The Rookie Year - 1985 Whittier Little League AAA Royals

This is the year my passion for baseball hit a new level: 1985. When the season began, I was 8 years old. My parents had asked me the previous year or two if I wanted to play and I had always said no, mainly because I was shy and wasn't sure about the whole thing. Finally they really urged me to try it, and good thing I did!

I think this year was also a blessing in a couple of ways. First of all, I had never played in a league before and had no idea what to expect. Secondly, while most of my friends were at the AA level, I started off at AAA, which is the next level above AA. Finally, it was a blessing in disguise, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I don't remember a whole lot about this season. After all, it was 25 years ago. (Man, that's a long time ago...am I really that old?!) And now, into the memories...

There is one game I remember. I played second base that year and I loved it. I had no problems playing the infield. I have no idea how I got chosen to play there, but that's irrelevant. In one game, I remember ball after ball getting hit to me in the game. I know there were at least 10, and keep in mind we only played 6 innings. Each one I fielded cleanly, threw to first and got the runner out. It was a great game and I remember my parents being proud of me after that game.

Another memory was the the game our own catcher shoved our pitcher at home plate when he was trying to tag out the runner coming home. Needless to say, we threw our own catcher out of the game. The catcher's name was Thomas Ebbitt, or something like that. It's just one of those things I randomly remember.

The next thing, I don't remember, but my parents have reminded me of frequently, was that our coach quit part way through the season. I think that's a sign that the season was less than ideal for a rookie Little Leaguer.

Another memory was our opening day game. Believe it or not, that first game is still the worst defeat of any team I have ever been on (part of the blessing in disguise). We lost that first game 32-2! That's right, 32-2!!! We were blown out many times during our 20 games that year, which brings me to the main reason this season was a blessing in disguise. Of the 20 games we played, we LOST ALL 20! This was a blessing in couple of ways. First, if I still liked the game after a horrible season like that, you know it was part of me, possibly in my DNA, to love baseball. Secondly, no matter how long I played baseball, I could never be on a team that did worse. I had nowhere to go but up. And that is certainly the way things went.

Below I have posted some pictures from that season and a little caption explaining each one. Enjoy!

Here is my first baseball picture!

Here is our team waiting to get our team picture taken.

Here is the team picture from that year.

This is me. For what it's worth, I wore #5.

Here I am swinging at a pitch, and you can actually see the ball coming. Looks like it was going to be a strike.

Getting down and dirty...sliding into 3rd base. I love the action shot! Not bad form for a rookie.

I scored!

Back in the Day...A New Series

I was just taking a shower when a thought occurred to me about what I could talk about on here! Since Courtney has started her first year in softball, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of the memories I have from playing baseball. I started in 1985 with Whittier Little League and played all the way through high school (1994) and even in a few adult leagues since. However, I haven't played since before we had kids. In other words I haven't played in over 6 years. I would love to play again, but it's expensive and would take up most of my Sundays.

This year is the 4th year that La Serna is having their alumni vs. varsity game. The only problem is that it has fallen on the weekend of Courtney's birthday every year, and this year it's on her birthday, which is when her party is. Maybe eventually I'll get to play; it sounds like a lot of fun. I am out of shape, but I wouldn't mind working into a little better shape for that. It would be so much fun.

So in starting this new mini-series on my blog, I'm hoping to post pictures of me and/or my teams from as many years as possible. I have memories from most of the years I played from my first home run to teammates mooning cars behind us as we rode home from a JV game in high school without the coach on board. If this sounds interesting, keep coming back. I'm not sure how often I'll post, but I'm hoping to post fairly often. We'll see if time permits that.

February? Already?

Man is time flying! I can't believe it is February and we are already halfway through the Steinman birthdays. Skyler's was Jan 13 and Traci's was Wednesday. Next up is Courtney's in a couple of weeks. However, first comes Valentine's Day in just over a week. It'll be kind of weird because it falls on a Sunday this year. Oh well.

In the midst of all the normal February birthday festivities, Courtney is starting her rookie season in softball with Whittier Girls Softball. I'm looking forward to seeing her play. Unfortunately I can't make it to any of the practices as they start at 5:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll get home about the time they end. At least when they have weekend games, I can make it to those. I'm so excited to see her play. I've had fun teaching her and Skyler how to play. I knew I would have fun teaching them, but I don't think I realized how much I would enjoy it. I wish I could do that everyday, but I don't get home until it's dark during the week. We just need to take advantage of the weekends when we can. It'll rain most of this weekend, but we might be able to practice a little on Sunday before the Super Bowl. Monday represents her first practice and I really wish I could be there. I'm sure she will have fun and make even more friends.

I'm really excited about how well Traci is doing with her weight loss. She has now dropped 45 pounds overall. She has passed what I lost with Weight Watchers a while back (40 pounds...although it's all come back). It's exciting to see her do so well and remain so motivated. I don't think I've seen her this determined with something before. It's pretty cool!

Something I'm proud of is that since I made my return to work on December 8, I have not missed a day! I keep thinking that it would be cool if I actually had perfect attendance this year since I've never had perfect attendance with anything before. Then again, I have two kids who are both in school and a wife who seems close to becoming a sub at the preschool. My chances are slim to none. Guess I better enjoy it while I can.

Also, today was my first meeting with members of the RLT (Refinery Leadership Team), aka the big wigs. Ok, so actually only one was there as well as a few of my colleagues and bosses. it went really well though. I'm glad to get that first one over with.; especially since I get to do it again next month.

I'm getting excited about this time of the year. Although our finances remain extremely tight and we somehow manage to make it paycheck to paycheck, it is just about time for us to get our breathing room. I'll be receiving my bonus in exactly one month, which as of right now is 11% of my salary. There is one more element to be calculated in and I have a feeling it will bring it down slightly. I'm not worried about that since I get a bonus at all in these time. It's also tax time which we'll get around to doing later this month. I'm not sure how much to expect back, but it will be nice no matter how much.

Our family is now down to 2 Disneyland passes since mine expired in November and Skyler's expired on her birthday. Courtney's comes due next month so we'll be covering those three with my bonus/taxes or at least that's the plan right now. We made a list of things we need and would like with our extra money upcoming. Property taxes top the list since that's a necessity. The passes are on there as I mentioned, and we also are planning to get a camera since we haven't had one since Christmas morning. I think we'll be upgrading slightly from what we had, but not spending a ton.

I guess I should head to bed since it's almost 2:00AM. After all, we need to get up at 6:30 to get the girls ready for school. Naptime!