Stockton's Turn

For the past 5 years Stockton has watched Douglas play in game after game after game.  He has endured rain, cold and heat, mud and bugs, pokies and rocks, long days, late nights and port-a-potties. He has scaled backstops, trees and walls, cheered, snacked, practiced and dreamed.  He has traveled to Idaho, St. George, Steamboat Springs and Cooperstown all in the name of Douglas' baseball. All of those years prepared him for a journey of his own.  This past weekend he played in his first ever Super League tournament.  And to make it even more special, Douglas' team did not play so this weekend was ALL about Stockton.  We got double cheeseburgers at McDonald's, foot-longs at Subway, Five Guys and shakes. When we weren't eating we were playing baseball. 

The sun was shining, his uniform was crisp and clean, the dirt was dirty, the crowd was excited and I have to say I actually got a little choked up as the Horns took the field.  I LOVE baseball season and to watch my sweet middle guy be the one out there playing was so satisfying.  Even now I feel giddy remembering the events of the holiday weekend.  I was born to be a baseball mom!  I can't think of many places I would rather be with my sweetheart for Valentine's Day (okay, maybe Puerto Vallarta but that's about it)!

Our team is a new one just formed this past fall.  We have practiced in a warehouse.  Prior to St. George we had two outdoor practices.  That was it.  We won our first 4 games, 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday.  Stockton played short stop and pitched the best he ever has.  He turned a double play in the 4th game where he caught a line drive hit right back to him on the mound and threw out the kid who left 1st without tagging up.  He played like a champ!  We sailed on to the championship game on Saturday night where we faced a much more experienced and polished team from Snow Canyon.  They scored 6 in the first inning and never looked back.  The final score was 22-3.  So, we brought home another runner's up trophy and Stockton said, "Well, I guess I am officially an Orchard" (you really have to follow the link to understand the curse of the runner's up trophy!).

We were pretty cold by the end of the night.  Still, we needed to get a picture by "our" dugout.  The one that Douglas had been in many times when he's won his runner's up trophies.  The one I remembered posing by on more than one occasion.  See....

I am so excited for boy #2 to have this fun experience with.  And to think, I still have a boy #3.  For now, Russell and I take turns chasing him.  I took the first game.  He was adventurous, curious and oh so into everything.  I am happy to say he only made his way into the dugout once and I caught him before he was able to get onto the field!  Russell had him the second game where he slept the entire time #@&;*!  I really was happy for Russell:).  The next day I took the first game again and am happy to say that Russell had quite a time chasing him for his shift.  Game 3 of Saturday (championship game) our wonderful-best-ever friends that we stayed with while were there took him home, bathed him and put him to bed.  What a treat that was.  Thanks Mike and Kim!  We love you guys.

The only down part of the President's Day weekend was leaving Douglas home.  He wanted to go to young men's and practice on Thursday night, school on Friday and play in his last Jr. Jazz game of the season on Saturday.  Sadly, he sprained his ankle pretty bad in that game and has been hobbling around ever since.  We need to get him better before he plays in his first games of the year in Arizona the first weekend of March.  Stockton will be spectating at that one but come mid-March they both play in the same tournament in St. George.  We are guaranteed 8 games in 2 days with the possibility of 6 more if they both make it to championship game.  Let the season begin!  Let the curse of the runner's up trohpy end.  This is the year for a few #1's!  I LOVE THIS GAME!