boise tourney, end of july.

we should have called it quits after the state tournament in kennewick. poor cw. he slumped in boise. two walks, one hbp, and ten to twelve strikeouts. it was baaad. so bad for him. he was a champ about it too. he only got super emotional once. most of the time, he was very funny about it. "did you know there's a guy who plays for tampa bay who is 0-40?" "do you think i'm setting some sort of youth record?" "this is getting really bad, huh?" "i just want to get a hit. one hit! is that asking too much?" my heart seriously hurt for him. every parent and player was pulling for him. his coach sent us texts telling us to keep him up, keep him ready. i think i replied that he was handling it better than i was. when i asked ellie what mw did and how she felt when he slumped, she looked at me and said, "i don't think he was ever in a slump." he later confirmed that. all of that being said, his team took second in the region. they played a team from eastern washington, one from montana, two from idaho, and one from oregon. each state sent two teams. they lost in the championship to the home field team from meridian, idaho. on a related note, gary and ellie, and b&b and their boys came up to watch. we swam at the hotel, hung out with ball friends and family, went to cracker barrel and qdoba, and the water park in boise. the kids had a great time and cw was able to look past his slump and enjoy the trip too. it was a great season. they only lost to three teams in their age group all season and, other than the team from meridian, beat the other teams countless times. cw made some great friends, learned a lot about hitting and playing first base. he learned how to be a teammate and that there are still things a player can bring to the team when he has a hard time at the plate. he cheered on his buddies and played great at first and in the field. i am proud of the player he has become and the nice kid that he is. after the tournament, one of his coaches texted me this, "he is a good kid...a good baseball player...and a good teammate." his other coach got choked up in the parking lot after the last game when we talked to him. he said he was really proud of what cw had accomplished during the season and very impressed with how well he held up in a difficult situation. what a kid!