Grampa John Bauer

I believe this is a picture of my father's Dad as a child.

(Click on picture for larger image)

Gramma Merrill's Brother

This is a picture of Joseph Buckley, my Grandma Merrill's brother.


So THAT'S where the unibrow in the family comes from! Thanks Nana! My son is especially grateful!

Gramma Merrill and Friend

The title of the picture is Nana and friend. I believe my grandmother is the young lady to the right , but she could be the baby. I'm not sure. On the original picture, some child appears to have used pen or pencil to scratch over the young woman's face and hat. I did my best to clean it up.

Mom, can you shed some light?

UPDATE FROM MOM: Okay, apparently the picture is my great-grandmother (my Mother's father's mother) who is holding the baby. The great-grandmother apparently died in 1929 when my Mom was three years old. The baby is guessed to by my Mom's cousin Patsy Lynch, but the woman beside her doesn't look like Patsy's mother, so we're not sure. The one thing we do know is that my original guess was completely wrong! :)

John Merrill, Sr

Here's another old family pic. I think this is my grandfather as child.

Mom and Family

I've been scanning pics from our family and cleaning them up in Photoshop.

Here we have my Mom's family, including Left to Right,
John Jr., my Mom (Catherine), Paul, Mary, Lorenzo,
Louise and in the front, my grandparents Da and Nana.

Click on Picture for larger image.

Update from my Mom - My Mom emailed me to say that this picture was taken on Nana and Da's 30th Wedding Anniversary in Tewksbury, MA. In this picture my Mom was pregnant with my sister Mary, which means that Joe and John were running around somewhere.

Fall Ball Ends...

Well, our Fall Ball Little League experience ended last night. My son's team, which was the only team that had more than one quality pitcher, ended up being 11-1. Most pitchers in the league walked most everyone and the teams would quickly reach their five run maximum per inning. We were fortunate to have five quality pitchers (Gabe, Jonathan, David, Noah and Mitchell).

Gabe up to bat in the last game.

Gabe and I had some very specific goals this fall ball, to make consistent solid contact when hitting and to throw consistent strikes as a pitcher. He was able to get better with each game and we ended up achieving both.

One of the hardest things to teach a young batter is to wait on slow pitches. What usually happens is the batter's bat speed matches the incoming pitch speed. If the pitch is slow, the bat swing is slow. If the pitch is fast, the bat speed is fast.

Teaching a kid to wait on the slow pitch and then swing fast is difficult. Gabe still hasn't mastered it yet, but he has improved. During the game the best player on the other team, Andrew, waited on a slow pitch and knocked it into center field.

After the hit, in between innings, Gabe and I talked and I asked him if he was capable of doing the same. Gabe is extremely competitive and he always seeks out the best player on the other team and wants to do better. He said he could hit it as far.

So, his next at bat Andrew is pitching and Gabe is hitting. The pitch count goes to 3-0 and Gabe steps out of the batters box and yells out to Andrew (who had hit Gabe twice in two previous games and walked him almost every time before as well) and said "you're not going to hit me again or walk me, are you?" Gabe's tactic worked and Andrew's next pitch was right over the plate, which Gabe knocked it to the base of the center field fence. After sliding safely into third, Gabe popped up and gave me a thumbs up.

He's better than I ever imagined and he's only ten. Granted, he's still just a kid and has a lot to learn, but his approach and talent compared to others of his age is pretty amazing to me. I take very little credit for it. He works hard, loves to play and is always thinking ahead. When I was his age I was the kid in right field wondering if I could convince my Mom to buy me bubble gum from the concession stand after the game.

Despite all that, the greatest compliment he gets from his coaches is that he's a very good leader and a very good sportsman. I feel very blessed.

Gabe ended up closing the game, walking one, striking out three. We're anxiously looking forward to moving up to the next level where he'll be pushed by kids much better than he is and where we can set higher goals.

There's talk about throwing together a tournament next week between the four teams, but we're kind of burnt out and could use a few weeks just focusing on football. If they have the tournament, I'll take pics and let you know how it turns out.

Memorable Bucs Game

For my son's birthday we went to the Eagles/Bucs game at Raymond James Stadium this past Sunday. It ended up being a very memorable 23-21 win for the Bucs. From Ronde Barber's two interceptions returned for touchdowns to Donovan McNabb having to call timeout because he was puking on the field from the heat to Matt Bryant's historic game-winning 62 yard field goal and the delerium that followed... it was certainly a memorable game on many levels.

Here my son and I snack at the Burger King before the game,
saving ourselves about $2 billion from
buying food in the stadium.

(This picture is warped because my cellphone
sometimes saves the pic all screwed up... like this one.)
The heat was oppressive. We were handed bandanas as we entered
the stadium. We stuffed them under our hats and used them
the keep the sun from baking our necks and shoulders.

Our vantage point at the game. High, but not a bad seat.
It was especially good when watching the winning field goal.

The most absurd moment of the day? The Buccaneer cheerleaders in the sweaty and skimpy outfits shaking their groove things in the End Zones to Aretha Franklin's song about respecting women. The juxtaposition was humorous to just about everyone in our section.

Nothing spells R-E-S-P-E-C-T like cleavage.