The bats start crackin' in about a month, so it's time to wrap this up! This is the last sports highlight post before I post pictures from summer trips!
Reggie's baseball season was interrupted by a hip flexor injury. He sat on the bench for half of the season. The injury happened from his off-season football workouts and was probably related to a stress fracture in his femur that was discovered in an x-ray after it had healed on it's own. Yeah, you read that right. He broke his leg at some point last fall or winter and wrestled through it. This kid won't stop.
There wasn't much footage from the Freshman season. So, I included a full uncut at-bat in it. Reggie operates under the mantra "Get on base, any way!" One of his baseball skills is driving up the pitch count and rattling the pitcher. In this particular at-bat, he drew it out 7 pitches for a walk, then managed to turn that walk into a run. Another skill he has is leaning a little into the pitch and taking the hit. So when you're coming off injury, the swing's a little rusty, and you're running a little slow, use what you've got!
One fun hightlight was Reggie played against a friend he has had since preschool! They play in a backyard wiffleball league in the summer!
Reggie had a good season of playing on the WAA 14AAA team. His team was mostly the same players as his 13AAA team, and it was the same coaches. They won their bracket in the post season tournament and participated in two state tournaments.
Reggie is a center fielder and also played right field. I believe one of the Reggie's greatest baseball skills is his patience when he is at bat. While a lot of 14 year old boys feel they must slug anything near the strike zone, Reggie is perfectly content with wearing the pitcher down. He brings the pitch count up by letting balls go by him and fouling off pitches he doesn't like. He also takes to heart that the goal is to get on base and is not afraid of leaning into a pitch on occasion. He racked up 6 hit-by-pitches over the season!
At the close of the video, you will see their last game of the seaon got rained out and they had a little fun playing football in the outfield as it rained. The last frame shows this was his sunset season for travel ball, but he's not quite ready to hang up his cleats. He's planning to tryout for the highschool team in just a couple months!
I made it through 2023 with all the "news" but I still have a handful of highlight videos to post from summer and fall sports.
In celebration of Reggie's first baseball practice of the 2024 season, I am posting his highlights from the 2023 season! He had his first practice last night!
Last summer was Reggie's first summer playing WAA (city league) travel baseball. We've bounced around a lot with baseball. This next season, he will play with basically the same teammates and coaches.
Reggie mostly played center field and also did some pitching, third base, and left field. Despite a patchy season, the team managed to advance to both state tournaments. But the big travel tournament of the season was to Wisconsin Dells.
We've had an unusually mild winter, but I have to admit that putting this video together has made me very eager for spring! I will always love a summer evening at the ballpark, and watching my boy play makes it even better!
Reggie aged out of Little League so we had to try something new this year. We decided to do the Oakdale Athletic Association's traveling baseball club, because it was too late to sign up for something in Woodbury. Reggie made the 13U AA team.
It was...different. We quickly came to learn that the team, for the most part, had been playing together for years and years. Some of the boys had some skills and earned their spots on the team, and others were there because it had always been that way. The parents definitely enjoyed getting together for a few beers, and it was a bit of a social club. We've never been a part of a team where the kids were so...coddled. The kids would lose some games and a parent would show up to practice with new sunglasses, or hats, or baseball socks for everyone. One parent took the whole team out to Applebee's. Not because they won (they didn't) but because they had good attitudes (they didn't).
Baseball is my favorite sport to spectate, hands down. The season was good - as in not as bad as little league was last year - but there wasn't much winning. I drew the short straw and got to take Reggie to his out of town/overnight tournament on the hottest weekend of the summer. I bribed Brett to come with us, and it turned out that we had fun. Reggie's team did some winning and placed 2nd, earning a spot in a state tournament. They were quickly eliminated in the state tournament. They won their bracket of the end of season playoffs. But that's not so exciting when you know you are playing in the bottom bracket.
Reggie has been mostly playing at centerfield for a few years now and we are sure it is the position that plays to his strengths the best.
Woodbury is a bit of a culture shock...one example is that they already had try-outs and formed teams in September. Reggie made the 13U AAA team (insert eyeroll). So if anyone wants to find me in May, June, or July of '23, I'll be sitting in my camp chair along the 1st baseline snacking on dried mangos or pull-n-peel twizzlers.
Like everything else, Reggie's birthday was different this year. We are almost always in Green Bay for training camp on his birthday. We didn't make the trip this year. On his birthday, we had cheeseburgers and cake.
That week, he was also able to have two friends over to play baseball, have a water balloon fight, and eat pizza. One friend lives in the neighborhood and they play baseball together, so we see them regularly. Reggie hadn't seen his other friend since March even though he only lives a couple miles away.
Reggie is the first of our kids to topple over 100 pounds, though he is still a couple inches shorter than Brett. He has lost all his baby teeth, so he got braces on his bottom teeth this summer. He also got glasses. He just barely needed glasses, but I got them anyway. It was worth the forty bucks to me for him to not be teasing Lydia mercilessly because she actually did need glasses. Reggie hardly ever actually wears his glasses and I don't care. My plan worked!
Reggie had some fun playing a little baseball this summer. His team wasn't very good, but it was nice to get some games in anyway. He accomplished his goal of hitting a ball over the fence. Bryan was at the game, so I missed seeing it. He got to sign the dugout and keep the ball. It wasn't long before he hit another one over the fence during practice. I saw it, but pretended I didn't. He came to the car after practice with an enthusiastic "Mom, did you see my hit?" I responded, "What hit?" His jaw dropped, but I couldn't keep a straight face for long! For the rest of the season, he was legendary to his teammates...and he lavished every minute of it.
Reggie is fun-loving, high-energy, and fearless. He is an early riser and wakes up each day ready to take on any challenge. He can be a real pill sometimes, and it still feels like everything with Reggie is full-blast. But beyond all the noise and crashing, he is gentle and kind. Yes, I feel very blessed to be his mom.
This year's baseball season was quite a surprise. I have probably written before that our goal with kids' activities are that they will (1) have fun (2) experience some success and (3) be challenged. With three very different children, we end up trying a lot of different things - some we wish we hadn't - and some we get really excited about.
We decided to switch from our city's athletic club baseball to the Little League in our area because third grade would have been another year of machine pitch and Reggie would have been bored. Reggie made the move with 3 of his baseball buddies and their dads who all have been coaching them.
We had no idea what to expect or how Little League worked, so there were some definite growing pains. The commitment level went from 2 or 3 nights a week (for practice and a game) to 3 nights a week plus tournaments on the weekends. So June was immediately booked, but we thought that would be the end. It wasn't! The all-star season was intense and exciting but it blew up the whole month of July. Five or six days a week of baseball - either practice or games. Bryan was the assistant coach, so he had a lot more responsibilities than just setting up a carpool.
So this is the way Little League works. All kids who register play the regular season on teams where there is an attempt to spread abilities evenly among teams (no try-outs). There is a Major league (typically 11 and 12-year-olds, but some 10-year-olds "play up") and a Minor league (typically 9 and 10-year-olds, but some kids "play up" or "play down"). This year, Reggie played on the Minor league (also called International league) Red Sox. Towards the end of the regular season, the coaches get together and put together all star teams for post-season play. 9U played an extra tournament, 10U and 11U can advance to state-level, and it's the 12U team that moves on to a regional tournament (ours - Midwest - is 8 states) and ultimately the Little League World Series.
Reggie was on the Parkway 10U team. Unfortunately, his buddies were on the 9U team, but he made new friends! First, they competed in a district tournament and took 1st place undefeated. It was first time any team from Parkway had won at the district tournament. Parkway 10U moved on to the state tournament. It was a four-team double-elimination bracket. They won their first two games, so they went into the championship game undefeated against a team they had already beat once. The other team had to win, but if Parkway lost, we would play them again. The other team won 0-8! It was Parkway 10U's only loss, and their natural consequence was they had to go back and play again the next day - in the rain. It was worth it, because Parkway 10U pulled it off and came home with the title of state champion!
During the regular season, Reggie played a lot of different positions, but mostly 3rd base. On the all-star team, he played centerfield the entire time. It's a good fit for him, because he's fast and can throw far! Parkway hit two homeruns in the post-season. They were in the same game. Another kid hit the ball over the fence. Then Reggie hit an in-the-park homerun (6:21 in the video). Reggie really wanted to hit one out of the park this year, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year!
Little League, in our state - and elsewhere, has struggled to compete with "traveling" leagues which entice city athletic programs with flashy tournaments. We would have likely fallen into this space in an attempt to have Reggie in a league that challenged him, but traveling doesn't start until 4th grade. I think we will stick with Little League tho.
This highlight video got really long. I started it during the regular season and then just kept adding and adding to it! A couple of moms on the teams are talented photographers and shared pictures with me. It was hard to edit out four months worth of pictures and videos! And please notice that it's not all about Reggie - it's something we did together as a family. Bryan coached. We were there with our friends and made new ones. And extended family came out to cheer, too! Brett and Lydia made friends, helped with the scoreboard, flag, and announcements, ate concessions, played on the playgrounds, took naps, and played video games under ponchos!
The ballpark is a great place to spend the summer.😎
