Cooperstown

Well the long awaited time has finally arrived! The boys finally made it to New York to play at Cooperstown! They flew out on Thursday and spent that day and Friday in Manhattan sight seeing.

The amazing New York skyline. The Twin Towers used to stand on the left side of this picture. Just left of the taller black building.

Statue of Liberty

Ground Zero. This is such an emotional place to visit. The boys were only about 3 years old when it happened so they don't really remember it like the adults do. You cannot help but feel a wave of emotion as you tour these grounds.

This cemetery is across the street from Ground Zero. It, along with St. Paul's church somehow survived.

Inside St. Paul's church, which served as a rest stop for workers on Ground Zero.

This sphere used to stand at the base of one of the Twin Towers. It too survived the attack. It was moved to Battery Park and it now serves at a memorial for 9/11.

The Empire State Building

Rockerfeller Center

A view of the city and Central Park from the top of Rockerfeller Center, or "The Top of the Rock" as it is referred to.

Carnegie Hall

Times Square

China Town

Friday afternoon everyone traveled by bus upstate to Cooperstown.

The team arrived in Milford, New York ready for some baseball!

Cooperstown Dreams Park is truly the Disneyland of baseball. The park and all the fields are so neatly manicured and cared for. The whole park in decorated in red, white and blue. All the flowers are red and white and each field has it's own American flag along with the Cooperstown flags and other decorative flags. Each field had dark green fences completely surrounding it. They played music throughout the park and had little sweepers just like Disneyland. They would walk around with their broom and dustpans and sweep up whatever was on the paved walk ways - trash, leaves, etc.

OPENING CEREMONIES

Owner and founder Lou Presutti speaking.

3 sky divers jumped out of an airplane and sailed down through the sky with flags attached to them. One had the American flag and the other two had the Cooperstown flags.

The opening ceremonies parade.

Everyone is given 2 baseball jerseys, two hats and two pairs of socks. One red, one blue. All the boys had to wear their pants to the knee. If you have your pants long or if your hat is on crooked at any point, even in the cafeteria it is a 2 game suspension. When Lou was speaking he said, "We are not here to help raise punks. We are here to raise respectable young men. We wear our hats on straight and our pants to the knee just like it was done in the 1930's and the 40's when baseball was the greatest sport there ever was. We show up to our games not only physically ready to play the game but we LOOK like we are ready to play as well."

After the parade, the teams all separated to do the skills competition. Nick did the King of Swat, Tyus did the Road Runner and Cooper did the Golden Arm. Everyone else did the Throw Around.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Kade at bat. Kade hit 3 home runs during the tournament!

Nick at bat. Nick had 1 home run - NOT including the home run he hit in the King of Swat.

Cooper had one home run!

Keyne at bat.

Jens at bat. Jens had one home run!

Cooper looking to make it home.

Keyne sliding into second base.

Tyus at bat.

Kade at pitch.

Jaren leading off.

Riley pitching.

Tyus in the outfield.

Cooper at catch.

Tanner playing catcher. He had 4 home runs!

Nick at pitch.

Jaren making the out with Cooper backing him up.

Jed at bat.

Karter at bat.

Here comes the rain......

"I'm singin' in the rain, just singin' in the rain! What a glorius feeling I'm happy again!"

And the rain came tumbling down!

Jaren pitching in the rain just before our game got postponed.

Oh yeah, Keyne blowing the gum and letting the rain hit it - - he was really enjoying himself!

Cooper at pitch.

Brigham at bat.

Jaren at pitch.

Riley running to 2nd.

Tanner rounding 3rd base and making his way home after one of his 4 home runs!

Jens making his way to 3rd.

Tyus throwing in from the outfield.

Nice high waisted shorts Nick!

Jen H. and Jodi having fun with accesories!

The two trailers that most of us rented to stay in. If you look closely you can see Kent, Kathrine and Larry on the porch watching the boys down at the pond.

The team was scheduled to play their first game at 8:30 am on Sunday. Well it had started to rain in the middle of the night. It rained and rained and our game ended up getting postponed. So the boys and the coaches ended up coming up to the trailers to hang out. Coach Higg pretends like he has split personalities sometimes. Ricky and Lorainne are the two people he pretends that live inside of him.

He decided to scare the boys by pretending that he had forgotten to take his anti-psychotic medicine and that he had turned into "Ricky". He took off after the boys who were enjoying themselves down at the pond. (Now that's what I call "walking with purpose"!)

The boys were just enjoying the rain and having a good ol' time when........

they spot "RICKY"!

The boys all started to play along and were having fun with it. They were running all over with Ricky chasing them.

Then before we knew it, Ricky ripped off his shirt and really came after them. Keyne, Nick, and Jens jumped in the paddle boat thinking they would be safe in the middle of the pond.

They were feeling pretty confidant, even deciding to take up a little fishing while Ricky calmed down.

Before they even knew it, Ricky dove in after them. No sooner had Ricky jumped in when Nick jumped right out of the boat and swam for shore like he was Michael Phelps!

The water was really deep, even on the sides. (nobody, including Jeff ever found the bottom) Kade helped Nick out and Ricky tried to tip the boat over.

When that didn't work, he tried to climb in with them.

Everyone scattered and the boys got away. Tanner has to be thinking,"Oh my gosh! He really is off his rocker!!!" and Jed is scratching his head in total bewilderment.

Ricky was after them again! This time it was Riley who got it. Ricky dunked him head first off the dock.

Then he came after Nick again and Kristian too. They just did themselves a favor and jumped off the dock by themselves. (I love the determined look on Ricky's face)

Long story short, the rain continued to come and the games got pushed further and further back until they were cancelled altogether. But I think that this turned out to be one of the favorite days anyway - even without playing any baseball!

We took the boys into the town of Cooperstown to do a little shopping.

I would compare Cooperstown maybe to somewhere like Springville. Old buildings on Main Street with Mom and Pop type stores.

The boys all got baseball souvineers and LOTS AND LOTS of Fart Bags and Fart Spray. You would have thought they had struck gold!

SOME OF THE TRIP HIGHLIGHTS!

Exploring old haunted houses.......

Watching Kathrine and Jen P. getting high centered at the haunted house.......

Exploring old cemetarys......

Seeing neat old headstones that were moss covered.......

Watching Kathrine remove Jen P. stitches from her back.......

Watching Kent pin trade........

Amie slicing her finger open on the bathroom stall door and having to take a trip to the insta-care to get her a tetnus shot..........

Seeing lots and lots of barns..........

Kent pin trading again........

The fudge shoppe in Cooperstown. Their chocolate peanut butter cups, their cashew turtles, their boston baked beans..........

All the mom's buying cute matching jackets because it was much cooler than we had anticipated........

Kent doing his thing with the pins......

DiMaggio's - It was delicious, fast, team friendly, and big enough portions to share!

All the boys thinking that they could just climb in the trunk and ride where ever they wanted.......... (Cooper not being able to handle the flash going off in his eyes. Too funny.)

Kent working it with the pins..........

Pay no attention to this man............ (but he did get them ALL)

Seeing lots of crazy road crossing signs..........

There was also a duck crossing sign but I didn't get a picture of that one.

Enjoying beautiful scenery..........

Rolling hills.......

Beautiful houses.........

Corn and sunflower fields........

Taking refuge from the rain in this Christ Church Episcopal...........

It had a neat old cemetary in front of it too.........

And it had beautiful stained glass windows and amazing arcitetchure.......

And that was just a few of the highlights! What a fun place to visit!

We all went to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

We all really liked the Hall of Fame. I could have spent hours in there. There was so much to see!

This is Lou Gehrig's locker.

These statues of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams were carved out of one piece of basswood. Everything was was made of wood. There was no cloth, leather or stone used although the sculptor did an amazing job of making it look like cloth and leather.

CLOSING CEREMONIES

Tanner coming through the gate.

Each of the boys and the coaches got to run through after their name was announced. They got to shake Lou Presutti hand, get their ring and be inducted into the Hall of Fame!

Tyus running through the gate.

Riley running through.

Coach Christensen.....

Coach Higginson.....

Riley showing off his new ring with his snazzy Hollywood glasses on. This was such a fun trip for the boys as well as the parents. Everybody worked so hard to get to where they needed to be to go there. We are so proud of all of you!