So we’ve been blessed with amazing weather in Seattle. I don’t know where it gets its rep for rainy and overcast. The sun has been out, and we were fortunate enough to see Mt. Rainier and the Olympic Range on the west side of Puget Sound. Who knew that to get to the Pacific Ocean from Seattle, you still have to go over mountains. Sorry for our ignorance, citizens of Seattle.
Our event day started again with the team dividing up to finish different tasks. Tim and Rex displayed their RV repair skills, while the trio of Adam, Steve, and Chase explored more of the city on 2 wheels. The RV dudes got some help from a good friend of B4B, Nick Pool. Nick is a fellow Kansan and K-State grad who is in the Pacific Northwest for a gig in the Navy band. Awesome! It’s great to see fiends from back home around the country.
The bikers set out to explore more of West Seattle on their bikes. There are so many photo ops along the coast line, the ride consisted of a lot of “Stop, that’s awesome, we gotta take a pic!” We’ve got a Picasa album with many of these pics that will soon be posting to Facebook. Along the way, we stopped at Alki Beach and enjoyed the park for a bit. And of course, we had to support the local economy with a coffee cake, hold the cake, at everyone’s favorite, Starbucks. We then biked around more of the coast to get to downtown. We took one last ride to Safeco Field before making the trek back to Chris and Karen’s house. I really like the ride to West Seattle once you get out of downtown because it’s pretty much uphill for 8 miles to their house. Our behinds are feeling the burn after cranking out hill after hill throughout Seattle. Great hills!
The main event of the day, and the weekend, was our event with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Luckily, we snagged a very nice field at Mercer Middle School on Beacon Hill. Synthetic turf, dugouts, electrical hook-ups, and sunshine for two hours! We gave a rundown of Biking for Baseball and our motivation for doing this trip. Talking to the bigs and littles this time, felt different. When we had talked about what we were GOING to do before, it was just that, we were GOING to do it. We hadn’t actually done anything yet (besides put on a few events for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado). This was the next step. We were now on this trip at this event, standing on this field and talking with these matches in Seattle, because these people right here were our inspiration. Receiving unexpected compliments for things you love doing is humbling. Giving these out, is even better!
We split the matches up into three groups with Chase tossing fly ball practice, Steve working the hot box, and Rex and Tim providing some batting practice. Adam ran the music and lineup announcements. After skills had been honed and arms had been warmed, it was time to put the skills to the test. Lining up a bit deeper than second base, we set a bucket up at home plate and explained a little game aptly named “Hit the Bucket.” If you could make the throw from second base into the bucket, you would win a Biking for Baseball bandana! Joe’s little, Darius, quickly proclaimed himself as Mr. Awesome and stated “I’m going to be the first one to make it in the bucket!” Big words that, unfortunately, he was unable to back up. Paul, a big, was actually the first, and only, one to make it in the bucket. Nice job Paul!
Then it was time for the epic battle between Manager Tim’s Team Awesome versus Manager Rex’s Team Super Awesome. Team Super Awesome came out firing on all cylinders while living up to their name. Base hit after base hit, you could feel the momentum rest with the visiting team. Come on Time! Get the home crowd into it! It’s Opening Day!
Sure enough, it appeared as if Team Awesome just wanted a flare for the dramatic. Down 5 going into the last inning (which actually the game should have been over, cause our time was up, but no one wanted to leave as they all yelled, “One more inning!” and stayed on the field), it seemed as if the game was out of reach. But a couple dinks around the infield, a big blast over the outfielders head and some solid base running led to Team Awesome tying it up! Exciting finish! Unfortunately, our time was up with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound matches today and we lined up to slap hands and say “Good game.”
The bigs and littles here in Seattle are just like the bigs and littles in Denver. They’re fun, engaging, friendly and great mentors and mentees. Jason at BBBS was extremely receptive to the collaborative effort between Biking for Baseball and BBBS. Thank you Jason!
We hope the remaining 29 events go like this one!