aberdeen

over the july 4th weekend cj’s baseball team traveled to aberdeen, md to play in a tournament at the ripken baseball academy. chris & timmy had to stay behind for work and another baseball tournament here at home so the other 3 boys and i rode with another mom and 2 of her 4 kids. it was a fun time, there was lots of bonding in close quarters and all the kids did really well.
(it turns out that the little sister in this family is in zachary’s class next year so i’m glad they got the chance to connect – they are now fast friends, which made the rest of the season so much more enjoyable!)

we drove up on friday – the first game wasn’t until the next day so the coaches took the boys to see the facilities.

there is a replica of camden yard (the boys are sitting on the dugout)

zachary calls this the ‘real baseball’ field
the boys played 2 games here

they also have replicas of fenway
(practicing playing off the green monster)

memorial
(note concrete dugouts – momorial stadium was the first major leage ballpark to me constructed entirely from reinforced concrete)

and wrigley

complete with a rooftop deck
and ivy on the back fence

it was h.o.t.
temps well into the 100’s

lots of ice and water
wet towels and spray bottles

we were lucky enough to have 8am games every day
(something i never expected to be thankful for)
but in the afternoons we erected ‘tent city’
otherwise the heat would have been unbearable

there was lots of good baseball
and good fun to be had

it was amazing to watch the boys play in the ‘real baseball’ field
they seemed so small
and yet so grown-up
they had the whole afternoon off on saturday
one of cj’s teammates’ family adopted him for the day
he got to go to the aquarium and the harbor