Parr8hed

That wasn't your f150 in the first pic was it? Is your truck OK?

I would love to comment on this, but he and her mom were just so sweet I cannot bring myself to do it!

yep!

Ha! That's the funny part, Riley is not even a pitcher. She plays 3rd and SS.

I shall do this.

A while back when Emmy was getting started we were looking on the youtubes a lot for drills and things. I saw this video that had gone viral on the facebooks. Riley has a very non-traditional softball swing. Her mom talked a lot about the video and how it all came about. But because of it Riley has become somewhat of a sensation on the interwebs. She has numerous opportunities for employment teaching, on line coaching, etc. Sadly she cannot do any of it right now until she graduates. (she is a senior). She is engaged to a pro baseball player and just last week she got drafted by the Peppers to play pro softball. Anyways, she has a bright future ahead of her to play a few more years and then teach and/or coach. She is a very polarizing personality. She will do great at whatever she choses.

She completely spazzed out when Riley wanted to follow her on IG. Of course I posted a photo and tagged Riley and Emmy and Riley replied. Emmy spazzed out again. This is the good part of social media.

We do the same. Emmy pitches a high of about 55 (doesn't sound all that fast to a baseball guy!) and she has a couple teammates that throw in the lowe 40's. That's a huge difference at 40 feet. We utilize that exact same strategy to get lots of easy grounders and/or pop ups depending on which pitcher.

Friday I got off work and we scooped up one of Emmy's good friends and headed the Explorer west to the land of Mizzou and SEC softball. After 5.5 hours in the car (and waving at @JerrySTL ) we rolled into Columbia at about 23:00. This made me feel exhausted. Sat we got up late. There was no waffle batter for the waffle makin' machine. This made me angry. There was lots of coffee. This made me happier. We got to the game way early. Emmy got to see her idol Riley warming up. She yelled at her and waved. Riley smiled and waved back. This made me happy. In the 4th inning we were walking around and stopped at the rail to see Riley up at bat. She hit a hard shot that went up the 3rd baseman's glove and finally got fielded by SS with no play. Base hit (they were hard to come by this game). A lady that looked surprisingly like Riley saw Emmy cheering and asked what happened. Apparently she could not watch he daughter up at bat Emmy talked to her for about 10 minutes before she figured out that it was Riley's mother. She had been following R's instagram and knew that there was a family driving from Indiana to see her. She asked Emmy if that was us. We sat there and chatted with her for like 30 minutes. It was incredible. She talked to Emmy about pitching. Talked to us about raising ball players. Truly a sweet person. She told Emmy where to wait after the game and promised a meet up. This made me feel optimistic. After the game Riley came out and could not have been sweeter. She hung around for 15 minutes or so. She didn't just answer questions and take a quick pic, she asked Emmy all kinds of questions. She introduced us to her parents and brother. She hugged Em several times and even took a selfie with her on her own phone. Then the ultimate compliment to any youngster, she followed Emmy on Instagram. This made me feel so happy that I almost teared up. She left to board her plane and we drove back home arriving about 9:30 pm. This made me feel so happy but exhausted again. Sunday we ate Easter food and put up the kid's new basket ball goal. This made me feel accomplished. The end

Oh yea. Like seeing our girls on Emmy's travel team face a good B pitcher and then go down and try to hit off a weaker C pitcher. No need to call 1's and 2's because everything is a changeup! Sometimes more speed is NOT the answer!

man, I am really sorry to hear about this. I wish I could offer up any help. What about a catheter?

It's 4/20 Is anyone going to smoke the reefer?

Hi. I will make it good by cleaning all of the blood that I can today. Then I will get the hell away from work.

Thanks for the read. I appreciate it. Let me offer another perspective.... When I accompanied G's race team to Chattanooga for training camp one of the dads went. This dude looked fit as hell. Used to race. Doesn't look like he ever took any time off the bike. His kid was one of the faster kids there. They were in the 15-17 year old range and several were being recruited to ride for colleges (2 have since signed). This dude was fit as hell and could not keep up with his son on climbs. He bought an e bike, It was a drop bar roadie. Completely freaking built. Zipp bars, King hubs, etc.. I think it was a Giant? Anyways, he bought it because it allowed him to still be able to ride with his son. That settled any debate for me.