summer vacation

summer of 2009 consisted of a lot of baseball games,



my first visit to the porter county fair,




a couple of amazing road trips,


and a total of almost 2500 photos taken.

final (regular season) game

with three people to get ready in the morning, there's bound to be some down time. so this post & the next will be catch-up. then i'll start telling you about being in canada.

this past monday was the last regular season game for the railcats. unfortunately, we lost. but the outcome of the game didn't affect our league standings - we're at the top, and currently playing the fourth seed (kansas city) in the first round of the playoffs. it's a bit of a bummer that i'm out of town & can't attend any of the games ... but it's really hard to complain when i'm on vacation. :) assuming we win this series, the championship home games start friday september 11. i'll definitely be there.

mikey's birthday

for mikey's birthday, a group of us from work went to the railcats game. we even got mikey to throw out a ceremonial first pitch!


approaching the mound.


the wind up, after shaking off the first couple of signals from the catcher.


the pitch.


the follow through


the catcher, who was quite humored by mikey shaking off the signals. :)

disco demolition

thursday at the steel yard was the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the disco demolition they invited everyone to bring in disco records, and after the game they blew them up. actually, i think they faked blowing them up ... but it was still fun. :)

the obsession

okay, i'll admit it. i might be slightly obsessed with the RailCats. i might go to every game i possibly can. i might know all their names & numbers (jersey numbers, that is. i'm not THAT girl.). i might even know the opening lyrics to the songs a few of them have played when they come up to bat. it's possible.

fairly early this season, beth & i got RailCats jerseys. i've got the away jersey with Wallace on the back; beth has the alternate jersey with Marconi. then, this past month, we were able to introduce mikey to the goodness that is the RailCats. and he, being the wise guy *ehem* that he is, jumped right on the bandwagon and got an away jersey with Czarniecki on the back.

we have quite a presence in the stands. :)

all-star game

beth & i went to the northern league all-star game last night. i had to share this photo of railcats pitcher eddie de la cruz. what a fabulously unplanned combination of prolonged shutter speed & fast action.