The End of an Era

Both Mark and Dax ended their time with their baseball teams. (Don't worry they weren't free agents for long!) Mark played on the Diamond Thieves with the same group of kids for 3 years, which actually means 6 seasons counting Spring and Fall baseball. He really learned a lot about baseball and made some great friends. We loved his coach, Jeff, who was so good with Mark and always treated Mark like a special player. Eventually, though, Jeff and his son moved into high school baseball, but Mark has one more year of super-league. Since half of his team was left, and his rivals, the Scrappers, also had half a team, they combined. The new Scrappers are better than both the old teams! Mark has really been excited to be with some of his old friends, and to make some brand new baseball friends.

Mark became a leader on the Diamond Thieves.

The team relied on Mark for pitching quite a bit.

We spent many nights at the baseball field watching Mark.

Mark is always happy playing baseball. 

Pitching again!

We love watching Mark on the bases. He is so smart.

Jeff was the best coach!

Everyone was so good to Seth. He was like the team mascot. 

The boys took 2nd in their league. It was a heart wrenching loss after 8 innings on baseball. 

This is when Mark first joined the Diamond Thieves (they wore A's jerseys for the first season).

Then here they are at the end. Mark, and 3 other boys stayed on the team the whole time.

Dax only played with the Curve for a year. Then his team got picked up by an academy. This means that the entire team had the opportunity to switch over to a team that is coached by an ex-college baseball coach. Jeremy Thomas coached at Dixie and BYU before leaving the college ranks to start the Barons Academy. Dax made the team and was excited to become a Baron. He loves the history of baseball, and the Barons are based on Birmingham Black Barons from the Negro Leagues. Dax even changed his number to 18 to honor Cool Papa Bell, a speedy outfielder from those days. He and Dad attend the practices and they both learn so much. By the end of the first day, every one in our family was throwing harder and more accurately! We are really excited for the upcoming season!

Dax loves to pitch!

Dax is the lead off hitter for the Curve and Barons.

Dax is so quick. He can turn almost any contact into a base hit.

Dax has fallen in love with baseball. 

Dax plays catcher a lot! And he's a great little catcher.

One more pic of Dax pitching because it's harder to get pictures of the boys making plays in the field.

The Curve were a great group of boys, but most of them were picked up by the Barons, so there weren't many changes.