May 17

This will be brief because I'm really struggling with the effects of my allergies at the moment.

Brady had a pair of games today; one for each team. Just a short time into the second game, it became obvious that their opponent was a bit overmatched. And that truth persisted.

The final opposing pitcher gave up walk after walk until the score had swelled to 15-0 (in our favor). Even though the umpire could've ended the game at any time, he didn't, so we played on. And on. 

And it continued (in part -- the ump really should've ended it) because none of the boys wanted to swing; it's fun to win, after all, and none of them wanted to take a statistical hit for deliberately popping up a ball just to get the game to end (and arguably, to have mercy on the other team). Walks are better than ground outs and pop outs, so it only improved their individual stats to stand there and take balls.

But then Brady came up to bat for the final time. There were two outs and the bases were loaded courtesy of the string of walks. He could've taken a walk but he didn't do that; instead, he deliberately swung at what he knew were two balls and then popped out to short. Just to end the game. And to show some mercy, because that poor kid was simply unable to throw strikes.

I'm grateful that he's the kind of kid who's willing to make a sacrifice in order to make everyone happy: we were happy with the win (and to escape the insanely heavy winds that settled over the park), and the other team was probably happy to just go home.