The Last Dance Baseball Tournament

Life came to a grinding halt in March. Everything was cancelled Rightfully so, but it hurt the senior class. Ashley's drama teacher was able to put on a Zoom production of Metamorphases, but there was no way for high school sports teams to still practice and hold games. Everyone understood, but that doesn't mean people didn't wish it was different.

As the numbers in New Jersey improved high school baseball teams were able to hold the Last Dance Tournament. According to a friend 222 schools sent teams in an elimination-style tournament. Winners move on, non-winners were done for the season. Ouch, but better than nothing.

For some reason the teams had to come up with a new name. His son's team is called Dirty Boyz Liedke Trucking instead of Hamilton West. They had to get sponsors to help off-set the costs. 

His team somehow scored playing most of their games at Trenton Thunder's stadium. Thunder has been generous to host. Tickets are $10 each, plus a $2 processing fee. No charge to park. They are still required to stick to the 500 person limit for outside gatherings (the stadium can seat over 8,000 people). We were encouraged to socially distance our seating, though no one came around to enforce it. Likewise we were encouraged to wear masks, though no one enforced it, so very few people did it. I'd say about 10% of the people wore masks, and that might be generous. They don't get that one case of COVID traced back to the tournament will shut it all down. The friends I saw and I wore ours. We can only do what we can do.

It felt almost normal being outside watching a game. The quality is very good, despite they were not able to have practices. The game I did not go to, his son pitched six innings and was the winning pitcher. High school games only go to seven innings.

The weather was perfect. It was nice to have a good conversation.

On Tuesday Ashley's school's team will play Hamilton West, otherwise known as the Lawrence Road Irish vs. Dirty Boyz Liedtka Trucking. Not sure who I will root for. Is it okay to root for both sides?