Baseball Weekend

 Nikolai ready to cross home plate.

By Allan Olson
It’s finally here – baseball season, my favorite of all sports and I spent Saturday watching the game in the great outdoors. This was not in my original plans for the weekend, actually my original plans were geocaching in International Falls, while my wife and girls were at a baby shower – but plans change.
When the schedule originally came out for baseball and I noticed the tournament I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to make it, but in the same respect, I was excited I was going to be geocaching instead. However as seems to be the usual course of action in my life lately – plans changed. On Thursday morning, I found out Nikolai was being drafted for varsity baseball for the weekend due to lack of numbers on the varsity team. (Disclaimer – before anyone thinks this is about bragging my son’s skills up –it’s not. Actually, his skill level isn’t that great, but he shows up and participates to the best of his ability. As for his skill level, I will take part of the blame because I didn’t work with him in his younger years or much off season either.) So with discussion with my wife it was quite evident that there was no way that I could continue with my plans – so I decided I was going to watch my favorite baseball team -  Cass Lake-Bena Panthers.
Friday after we eventually got home from school I set kids to do some cleaning and did some myself, since I knew it was going to be a short weekend to do much of anything. The girls as usual were pokey and didn’t get much done, Marcus did what I asked him after much messing around and finally informing him that he wouldn’t be going to watch baseball if he didn’t.
Saturday morning, bright and early (4:30 a.m.) I was wide awake waiting for my alarm to go off – in another hour. Finally, I gave up and got up about 5 a.m. and then woke the boys as well. Somehow we managed to shower, eat and get ready to go without waking the girls – a rare accomplishment. I dropped Nikolai off at the bus before 7 a.m. and Marcus and I made a stop for some goodies at Teal’s and then hit the road. Enroute to Park Rapids, I finished my nice caffeinated tea – about 40 oz worth – and it didn’t even take the edge off my sleepiness. So before we watched baseball, we headed to grab something a little stronger.
I’m not sure what I was thinking, I looked at the forecast and it promised to be a nice day, I didn’t pay attention to the current temp or the wind, so I ordered an iced coffee. As I was standing in the wind, taking pictures of the game, wearing winter hat and my Carhart, I thought about what I was drinking and realized it probably wasn’t my brightest move of the week.
The Panthers had a good rally going in the final inning in the seventh inning which allowed my Nikolai to score from second after getting on base with a walk and then advanced by the next two hitters. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for the home team and we lost the second of three games.
During the break in between games, Marcus and I went in search of a geocache, he did some Pokemon Go and we had a bite to eat at one of the local places.
The third game of the weekend wasn’t any better for the home team and it ended too quickly and Nikolai didn’t get on the field. However, most importantly he enjoyed his time with the team.
Saturday night, I headed to bed really early, exhausted after a long week and a long day outside. Sunday morning, the girls made a couple trips to take of the neighbor’s dog again and got into my bag of twizzlers. I was way too slow to try to catch them and waited for my prime opportunity to snatch them back. Of course, when I did, I wasn’t counting on them ganging up on me to get them back. I held them off, but barely – and narrowly avoided chocking on my twizzlers between laughter and their attacks. It was a great time. That evening, even though I wanted to be on strike for the day – I relented and made burgers and brats on the grill and they tasted great.
The weekend plans will be spent with family and will most definitely include some geocaching – provided the weather forecast holds true.
Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.



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