Cooperstown Tournament End and Heading Home

We went into Wednesday's tourney after pool play wrapped up Tuesday evening in 54th place, so had one by round and started our game at noon.  We played a team from Georgia that was ranked 96th, but turns out that they had a very bad draw in pool play and were a much tougher team than we thought.


We also had one of our boys suffer from mild dehydration and was sent to the ER for treatment.  Another injured his wrist after just coming back from breaking his thumb before the tournament.  With the awful humid and hot weather our boys played so hard, but we lost in the first round.


Many of the team families went out for BBQ that night, it was a nice way to finish out a tough day and gave the boys a chance to relax.  Drew stayed with us at our rental house that night and within a minute of his head hitting the pillow he was asleep.  
Yesterday, we took him around Cooperstown and did some more shopping before closing ceremonies.  The evening events at the park were great, but an early evening rain storm made it incredibly hot and humid.  The boys received their Cooperstown pins and got to be called out onto the field one more time.


Drew had a great time, and even though he desperately wanted to hit a home run, he has some great memories.  We have over 1000 pictures to share, and will send all of you the information soon.


We are heading back to Phoenix today, and it will be a very late night.  We will be in touch when we are back in the Valley.  All of us are looking forward to low humidity, no mosquitos, and sleeping in our beds again.

Photos of Drew's Walk-off Single from Yesterday's Game

Current Team Game Record 2-2 & Drew Had Walk Off Single to Win Game!

We started off the morning with overcast and cloudy weather here in NY.  Our first game was at 8:30am ET, playing a team from Georgia.  Drew pitched 2 solid innings before he lost the strike zone and they pulled him.  We ended up losing the game, final score was 10-7.

Our second game this afternoon was against a team from Austin TX, who were placed 15th out of  the 104 teams here competing.  We didn't start off great, and were down 9-0 at the bottom of the 1st inning. But, we RALLIED!!  Bit by bit, we whittled away their lead, with multiple boys scoring home runs,  and ended up tying and going into extra innings.  Then, with bases loaded, Drew comes to bat.  He battled, and after 12 pitches he hit a walk off single to bring home Carter Lace.  WOOHOO!!

The boys are spent, but are having fun, and we are about to head out to a big team spaghetti dinner.  Then off to bed and another big day tomorrow!

Day One Wrap-Up & Day Two Events

Our first game ended in a loss for the Dragons, but Taylor Ablin pitched great for us, we just couldn't find the strike zone when we brought in our relievers.  Game score was 11 to 4 against a team from Illinois.

The second game we played a team from Tennessee.  We were down going into the 6th inning, but when Jake Walker came up to bat with two outs against us, he hit a walk off home run to win the game for us.  The final score was 6 to 5, Dragons win.

We are already in Cooperstown for an 8:30am game this morning.  We are playing a team from Georgia first, and then at 1:45pm ET a team from Texas.  The teams from the South always make me nervous.  The second game will be on field 4 and broadcast on Dreams TV, while the first game will not, but you can follow (if awake on the West coast) by going to iscorecast.com and entering code:  b7dac1cede when prompted. 

After the games we are able to get the boys together at our lake house for spaghetti dinner.  First time we've been able to get them out of the barracks since Friday.

More to come later!

We've started our first game!

Drew's team has the blue jersey color.  He is number 11 if you are watching online.  :)

Baseball Hall of Fame, Dragons First Tourney Games & Mosquitos

We are off this morning to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  You can get a family pass for $70 and it allows you to come in and out of the museum for a year.  With our tight game schedule it is well worth it.  We will share pictures on the blog later today.

Drew's team has their first two games of the tourney starting today.  One at 1:45pm ET and the other at 7:30pm ET.  We may be on fields with web came, so you can check the online schedule for the Desert Dragons and watch online (instructions and links are in one of the first blogs).  Good luck to the boys!

Well, something that we'd been dreading about this trip are the mosquitos, and they've come out today.  Yikes!  When we were at the Walmart in Albany we bought some bug spray, something I haven't had to use in many years, but we sure had to today.  Gotta love the smell of DEET in the morning!  {{blech}}

Skills Competition and Opening Day Wrap-Up

Opening day today for Cooperstown Dreams Park.  The opening events included some sky divers dressed in baseball uniforms delivering the game balls.  Followed by all of the 104 teams from across the US (including two teams from Hawaii) marching into the field. 

After opening ceremonies was the skills competition for the players.  Drew was doing the home run derby, while the rest of the team either was taking part in "around the horn," golden glove throwing event, and base running. Drew hit well, but they do not allow the boys to use their own bats, and the one Drew was given to use was too small for him, it ended up hurt his hands when he hit.  :(  Most if the boys we saw weren't hitting well, so overall Drew did fine.

Our team players who were taking part in "around the horn" event ended up with the best time on one of the fields, but were booted out by the teams playing the same event on another field.  Doug, Bryn and I decided to head out for dinner, and said our goodbye to Drew for the night before they headed back to the barracks.

Tomorrow is our first game, and we will post an update as soon as we can.

Cooperstown Day 1

Long day yesterday spent getting the boys/team set up in their bunk house at Dreams Park.  However, as soon as they could they were off trading their team pins with everyone.  Drew already has almost a towel full (over 30 pins)!  Headed out after 9pm to grab some dinner at the local Pizza Hut, and everyone else had the same idea.  Not many restaurant options, so am glad we have the house to eat at.

We are now off to pick up Drew and take him to breakfast.  Am sure he will be tired and didn't get much sleep, even though they have a strict lights out at 10pm policy.  The boys were all amped up when we left.  Don't blame them.  It is pretty cool here.

There is limited data/cell phone/internet connectivity here so will update the blog as soon as we can.  Should be a fun opening day and skills competition for the boys.  Drew will be competing in the home run event, so more to come later!

The Parkers are now in baseball heaven!

We just arrived in Cooperstown, NY.  If you have never been, it is very quaint with beautiful 18th century (or older) buildings and lots of farm land.  Can't wait to go out and take some pictures!

We had an interesting introduction to NY.  Ended up having an issue with our ez-pass and the toll booth operator was very pleasant (not) and she took our license plate down and was going to fine us.  Called the rental car company and all should be a-okay (I hope). Geez.

The drive to Cooperstown was beautiful.  Gorgeous big and lush trees, lakes surrounding the area, and lovely old farm houses and Amish families throughout.  Pics are posted and more to come!

We are about to check Drew in to Dreams Park, and then off to the lake house.  Looking forward to tomorrow, opening ceremonie,s and Drew participating in the home run skills competition.  Go Drew!  :)

A few pics from Atlanta airport

Just a few pics while we had our 4 hour layover.  Was a little stressful with a gate change and then a technical issue with the plane that needed to be looked at before take off.  Otherwise we made it safe and sound.

Pics from today's trips

Kids enjoyed the plane rides and meeting Doug's cousin Rusty and his wife Lindy.  Pics are attached.

We made it to CT!

We are spent.  It is 1:30am here, and we are just settling in for the night.  Tomorrow brings lots of exciting things, now time to catch some zzz.  Nite all.

Drew's Cooperstown Trading Pins

Wanted to share with you the pins that Drew will be trading with the other players at Cooperstown.  Pretty cool, huh?

Cooperstown TV - How to Follow the Games Online

The Cooperstown Dreams Park offers a number of the games online through a number of web cams.  Luckily Drew's team will be playing four games on these fields.  In order to follow the games online through Dreams Park TV, just click here and follow the directions.  The link, and others, are available at the bottom left side of this blog page.


As I noted in a previous post, the boys will all be dressed the same in red, white and blue gear.  Our boys will be wearing their black Dragons helmets.  Just look for Drew as one of the larger kids, and he'll likely be wearing his white or dark blue arm bands.

Cooperstown Here We Come!!!

We are frantically packing today, as we leave for Cooperstown, NY tomorrow morning at 11:11am.  The kids are so excited!  Doug and I have a lot left to do today, so it probably won't hit us until later tonight.  :)


The schedule for our games is now out, and we wanted to share it with you.  We begin our games the week of June 4.  Here is the link.  Looks like a good number of the games will be held on a field with a webcam, so you'll be able to watch the games online. 


If you also want to follow the play-by-play action on days that we are playing on a field without a web cam, Doug will be broadcasting all the games via iScore.  Just click on the iScore hyperlink (at the left) and enter code b7dac1cede.  The kids will all be dressed in red, white and blue gear, so just look for Drew as one of the tallest kids and he'll have his white or blue wristbands on.


We look forward to posting pictures and video links on this blog page as we travel in NY.  If you need to reach us, we'll have our cell phones so just give us a ring, and we'll be checking email regularly.

Our Cooperstown Blog ... Coming this June!

Stay updated on all of our antics at Cooperstown Dreams Park this June!