Who’s a Winner?

I am! Our baseball team won the spring Legends championship yesterday by a score of 8-5. For a long time, I had scored the only run for our team. In the bottom of the first inning, I bounced a base hit up the middle, stole first base on the first pitch, and scored on an RBI double by our #3 hitter. That made the score 2-1. The other team scored in the top of the 2nd to make it 3-1, and it stayed that way until the bottom of the 6th inning, when we struck for 4 runs. There is a four run limit through the sixth inning, and I contributed by grounding a ball to the hole between short and third, which the shortstop threw into the stands, scoring one run. I advanced to second on the throw, and scored on another grounder to shortstop. We scored three in the bottom of the seventh as well, before they managed to stop the bleeding with me scorching a liner… right to the third baseman. We weathered some rocky time in the top of the 8th, giving up two runs before getting out of the inning, and the umpires called the game there on account of the time limit. I had some decent plays in the field, including cutting down a runner trying to advance to third. I got a lucky bounce off some equipment by the bullpen, and he was out by a mile. We played a Pfitzner Stadium, which has much bigger dimensions than our usual field. It narrows to 315 down the lines, but that is deceiving, because they jag at an extreme angle to head out to 400 feet in center field. One guy actually managed to hit a ball over my head for the first time in recent memory, but I was able to hold him to a double, and he was stranded there. We got a little trophy for our efforts, and lots of fun was had by all, including the fans who got to sit in real seats instead of metal bleachers.
Last week, I entered a contest on the Z Recommends blog. They had “Fort Week” last week, and built a variety of forts with their daughter (many of which ended up being nurseries for dolls, to which I can relate). They ran a giveaway of Mr. McGroovy’s Rivets, which you use to make cardboard forts. The contest was to come up with new ideas for cardboard fort plans. My idea was simple enough: a lemonade stand. But the cincher was to point out the awesome charity Alex’s Lemonade Stand as a partner possibility. They liked my idea enough to give me second place, and honestly, I was shocked. The first place idea is so way better, building a dragon with movable parts. I think I get a box of rivets as my prize, so keep an eye out for future projects around here.