Afterglow 2007 - Day 2 Sunday

"Official" Afterglow activities don't start until Monday, but that doesn't mean that we can't start our own activities without the creative input of Pete and Gail. We gathered our baseball stuff together and moseyed on up to the Afterglow baseball diamond. Jenny and Susie (left picture) came up to support their brothers/cousins in their practice session and cheered loudly from the bench. Tim took a couple of swings at the plate while the rest of his family patrolled the outfield. I'll bet Tim's guitar that this is the 1st time that Tim has swung a bat since last year at Afterglow. If I lose, so what? It's not like it's my guitar.

One thing that we found out while shagging fly balls at Afterglow is that this outfield is impossible. Boston's Fenway Park has it's Green Monster, Houston's Minute Maid Park has Tal's Hill and Minnesota's Metrodome has the right field "Baggie", but no outfield in baseball has such difficult conditions like this one. First off, the playing surface is rugged and uneven, making ground balls skip and hop in random directions. The outfield "wall" is the trees and a ball hit into them is still in play. The ground slopes up from home plate to the outfield, so judging a fly ball is almost impossible. The sun always shines directly into your face and the bees and flies pester you while you're trying to play. It has yet to happen, but there is always a possibility that a bear could come out of the woods and eat a player on the field. All of these things make the Afterglow baseball field the most dangerous and difficult field in all of baseball.

Uncle Rick came up to check on us, and instead of walking the short distance between cabin #6 and the baseball field, he took the motorbike. His cabin is right down the hill from the 1st base line, so it is inexcusable to use a motorized vehicle to go that short distance. Since I like Uncle Rick, think his laugh is hilarious, and love that he brought a drink (a roadie) with him on the bike, I'm going to let it slide.

Home

James is the closest thing that we have to a professional athlete here at Afterglow. Kids like Brian and Tommy are getting close, but James still owns them in every sport from baseball and basketball, to horseshoes and water sports. Since James does have prior baseball experience (he's played Cub Scout softball, Little League, and Adult softball) he's unanimously voted the MVP and batting practice pitcher. You might think that it is easy to pitch a softball, but there's a heck of a lot more skill involved than you think, especially when you are dealing with inexperienced hitters. James makes it look easy, much as he always does.

Brian's swing was affected by his mop of hair, so he tied it back with a bandanna to make himself more aerodynamic as he twisted his body. It was a good move, and within no time he was pounding balls into the trees and far beyond the reach of any lower level athlete. Brian is mostly known to his peers as a football player or a wrestler, but judging from what I've seen up here, he can add baseball player to his resume.