coach’s choices hurt us. Instead of trying some other pitchers, he puts in ‘assessed’ players who really can’t locate the plate. He leaves in one pitcher who throws 12 straight balls without at least a trip to the mound to calm him down. All he does is sit on his butt on a bucket outside the dugout. Needless to say we lost to the only team without a win in the tournament and have now moved to the consolation bracket to play for 3rd place. Not that winning is everything, but when there is a distinct odor of Daddy-ball, it tends to be very frustrating.
We did have a 5 hour delay on Thursday as well as another delay on Friday for lightning. A horn goes off and we literally had to evacuate the complex. Amazing how many people are at these tournaments and even more amazing is how they get out of the parking lot with only three gates.
It is so much fun watching the boy and scoring their games. The numbers don’t lie and I feel like Billy Beane out of Oakland. Looking forward, we are going to cross the state on Monday to see an old friend from Cabrillo and then we’ll point our noses toward Brownsville and start the process of getting me rebuilt. We did have an interest mail delivery. I finally got my medicare and medicare supplement cards, so I am now officially old!!! Other than that, we are still loving retirement.
