Wiffleball

 

The 4th of July was on a Tuesday, and the guys had the day off work. We decided we'd get an extra edition of pickleball in ... but apparently we weren't the only ones with that thought. The eight courts at Constitution Park were completely packed, as were the ones at Ron Woods. The baseball diamond however, was available, and Landon had been wanting to try some wiffleball ...

We were missing Cal&Kate, and while Gray had joined us for the pickleball attempt, he had since jogged home, getting in his workout for the day. So I filmed the four Blackham Brothers as they got some wiffle in ... hitting the ball, catching, stealing bases. Landon and Cooper both ended up with some skinned knees, but there was a lot of laughter, as often happens when these guys hang out together. 

https://youtu.be/wr5TlgeF4v0

Baseball Boy

Baseball is a sport the original Blackham boys (Gray, Kolby and Clay) had grown up with, but this generation hadn't tried it out yet. Callahan and Keaton had done a season or two of t-ball, and Keaton had shown some skills, so I wanted to see how he did in baseball.
We signed up with the West Jordan PONY League and were thrilled to get onto the same team as our neighbor (that helped a LOT with carpooling). The season was a bit more intense than I had anticipated, with many practices and 18 season games.
Batting proved to be one of the challenges for Keaton, but he did get a couple good hits. He got some great catches, and the highlight of it all was a TRIPLE-PLAY! Keaton caught the ball, tagged a runner trying to get back to 2nd, then threw the ball to first to get the runner out there before he could get back to base.

Here's the team ... Coaches Andy and Danny ... Ryker, Jared, James Jeremy ... Keaton, Brandon, Jackson, Devon, Jake, Tanner and Jacob. The season started a little rough, we lost the first four games and that was a bit discouraging (we happened to face the top teams right off the bat). Then we went on a winning streak, and came back to win several of the teams that had beaten us originally. The Angels finished in fourth place. In the tournament, we had to face the #1 early on ... and we actually triumphed in that game! We got to play in the championship game and came in 2nd place in the tournament.
I spent most of the season pacing the outfield fence during the games. I could usually get in five miles during one game! Sometimes the little boys would come and watch ... and throw the ball around too ... future baseball players you think?