Friday, April 20, 2012

2 Daytime Games and a Roadtrip


On Sunday we attended what was my first daytime Legends game. Perfect baseball weather followed by a perfect farmers sunburn. I was pretty exhausted, having worked all night and gone from work to church to the game; and Clinton was sick, but it was our Kyle's home opener as a pitcher and neither of us was missing that for anything. We actually got to see all three of our guys play Sunday and that was very cool. Wednesday was an insanely early game..10 in the morning. It was Education Day for the Legends and there were dozens of school buses in the parking lot plus thousands of children in the stands. The ratio of kids versus adults attending this game was unreal. I had fun with Clinton's professional camera and ended up take 889 pictures. Yes..that's right. Just under 900 pictures of a single game. I wasn't randomly snapping pics, I was trying to get the very best shots of each guy to be able to send to them and their families. I love hearing from all the friends and families as they discover my pictures...love it!

I heard from Alex's family this week, and I'm looking forward to meeting them in person sometime :) They are very proud of him and they should be! He is a great kid with this amazing personality. All 3 of our guys are so different from each other but each awesome in their own right. Before the season,  I wondered which players we would get and wondered if they would like us, if they would be friendly guys, and so on. All I can tell you is that we have been blessed :) We spent time with all three on Wednesday during the Away Game Sendoff, talking fantasy baseball leagues, current and past ballplayers, and oh yeah...baseball! Lol. It is Clinton's very favorite subject. I spent time with the camera, trying to get shots of each of the host moms with their players.

Our goodie bags this week were sweetened up with my homemade chocolate chip banana bread, and blueberry cheesecake muffins. I made more of the pretzel white chocolate m n' m mix, because Alex said they were a hit last time. I had some giftcards to Subway a good friend gave us so I got each of the boys a big sub of their choice to go with their bags of snacks  (peanuts, chips, granola bars, sunflower seeds, trail mix, crackers, etc) I also told them their was a prize in their bags but they had to find it lol ( it was an itunes giftcard for the road). So far the most requested items for their bags has been drinks (powerade and gatorade), fruit, and lunch meat w/bread to make sandwiches. I am going to try to buy a small cooler before our next away games, to be able to provide more of that lunch type stuff to go with them. The guys told me that lunch is an issue on road trip, and that not having to buy lunch would help a lot.

I wasn't able to listen to the radio tonight but a
quick congratulations to Alex for his RBI, Kyle for the great win at Kannapolis and to Jason for getting a save two nights in a row!!!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Alex's First Homestand as a Lexington Legend






















Welcome to the Family





Welcome to our family..to our host players Jason Chowning, Alex Todd, and Kyle Hallock. Our kids are mighty glad you are here!

This weekend was the first homestand of the season for the 2012 Legends. On Thursday we were able to see Alex play shortstop and Jason Pitch. Friday we saw Alex again on short but on Sunday it was all 3 of our boys together... Alex on 2nd, Kyle the starting pitcher, and Jason pitching as well. How exciting!

Friday was just an awesome, awesome night. What a night!  The man of the hour was  Alex Todd, who ended the extra innings game with a walk off homer - an amazing hit! The kids were so proud of their host brother and loved meeting their other host brothers..Jason Chowning, and Kyle Hallock as well. :) P.S. thanks Jason , for refusing to autograph their foreheads like they asked :) I appreciate that! :)

Having the kids get to meet the guys after the game was so touching. We brought two neighborhood boys, neither of which had never even been to a baseball game before. They, along with my youngest son and my niece cheered hard for Alex during the game and couldn't wait to meet them all afterwards. Noah (my 10yr old) was amazed at how tall the players all seemed, and was pleased to claim that Alex and Jason even look like him, lol. He said Kyle looks more like me. Ah..the silliness of youth!

Kyle was very sweet to all of the kids, and took the time to talk to them. Jason was his usual fun loving self and later, when he realized that two of the kids didn't end up with game balls, he went inside and got a ball for each of them and he was the first to autograph the balls for them.  All of the kids had quite the story to tell when they went back to school today. One of the neighborhood boys claimed it was the greatest day of his life and he is going to be a pitcher like Kyle and Jason someday.

Now that the players are home, they are getting settled into their new places and I'm in waiting mode..to see what they need for their apartments. I was able to send home food on Thursday and Friday for each of them. I sent my homemade chocolate coca cola cake, and my lasagna casserole. I made sure to send huge portions because every minor league players usually comes attached to a little something called roommates and I wanted there to be enough to share.


Congratulations to Alex for His Walk off Homer to End the Extra Innings Game!

(WHITAKER BANK BALLPARK, Lexington,Ky.) Alex Todd's home run in the bottom of the 11th inning gave the Lexington Legends a 6-5 win over the Kannapolis Intimidators Friday night at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.
Todd, who had three hits in the game, drove a pitch from Kannapolis reliever Steve McCray over the bleachers in left field to win it for the Legends, who had trailed 3-0 until they rallied with five runs in the sixth inning.

See the rest of the article here...  Legends Official Recap

Alex is in the top 5 on the team in Avg, OBP, RBI, HR, and SLG. .. He is #2 in Slugging percentage! Way to go Alex!

Jason pitching vs the Kannapolis Intimidators