Wiffle Ball Tournament

Here is my weekend recap from last weekend. It took me a little time to get to it, but I have been busy, plus I have had a couple of postings saved up. Friday night I came home and had dinner at my brother, Dan's. We watched the Brewer game and played the cup game with his kids, Josh and Abby. I also go in a little Fitness Wii. I am addicted to the ski jump game. Although I will tell you it makes a huge difference to have the board facing the right direction and also calibrated for your weight. One very disappointing thing about the Wii was that when it did the fitness test on me, it said that based on the tests I took, I have the body of a 54 year old. While my body often feels like it is 54, I would like to think it doesn't look like it. But I have been wrong before. Saturday morning was the 2nd Annual Legends Wiffleball Tournament. My high school friend, Mike Braun, hosts a wiffleball tournament at his parents place. Last year was a blast and there wasn't a chance that I was going to miss it this year. The rain held off and it ended up being a beautiful day. We played best of 3 and then switched up teams. I was on the losing end of the first best of 3. I think the games were 12-13, 39-15 and 20-37. Or somewhere in that range. We then switched up teams to be the Gehreds vs. the Brauns/Klosendorfs. I was on the Gehred team. We won both games. And in the first game I pitched a complete game and only gave up 7 runs. Which was the lowest number of runs given up in any game. We played 5 games in 7 hours. It was just like being a little kid all over again. Although it was disappointing to me that I did not have the home run power that everyone else seemed to have. I think I only hit 3 out all day. After the games we grilled out by the pool. Unfortunately I had to leave when the Home Run Derby started. But as the day light was being lost to the night, and the beer was starting to run out, it appeared that the level of play was running out as well. Saturday night was TT's wedding. I made an appearance. I am still in shock that TT is now married. It was the first time I had seen TT in about 2 years. When I did get a chance to talk to him, I told him that he needs to make himself available for sheepshead more often. He informed me that it is hard to do that as he is working 6 days a week. I said "Big deal. I am working 5 days a week." He called me an idiot and said that it isn't the same. Good to see that TT hasn't changed. Sunday I was extremely sore. It was spent on the couch falling asleep while watching the Brewer game. Here are the pictures.

Part of the history behind the wiffleball tournament is that Mike's older brothers used to play all of the time. Every year before the tournament they have a ceramony that they perform. When they were kids, and Thurman Munson died, they took his baseball card, put it in a shoe box and buried it out in the woods behind their house. So now we go out to that spot before the tournament and place a flower on the shoe box grave. Here is Joe giving the speech and note the flower in his hand.Braun brothers, Paul and Bill were captains for the first best of 3 series. Oh and here is a little side note, I was picked dead last when we picked teams. I was the uncoordinated fat kid.Here is Paul going yard. Here is Jon bringing the heat to Joe. It was 97 feet down the left field line, 100 feet to dead center, and a short 88 foot poke down the right field line due to the flower beds just beyond the fence.
Here is Bob (my old roommate from college) about to give Mr. Spalding a ride.Bob finishing up his trip around the bases after yet another home run. I think it was either Bob or his brother in law, Brad, who finished first in the number of home runs. Mike and Paul weren't far behind.
Joe with a mighty swing and a miss. There were two strike outs on the day and the kid who was picked last didn't have either of them.

I learned in the one game that I pitched that if you made a mistake and got the middle of the plate with any pitch it was instantly over the fence. I think I grooved 6 pitched by accident over the plate, 4 of them ended up in the trees. The key is tight inside on the right handed hitters and way outside to the lefties. It is just like they say when you watch the Brewers and they say "The pitcher made a mistake and left it out over the plate, and the batter made him pay." Those words ring true for wiffleball as well. On a final note about the wiffleball tournament, yes Borky, I know we play with the fat bats and we aren't real men like those that are in your wiffleball league. We suck compared to you, so I will save you the time of actually typing it out.
I didn't have my camera out too much at the wedding. In fact this is the only picture I took. TT and Papa Preston.