The Game Plan, sorta

June 30, 2025

I’ve selected the calendar for the first two weeks as the featured image to this blog for two reasons. First, in Week One, we accomplished every activity listed as special events for that time period. Almost none of them occurred on the exact date shown on the schematic. That’s because a thousand variables affect actual outcomes, to include temperatures, wind direction/velocity, dust, mud, equipment availability, gas in the tank and an artistic sense of what will play well at the moment – to name just a few of them.

We do save program templates from one year to the next, but they usually serve ss mere references as we cling to that “what feels right” approach.

I was very impressed with yesterday afternoon’s schedule, for example. Pemi Day had been a great success on a cold, blustery day and we could sense that the boys would be in favor of more games, so long as they weren’t that serious or lengthy.

The program guys also offered activities that we had not done yet and those that many boys would “discover” as they rotated by age group to pre-assigned games.

Sara’s and my photos overlap a good deal (I did not see her as our paths never crossed!) and you can easily tell which photographer is the hack. However, I was on hand to observe Santiago P-R from Spain, seen in the batting helmet with the R. At first, he deferred to bat at the softball game. But his friends gave him an instant batting lesson, whereupon he laced the first pitch into right field for a hit. Great camp!

I also captured the results of the scavenger hunt for old balls lost in the woods up at the Little League field. I had estimated maybe 50 balls or so were buried in the brush, which we had thinned considerably before the campers arrived. Ezra R. informed me of the official count of 52.

With the brushwork to complement the new backstop, the baseball venue looks terrific. Kudos to the maintenance team of Mike Fusco and Adam Miller who did this job in the offseason. Fusco, too, has connections and was able to exactly duplicate the green and bright yellow colors of Fenway Park in Boston. “The Green Monster is next” he teases, maybe.

Time to get this blog posted, but know that it is a gorgeous morning and the schedule is packed with new opportunities and challenges for these lucky boys. That’s the second reason for posting the week in review.

Check later to see if I have added any rosters as a postscript.