Snowball '07

As I mentioned in a previous post, me and some people from my summer ball team participated in Snowball 2007, an annual event hosted by my friend Andrew Scott (not the MLA) to raise money for local charities. This year the money went towards Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Search & Rescue and the NB Association for Community Living (where my friend Christy works). All worthy causes and the event truly can't be missed, it's a blast - win or lose.

This was the third tournament that I participated in. The first year we played in a blizzard. While the picture on the side depicts a nice, sunny day, it later turned into a blistery snowstorm. The second year we played it was a beautiful day. We played our first game up at Nasis Middle School (my alma mater) and midway through our first game. We noticed a moose strolling across a neighbouring field. We all stood there in awe and fear, because we didn't want to attract him and risk a potential attack. Although, how cool would that have been?! Anyway, as the day went it got warmer and warmer. By mid-afternoon, we were able to shed a few layers and some of us played in t-shirts. It isn't everyday that you're able to get some friends together, enjoy some beer and Fireball, play some softball and have a moose watch from the sidelines. I love the Maritimes!!

Now each year I've played in this tourney, I've cursed my commitment to the game because I think of how early it is to get up and cold it could potentially be. But once I get there and my tippy toes and finger tips get through the initial freezing, it turns out to be a wicked day. So when I fell into my usual pattern of cursing and doubt, I just remembered the fun times had in years past and I get my $hit together and hit the field.

Well this year our first game was slated for 8am, yup, 8 in the freaking morning. I checked the temp before I left the house...a balmy -15 degrees. Yikes, that's pretty chilly. So I put on all my gear (which took about 10 minutes) but I remembered how cold it could get and I didn't want to be uncomfortably cold. So, looking like the marshmallow man, I head to the field. Most of my team was there with the exception of two, who slept in, but showed up eventually. We lost the first game, won the second game and lost the 3rd. One team had to drop out so we won our 4th game by default. Once our third game was done we headed to Mama's for some grub and to await our fate in the tourney. Once all the round-robin games were played, Andrew called to tell us that we had missed playoffs by one run. Our team wasn't all that disappointed, we were dry, warm and our bellies were full of food and booze. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday in my books :) I started to fade pretty quick, so I headed home and had the best Supernap I've had in a long time. You know those naps where you're in such a deep sleep that you almost feel sick when you wake up or you drift between conciousness and unconciousness and your dreams and wake state start to overlap. I love those naps!

Here are a few other pics from this year's tourney...



Good times were had by all and already looking forward to next year...