Baseball Summers

It’s baseball season again…

Having three boys who enjoy sports, I spent many years at baseball fields, watching or coaching. All three boys played from the age of about five until sometime in High School.

Some days there were overlapping games, where Mom would take someone one way, and Dad took the others the other way. For a few years, two boys may have played in the same league and, importantly, on the same field or complex. During these times, all efforts were made to get them on the same team – but that didn’t always go our way.

When they migrated to the 13+ level (middle school and early high school), the basepaths got longer and playoff and multi-town tournaments were added. When they advanced to the lext level (High School ball), games were often at schools in far-away towns. In these cases, they traveled to and from games on the team school bus (no more Mom or Dad taxi), but it was good, whenever possible, to get to as many games myself to watch them play.

There was nothing more exciting than watching them advance to the ages of young men, full of strength and power, playing at a level well beyond anything I ever did. In my mind, I wondered whether if I could hit a ball pitched by my son or field one of their hits, knowing full well that that scenario was best left unplayed.

Those were transformative years, watching them become adults, no longer fully dependent on their parents.

The rest of this story is simply photos and videos of the boys playing baseball with some commentary from my vantage point. If you knew the boys then, it is entertaining to see their development and growth over these years. If you only recently met them, it’s fun to see them in a different way. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did putting it together.

Early Years:

A certain level of the boys’ impatience grew each spring, warranting indoor practices, even if only to work on form and appearences 🙂 (use the arrows to scroll through the photos)

Brendan made the Major League’s all-star team in 2005.

Opening Day 2006. A little bit older and wiser…Brendan and Evan are again on each other’s Majors (10-12) team! And Liam moved up from T-Ball to the Minors (8-10)

The 2006 season saw a leap of development and ability for all boys:

2007 was Brendan’s last year in the Majors, before heading up to the 13 year old leagues (Babe Ruth). That year, Evan and Brendan were on the championship Cardinals team:

Growing up:

2007 saw Brendan jump up to the Babe Ruth level (13+), where the base paths grew to official 90-foot length and the pitcher’s mound was the official 60 feet, 6 inches. Those first few games on the bigger field were a struggle, but they adapted. These photos are from the 2007 Babe Ruth Fall league (use the arrows to scroll through the photos)

A year later, Evan joined Brendan in the ranks of the 13+ Babe Ruth league:

Here we have a video of Brendan and Evan playing in a high school Wood Bat Summer league, 2010

Another clip of Brendan and Evan in the Wood Bat League, 2010

In 2011, Brendan’s High School team got to play a game in a Nashua Minor League field, Holman Stadium. Brendan played first base (the ultimate lefty position)…

I hope to find more pictures of all three boys playing in high school. Liam played for a little while but spent more time playing soccer during those years.

Just to be fair to Liam, here is a clip of him playing soccer in 2010:

Since we are talking about Summers and Baseball, here are a few shots of the boys at Fenway. We had Season Tickets from 2004-2009 and had a lot of great memories there (scroll through the photo with the arrows).

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