Stanford Trip

Hauled the whole family up to The Farm for the Oregon @ Stanford football game. Some say it's the biggest game EVER on the Stanford campus. Stanford undefeated, #4 in the country, BCS national championship hopes, etc. More on that over at Fear The Tree.

Got up there late Thurs night, stayed at Jane and Dorsey's place in San Jose. I had never seen their basement, but it's pretty cool. Kids were down there, small, but plenty of space for them to split up on 2 different beds. Worked out great.

Friday was rainy, mostly in the morning, but we bundled up and headed into campus. Toured the kids all around the place. Parked in parking structure under Wilbur IM fields (wasnt there when I was there) and walked around. Started at Hoover Tower. The ESPN RoadTrip crew along with Shane Skov came up there while we were there. Got to say hi to them, watch them interview Shane, and they even took some footage of my "The Farm" shirt, for "B roll". Have to watch the show when it airs on Wed to see if my shirt makes the cut.

Oval after that to check out the ESPN GameDay setup for tomorrow (SAT). Biz school to eat lunch at Arbuckle. Met Brad Ekstrand and his son there, along with Erin Scholz. Wow - killer lunch spot. Found the cool wall full of spinning color cards that make a live mural (see pics).

After lunch, Quad, Memorial Church, out the right back corner to see the (physics) tank (not there any more), Bookstore, Tressider, then to Burnham to watch men's volleyball practice.

At this point, ask Ben: "Ben, what's your favorite thing we've done so far?"
"Well, it WILL be eating peanuts, but so far I guess it's the quad". Hilarious.

Leave campus for the O (Oasis) for burgers and, of course, peanuts. Ben loved it.
Back to Janey's for the night. (Make a sign ("Un-tree-feated") for tomorrow's ESPN GameDay)

Saturday wake up SUPER EARLY. Jamie drives Me, Avery, Connor, Ben, and Jane to the Oval, get there at 6am for the start of GameDay. Jamie hangs out at Starbucks for a couple hours until we are ready for pickup. Great time. Connor in his Stanford tree costume from Halloween, so we're getting lots of love. Dark and cold at the start, and super packed right behind the stage - no way to get our sign on tv there. Went to the back corner where the band was hanging out. Got on tv (the cable cam) a few times - dancing with the band. (Chris Rood even texted me during the live show saying he just saw us)

Call Jamie for pickup after 2 hours, back to Janey's for a nap. Back up to campus with the whole fam for men's water polo match. Met Erin, Cam, Emma there. Stanford crushed them. Parted with all them, Connor and I to pre-game tailgates.

Tailgating: Kelly Leonard Martin and Lara Asper hosting. Brad Ekstrand there too. Connor hits it off with Kelly's son Keaton, throwing football. Roasting duck. We head over to Laurie Sawin Quinn's tailgater - they have an ice block (had it made from company in SF, Stanford v. Oregon carved in there). Kids do shots too (of 7-up). We do a few kamikaze's with our dudes and vball friends. Back to Kelly / Lara tailgater.

Time to go in game. Kelly talks me into letting Connor go into game with Keaton and another dad. They "do it all the time". Nervous, but Connor wanted to. Gave him his ticket and started stressing... there he goes. Head in there a bit later with Jane and Dorsey. Text the other dad and get Connor back after the 1st quarter. In hind sight, wish I didn't let him go with them. Would have enjoyed seeing his reaction to first time ever in the stadium. Oh well. Also was so much into the game and worried about crowds at halftime that we never really got to walk around. Never saw the concourse until after the game.

Bummer about the game. We didn't play well. 5 turnovers, receivers couldn't catch the ball, players losing their footing (wet field from rain yesterday). Sucks. Played our worst game of the year when we needed to play our best.

Hassle after the game cuz David Richard (there with the rich dudes from Austin, private plane and rager party after the game) gave tix to Jane and Dorsey, but we were all driving home together. Connor and I had to dilly dally while they went to the party "just for a bit". Walked around, finally found them and headed back to San Jose.

Sunday - not much. Lingered around the house after a LATE bed time after the game last night. Finally outta there and on the road home. Long drive. Still thought it was worth it. Would love to take the family up there again sometime when we can all go to the game - has to be some ho-hum Washington State game or something.

Connor Baseball

Great run by Connor's Mustang Bruins (Lutz, Hasegawa, Rood) team at the end of the season this year. They were just kind of "ok" through the regular season, playing about .500 ball. All of a sudden in the playoffs they started playing really well.

In the semi-finals of the LCYO North league, playing Trask's Gauchos, they came from behind in the bottom of the last inning with some clutch hits. Won by 1.

Came up short in the North final, losing to the Aztecs by 1. Aidan Hasegawa crushed his first career home run to right field in this game - super cool.

Yesterday they played in the LCYO North v. South 3rd place game. Very cool feel over at Stagecoach park, couple games going on, snack bar, lots of fans. Out to an early lead, then gave it back - down by 2 in the bottom of the last inning. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out - guess who's up to bat? C-DAWG.

Battled hard, 2-2 count, then hit a hard grounder to deep shortstop. Great play by them, fielded it, and threw him out at first to end the game. :(

Great season, first time ever to the end of the playoffs, super fun families on the team. Will probably go down as the most fun / best baseball team we've played for.

Ben Baseball - Breakout Game and Quotes

Ben has been playing Pinto (machine pitch) league this year - a "play up" from T-ball age since his bday is right on the border line. It's been a long road this season learning how to hit, but he's been super patient throughout all the strikeouts (6 pitches) and now towards the end, making connections more and more frequently.

This week, in the first game of the playoffs, Ben had a "breakout game". Went 4-for-4 and scored 3 of those times. The 4th hit was a "shot" right back up the middle on the LEFT side of the pitching machine -- first time EVER hitting to the left side (almost always behind on the swing). Awesome!

Some classic quotes by Ben after the game, when describing it to Mommy:

Coach Runner said I batted 1000. (What does that mean?) I have no idea.

I made it to "4th base" 3 times!

Update 05/22
Ben had another good game yesterday - turns out to be their final game of the season. Lost by 1 run in the quarter finals of the playoffs. Ben was 2-for-3 with one of the hits a hard grounder through the 5-6 hole to the outfield! Awesome!

Ben - Sports Quotes

On the way to Avery's hoops game: "I hope Avery's team either wins, or loses."

On the way to his baseball game: "Dad, do we bat first or second in my game today?" (Dad - dunno, we'll see when we get there - why?). "Because if we bat first, I'm later in the lineup so I get to sit down for a while to start." (True that we were at the end of a LONG day of sports, starting at 8am with Ben hoops...)