Baseball and Cracker Jacks

We have a friend of the family that I will call Randy...because his name is Randy.

He is from New Jersey, is old enough to have grand children, studies the racing forms, and loves to irritate conservatives. Basically, we have nothing in common with him. Still, he is one of our dearest friends.

Randy got two tickets for the Angels game Saturday night... because his Yankees were in town, and naturally he invited Patrick. I guess this would be considered a date. I don’t ask questions.

Since Patrick was abandoning us on a perfectly good Saturday night, I though the boys and I would have a little baseball fun of our own, and watch an evening game on TV. Much to my delight, the Padres were playing the Astros. While I am an Angels fan, my first love is, and always will be, the Padres.

I took this opportunity to start teaching the boys the rules of the game. They just finished up a 5-week baseball session offered through the city for young guys not yet old enough for little league. They loved it.

Vincent has a pretty decent attention span and loved practicing “groundies”.

Franklin bats both left and right handed...then runs directly to second base...no matter how many times you tell him to go to first. It’s a good thing he has such cute hair to look at as he runs the wrong way.

After getting Colette tucked in for the evening, we got into our pajamas and tore open some Cracker Jacks.

The prize was found.

Upon careful examination we all decided it would have been better if it were a tattoo.

I didn’t want to overwhelm them with too much information so I kept it simple and we worked on balls and strikes. By the end of the first few innings both boys could identify both as well as foul balls.

Vincent picked up on the fact that strikes were good when the Padres were pitching, but bad when they were at bat. Franklin kept repeating, “I like the Angels better.” He does this to spite me. He is the middle child...and a lot like his mother.

We cheered and high-fived when San Diego scored, and got anxious when Houston had runners on base. After the Padres won 6-3, the boys climbed into their beds and talked about baseball until they fell asleep.

It is too bad Patrick had a hot date.