Watching and following the success my nephew’s Pleasanton Little League team this summer has been really exciting. Their season culminated in a big playoff game in Southern California.
My brother Dave and I left Pleasanton last Friday at 9:30am to drive down I-5 in the hopes of getting to San Bernardino in Southern California by 4pm that afternoon. 4pm would be the start of the big semi-final game for the Pleasanton American vs. a team from Hawaii in the Western Regional World Series Championship. Our 12 year old nephew Jake would be playing in the “BIG” game and we did not want to miss a minute of the game. The winner of this game would go on to the championship game on Sunday which would be televised on ESPN.
Everything went smoothly until we got to the base of the Grapevine around 2:00pm. We started encountering LA Friday afternoon traffic and started to worry we would miss some of the game. Fate was on our side as we arrived at the stadium just 15 minutes before game time. There was a great ceremony to start the game and for the first four innings there was no score. There was a large contingent of Pleasanton families and fans to root for our boys but it all came apart in the 5th inning when Hawaii scored several runs. They had an incredible pitcher who shut our team down. Jake my nephew got the lone base hit of the game but it was too little against the bats of a bigger and more experienced team. Final score Hawaii 8 Pleasanton 0. The boys were of course disappointed but found solace in the fact that no Pleasanton team had ever gone this far in the history of Pleasanton Little League.
My brother and I had dinner with our brother Ron and our nephew Jake that evening and had a great time reflecting on the tournament and Jake’s incredible success as one of their star pitchers. The long drive home on Saturday morning provided a great opportunity to have a great life talk with my brother Dave and reflect on the importance of quality family time.
