Little League Season Ends

Well, Gabe's final Majors Little League spring season has finally come to a close. Gabe did exceptionally well this year and I could not have been more proud of him. As a hitter he had the highest batting average in the league and as a pitcher he threw more strikeouts than anyone else. Now, we'll have to see if he continues on with All-Stars in a month.

I really enjoyed the team this year. We ended the regular season 10-6. We were the only team to reach the semi-finals in the mid-season tournament and we went 2-2 in the end of season tournament. The team was full of fine young men who learned a lot about teamwork, taking responsibility for ones actions, leading, working hard, setting new goals and never giving up.

The parents were great as well, always there to assist, to shag balls, to man the concession stand... a great group of people.

I was especially fortunate to have had two great coaches to help out. Each brought their own skills and we, collectively, used a variety of ways to inspire and push the kids forward. Our styles and temperaments complimented each other very well. I was a lucky manager this year.

This will be a season I'll remember for a very long time. I could not have been more proud of these young men. I have never been involved with a team that improved as much as they did.

Thanks to everyone involved!

Go Padres!

Gabe Finished Little League Regular Season

The regular season of Gabe's last year in Little League Majors has come to an end. He finished very strong. Here are the numbers...

• Batting Average: .510 (26-51) with 24 RBIs, 3 Ks and 2 HRs.
• Pitching Stats: 25 2/3 innings with 51 Ks and 12 BBs.

I'm very proud of my young man.

Next up, the End of Season tournaments and, if he's lucky, All-Stars.

Through a Mother's Eyes

The one thing I love about the way God created us are the vast and definite differences between men and women. I've read studies that have shown that mothers teach children how to act within a home and fathers teach children how to act outside of the home. That's why, if fathers do not go to church regularly, the children will usually follow suit, no matter how devout the mother may be.

Mothers are also greatly protective of there children. Nothing amuses me more than to see "Mama Bear Claws" come out when someone criticizes a mother's child. Mothers usually assume the best of their children, building them up, holding them in the highest regard. Fathers usually try to push the children forward, to make them face challenges, to test their ability to overcome obstacles, even if that includes failure.

This difference in approach could not be more visible than this past weekends baseball tournament. My son was pitching a good game, but gave up a home run. My wife, in her ever protective Mama Bear mode, offers "Well, they couldn't hit a home run if Gabe didn't throw such a beautiful pitch!"

Only a mother can turn a child's failure into a moment of success.

I love that about mothers. They are the safety net we all need. When all else fails, we know our mothers will be there, no matter what we've done or what we've failed to do and will look at us through their loving eyes, seeing us at our best, even when we are at our worst.

Mothers are very lucky... their uncompromising love of their children is a gift from God, an insight into how our Creator looks at us... through loving eyes, focusing on what we are capable of doing instead of what we have not done well.

Gabe Hits Another Dinger

I gotta tell ya, Gabe's faith journey through baseball has been a great learning experience for me too.

After hitting his first home run, Gabe's on field performance began to slip in a BIG way. Since the tourney Gabe had only a few weak hits and, defensively, had committed eight errors in two games! Brutal!

On the drive home following the second bad game in a row he and I had a little talk. I asked him what he thought was his problem? Through gritted teeth he angrily responded "I don't know!"

I asked him, "What's your goal now?"

"What?" he questioned.

I replied, "Well, now that you've hit a home run, something you've been wanting since t-ball, what's your new goal?"

"I... I don't have one" he chimed.

"That's the problem" I said.

So, we talked about how he needed to set new goals. Just because God gave him a gift of a home run doesn't mean He is done with him. You have to seek out the next goal.

With that in mind, we mapped out a few important things to focus on the remaining regular games... no errors, solid hits, better focus, push to be better... all with a single goal in mind, to give Safety Harbor it's first District 12 Championship.

Gabe's next game he played well. Nothing extraordinary, but a solid game. Our team came back to win in extra innings, 9-7.

Last night Gabe finally put it all together. Facing one of the best pitchers in the league, Gabe went 4-4 with a home run, a double and two singles. He hit in three runs and played exceptional defense, helping lead the team to a 9-6 win.

More important than what is happening on the field is what Gabe, and I, am learning off the field. We're learning about God's grace, about His expectations, about how He dreams bigger than we do and how we need to continually re-evaluate what God wants from us next.

This entire journey so far has had me thinking a lot about my goals, my faith and my role in God's plan.

SLP Padres

Here are some pics of the Padres uniform we sponsored at Sonlight Pictures. We picked Padres because it means Priests.

Go Padres!

Gabe Hits His First Home Run! - Updated

After offering up his baseball performance to God, Gabe has done very well this season, batting over .500. This weekend in a District 12 tournament, our team went 3-0 in the opening weekend, including coming back from two runs in extra innings to win our final game.

Our 3-0 recorded gave us the fourth seed out of 20 or so teams and the opportunity to go head-to-head against the Palm Harbor Rays in the Quarter Finals. We ended up losing to the Rays 5-3, but the overall weekend was a great success.

The greatest part about our tourney was that everyone of the players came up big over the course of the weekend, either at bat or in the field. It was a nice time.

On a personal level, in our second game I was thrilled to see Gabe hit his first home-run over the center field fence. We were up 8-4 and Gabe had a 3-0 count. Usually I would give him the "take" sign, but I let him hit away. He hadn't had enough at-bats from the left side of the plate, so I figured the more pitches he faces, the better. Fortunately he lifted the next pitch, a high strike, out of the park. As he trotted around the bases, his face beamed with a combination of ecstasy and disbelief.

Below is a video compilation of Gabe's hits and pitches on the travel team (in light blue shirts and orange uniforms) and our Little League Team (in the dark blue shirts and also gold jerseys).

I saved the home run as the last highlight. If you watch closely, our player running home before Gabe never touches the base. Caught up in the excitement, he drops his helmet, turns around and greets Gabe.

Ahhh, Little League.

Enjoy.

Updated PS - I've been playing around with some editing SW and came up with a high-def output. I shortened it A LOT (only just over 1 minute now) and you can see it in HIGH DEF HERE or Standard Def below.




Gabe's HR Reel - Short Version on Vimeo.


For the original extended SD version, click here.

Baseball Busy

I know I haven't blogged much lately. I've been swamped with Little League baseball. Fortunately our season has started off really well. We are currently 3-0. You can see our stats and progress on our team website located here:

Safety Harbor Padres

Since I've been managing I haven't been able to shoot video, but Dea has agreed to come to all of the games and video tape for me. I'll add some video highlights soon.

Sonlight Pictures - Little League

In an effort to support our Little League during these tough economic times, we've decided to have Sonlight Pictures sponsor Gabe's Little League team. Along with a name on the back of the jersey, we also get a large banner that gets hung on one of the fields.

Below is the pic of the Sonlight Pictures banner. We hope to use the banner after the season is over at whatever public events in which we participate.


We picked the Padres as our team, but it appears no one picks them, so the uniforms are late. We hope to have our jerseys soon.

We'll add pics of Gabe in full jersey as soon as they come in.

Go Padres!

God Dreams Big

One of the things I think we most struggle with is trusting in God with those areas of our life that matter the most. A job interview, a relationship or our personal aspirations are just a few examples. We just can't seem to let go of our Free Will when it comes to the most important things in our lives. We think we have the perfect answer, the best solution, the most prepared outcome.

And we are wrong. For example...

My son has been involved in baseball since he was under two years of age. He's a gifted kid. He's an exceptional baseball player.

He would sit in my lap as a toddler and watch a three hour baseball game without fidgeting. He would ask questions about the rules and about the players. When teams scored runs I used that to help him learn how to add and we used the names of the teams to help him learn how to read.

He taught himself the basics of throwing and taught himself how to switch hit. He's turned into quite the ball player. He's been blessed to have had a great amount of success on the baseball diamond. Last year he once struck out 15 of 18 batters as a pitcher. He's been on three all-star teams and almost won a championship.

This year, between Little League Fall Ball and Spring Ball, a couple of coaches got together and formed a travel team which would play in tournaments against other advanced players. This is not Little League. This is much more difficult. The fields are bigger, all of the rules in baseball are in play (lead offs, steals, pitching from the stretch, etc.) and the competition is much harder.

My son, like the rest of the team, struggled in the beginning. The pitchers threw harder and threw curve balls. The bases were farther apart and the throws harder to make. As a pitcher there was so much more to think about... it was real baseball and it was tough.

After a few months my son's pitching adapted, but he struggled a lot at the plate.

My son's biggest problem is fear. When hitting he has always struggled with remaining relaxed and focused. He puts the pressure of the current situation and his past failings on his shoulders before ever stepping into the batters box. A recipe for failure.

But why does he struggle? Because in the batters box he's reacting, not dictating. He's having to adjust quickly instead of following his plan.

He's not in control.

Over the course of the season he's moved lower and lower in the batting order as his performance at the plate continued to slide. During a double-header last Saturday he continued to struggle, going only 1 - 4 on a misplayed fly ball. None of his hits were solid.

He had no confidence and we were running out of ways to approach correcting it.

After the second game was over we headed over to the Little League fields for our Little League team practice. For this last weekend, our travel team and our Little League schedules overlapped. Yes, my son was completely exhausted, but I told him he needed to be a leader on our team and show the new Little League players about commitment. He showed up and worked as hard as he could.

As we approached the end of practice each of the kids took some swings at the plate. A tired Gabe surprised us all by smacking the ball around the field from both sides of the plate with amazing consistency and power. At one point he almost hit a home run.

On the drive home I asked him what the difference was between our morning double-header and our Little League practice. He said at practice he was so tired he couldn't think. He just hit.

That inspired me. And we came up with a new plan.

I told him that he needs to offer his at-bats up to God. He has to let the Lord's will be done instead of trying to succeed on his own. He needed to let the Lord guide him. I told him to rely on the gifts God had given him and let his faith replace his fear.

Sunday morning the travel team started playing in the finals of the tourney. Two wins and our team would win the championship for our level.

The first at-bat, my son hit the ball really hard, but directly to the third baseman and was thrown out at first base. I was happy, though. It was the best contact he had made in months. Afterwards he smiled from the dugout and gave me a thumbs up.

His second at-bat he stepped into the batters box with men on second and third. The pressure was on.

In one of Saturday's games he had stepped up to the plate with bases loaded and struck out. I was afraid he would take the pressure of that and previous other failures and allow it to overwhelm him again.

Fortunately, God had bigger plans.

Before entering the batters box I could see him close his eyes and take a deep breath. He relaxed and focused on the pitcher. A few moments later the pitcher threw an inside fastball and my son quickly swung. The ball exploded off the bat. All of the parents in the stands reacted with immediate hoops and hollers. The left fielder quickly turned and chased after the ball as it hit the ground and bounced against the fence. Two runs scored and Gabe raced into third base for a triple.

The third base coach patted him on the helmet and my son's face beamed with a smile that spread from ear-to-ear. In between innings he motioned for me to come over to the dugout. He said "I was so relaxed! I just asked the Lord to let his Will be done and just focused on the ball!"

And focus he did.

In those two games on Sunday my son batted 4 - 6 with two triples, a double and a single with three RBIs. And, best of all, his travel team won the championship.

In God's usual sense of humor, I didn't get a chance to video tape any of the hits. I had to keep the scorebook instead. After video taping four months of failures I couldn't capture his success on video. God can be funny that way.

After the game the team headed up to a local restaurant to celebrate. We were all so proud of our players for their efforts and improvements. The manager of the team thought that my son, for his age and weight, could not have hit that ball to left field any farther.

I knew that we were playing on very large fields... fields substantially larger than our Little League fields. I asked them how far they thought he hit the ball. They guessed at somewhere between 250 - 275 feet. To put that in perspective, our Little League fields are 200 ft.

He had hit a monster shot.

On the drive home my son and I discussed the day. He talked about praying, relying on the Lord's Will and trusting in him.

I asked my son, "what did you hope would have been the best thing you could have done today in the batters box?" He thought about it for a minute and replied, "One really good hit. That's all. A single. Just not striking out." "Me too," I agreed.

I smiled and realized that if we had relied on the narrow focus of our Will, the most we had hoped for was a single. When we put our goals in God's hands, with his Will, my son was able to achieve things far greater than we could have imagined.

It was a good lesson for my son. A reaffirmation of his faith.

God's dreams for us will take us places far more gratifying and rewarding than anything we could ever imagine on our own.

And that's a good lesson for us all.

SISS Vol 3 Available

For those collectors of all books rare, pick up your limited copy of Surviving in Safety Harbor, Volume 3 which covers from June to December of 2006.

Mom, I'll have your copy when you return on Monday.

Busy

Not a lot of posts lately. Sorry. Just really busy with DC's school, Gabe's baseball, church and holiday stuff.

DC was in a wonderful one-act at school last Friday. It was very funny and she was exceptionally good. We were so proud of her. Amazing to see my little girl all grown up. :)

Gabe's baseball has been going well. He joined a local travel team where they play on larger fields and all of the baseball rules are in play (leading off, stealing, etc.). It's been a wonderful learning experience for him and he continues to improve.

Dea decorated this past weekend and the house looks great, both inside and out. She's such a workhorse and really attentive to detail. When you walk in the house you can't help but be fully immersed in the Christmas spirit. She's awesome.

Tim and his girls came over to watch the Gators trounce the Tide for a shot at the National Championship. Yes "It's Great... To Be... A Florida Gator!"

Finally, my Mom stayed with us a few days. I just love having her over. We always have so much fun... so many laughs. Her laugh is contagious. Plus, she's my mom! I love just spending time with her. That probably makes me a mama's boy, but I'm okay with that.

Now that I'm finally over two consecutive colds, I'm hoping with some more quality sleep and a little more focus, I can get a lot more accomplished, especially on the Sonlight Pictures front. I'll let you know if we do anything of note.

BTW - Bucs vs. Panthers tonight. Hope its a good game.

Have a great week, everyone.

Funny PUSA Interview

In this funny interview, the cast talks about the strangest thing they've had to do so far while shooting Purgatory, USA.

Please check it out.

PUSA - Episode 5 This Weekend

I had hoped, but never thought we'd get to shoot another PUSA, but we are. This weekend. So, pray for us. We have to shoot four days worth of footage in 2 1/2 days.

I'll have pics and more later.

Busy, Busy...

First, thank you Lord for the safety of Paul, Jean and Jonathan during Hurricane Ike! What a blessing. And congrats to Matt and Candyce on the birth of their new baby girl Eleanor Grace and also to Paul and Michelle on tying the knot. What wonderful news!

Things have been busy in the Bauer household recently. Dea and DC have been hit with a flu bug making the rounds. Gabe's Fall Ball season is about to start, so we've been down at the field quite a bit. I've been trying to prepare for a Purgatory, USA premiere for cast/crew and their families as well as working DVD menus for the eventual release of Volume 1.

This past week I finished writing the next two episodes of PUSA, one dealing with Envy and another dealing with the battle between God's Will and Our Will.

In researching a short script idea Paul had sent me about Angels, I finished reading a book called Angels & Devils by Joan Carroll Cruz... she takes all of the references in the Bible as well as from the Saints of any experiences with Angels and/or Devils and puts them into similar groupings, such as what Angels look like, Angels and the Eucharist, etc. It was a very interesting read.

Right now I'm in the middle of another one of Cruz' books called Eucharistic Miracles, which details all of the Eucharistic miracles from Christ through to the mid-1980's, when the book was written. Some of the stories are amazing.

After that I'm going to read another one of Cruz' books called The Incorruptables, about saints who have died and their bodies have remained incorrutable. I have to thank our friend, Darryll Miller, for loaning me the books, as he used to live next door to Mrs. Cruz in Louisiana and has all of her books.

So, things are busy... not exciting, just busy. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff later in the week :)

The Bats Take a Holiday as Safety Harbor Loses 4-1

Gabe pitched a complete game and the Safety Harbor defense continued its solid play, but the bats struggled as the team ended their all-star season with a 4-1 loss to Holiday.

The entire Safety Harbor team had little success putting the bat on the ball in all three games this year, including today. The team had multiple opportunities today early in the game with walks to gain an early lead, but failed to get a hit to drive in the potential runs.

Gabe managed to keep the opposition scoreless until the fourth inning when Holiday put all of their runs on the scoreboard by hitting solid drives to the outfield.

Gabe had four at bats, walked twice and got out twice, one on a pop up and another on a solid grounder up the middle played well by the Holiday second baseman. This left Gabe 0-8 and three walks in the entire all star tourney. If you would have told me Gabe would go hitless during the 10-11 all stars, I'd say your were completely insane.

So, I guess that makes you nuts.

Gabe did pitch very well in the two games and played nice defense. It was a good learning experience for him. We worked on the mental approach to the game and Gabe learned a lot about dealing with pressure he puts on himself.

Below are some pics (click to see larger image) from the weekend.

Gabe at the plate..




Gabe on the mound...




Now we're heading into the off season to relax and take some time away from the game for a while.

A special thanks to coaches Bob and Eric for all of their great work with the kids.

Safety Harbor 10-11 All Stars Lose 3-1

In a quick and uninspired game the Safety Harbor 10-11 All Stars lost in a defensive game to Tarpon Springs 3-1. Unfortunately, Safety Harbor did not take advantage of a nice pitching performance by Jonathan Schimmenti.

Gabe made a couple of nice plays at third base, but he's really struggled against the pitching so far... not because it is overpowering, but because it is slower. He's lunging in the batters box and, after tonight, he is now 0-7. Not pretty.

More than likely, because of our great defense we will probably be ranked fourth and should play our next game Saturday at 10 a.m.

Thank goodness this flat game was not the last one we'll have to think about for the entire off season. Whew! Hopefully the next one will be far better.

Safety Harbor 10-11 All Stars Beat Countryside 9-2!

After two rain outs and reschedules the Safety Harbor 10-11 All Stars started the tourney by winning 9-2 over Countryside in a well-played game. The victory was important for a few reasons. First, Countryside beat Safety Harbor in the 10-11 District 12 title game last year and Gabe had been stewing about that since then. Second, our coach, Bob Sauerwine, had never beaten a Countryside team in regular season or post-season play. I don't know how long he's been stewing about that. :)

So, last nights victory was enormously satisfying. Countryside is always well coached, well funded and with really good players. Over the years we've always felt like a Bad News Bears team when playing against them. It was nice to finally win one in an important game against such a great competitor.

Gabe started as our pitcher and pitched a wonderful game. In the first inning, with two outs, he gave up a solo home run, but after that with consistent pitching and a solid defense behind him Safety Harbor only gave up one more run the entire game. He pitched 5 1/3 innings out of 6, the last two outs pitched by Jonathan Schimentti.

On offense, Countryside's starting pitcher was very effective early on. His pitch was not exceptionally fast, but had nice movement with a solid drop as the ball passed over the plate. Later in the game their pitchers struggled with control and walked a few of our players. Using effective bunts and aggressive base running we were able to consistently add to our run total.

On a side note, we were very happy that Dea was able to attend the last half of the game. She flew down from Atlanta and was picked up at the airport by her mom and dad. They immediately drove over and arrived at the top of the fourth inning. That was a nice bonus. After a week away it was nice to see my wife.

We celebrated at a local sports bar that is extremely kid friendly, called Varsity Club. All of the kids from all of the teams usually go there. After the heat of competition, it's always great to see kids being kids, playing video games and pool together with players from the opposing teams. A nice way to end the evening.

Next up we play Tarpon Springs on Thursday.

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!

Little League - Games A' Plenty

Due to scheduling issues, what was supposed to be a game Thursday and a game Saturday turned into a mini-tournament. So, we played one game Thursday (we won), a game Friday evening (lost 4-1) and another game Saturday (lost 4-3).

The team did well. The losses were competitive games, which is all you can ask for at this level. Gabe did well pitching and at the plate. I'll have highlights in a few days.

We'll have one more weekend tourney just for fun next week and then it's prepping for all-stars.

Little League - Cards Down Dodgers 13-8

The game started out like any other... accurate pitching from Gabe, good hitting from the other team and a lot of errors by the Cards. That put us in an early 8-0 deficit after two innings. After that Gabe shut down the Dodgers and the Cards bats started to come alive. Everyone contributed. Gabe went 1-3 with a triple, a walk, a ground out and a strike out.

One by one the Cards clawed their way back into the game, ending the fourth inning down 8-7. After hitting away the opposing starting pitcher, the team was patient at the plate with the next pitcher and made solid contact with the ball, ending up rallying to win 13-8.

The game was important to Gabe because the Cards had not beaten the Dodgers this season, he incorporated a lot more of his off speed stuff in the game and he elevated his starting pitching record to 4-2.

The Cards and Dodgers go at it again on Thursday. The opposing pitcher is Gabe's best friend, Robert. That should make for an interesting game.