Little League - Regular Season Ends

As the season came to an end the Cardinals finally started putting things together, winning five of their last six games. The league had a series of games to see who would represent Safety Harbor in the District 12 "Best Team" tournament. The Safety Harbor Yankees took that honor.

The rest of the teams played a season ending runner-up tournament, which the Cardinals won, winning their first game 10-0 in four innings and the championship game 15-4 in four innings. Congrats to the Cards and Coach Gannaway on a great end of the season!

For their troubles each player received a season trophy and the Cards received a runner-up tournament winning trophy. Great job guys!

Gabe got stronger as the end of the season approached. It's been a while since I posted highlights, so I edited the remaining ones together into a pretty hefty file. So, don't even attempt to download this unless you have a broadband connection. Internet Explorer is recommended.

When downloading, as soon as the page brings up the video screen, hit the STOP button (button with a square in it) and wait a while for the file to download. Otherwise it will start and stop as it downloads each small piece at a time.

The entire video file is about 3 minutes. Even in the extremely efficient compressed format of a flash file, its still pretty big. You can watch it HERE.

At the end of the video Gabe will thank you for watching, he mentions coming in 2nd (meaning winning the runner-up tournament) and then getting ready for the All-Stars.

In the video you'll also see Gabe steal second on a walk as well as hitting a line drive back at a pitcher (Christian), striking the pitcher in the face. Fortunately, the injury was minor.

On a side note, one of the qualities I love about Gabe is his compassion. In a critical game he threw a home run pitch to a friend. When he got the ball back he called time out and walked over to the opposing teams dugout and handed the player the home run ball. All of the coaches in the league still talk about that. When he accidentally struck Christian in the face with a hit, he ran over to the pitcher's mound and made sure he was okay. On the rare occasion he hits a batter with a pitch, he walks with the batter down the first base line making sure he's all right.

It's those things that make me more proud of my son than what he does in the batter's box or on the pitcher's mound. I'll take him being a better person than a baseball player any day of the week.

Gabe's really enjoyed everyones guidance and response to his highlights all season long. Thank you for your love and support!