World Series Recap!

Whew...what a busy, fun, and exciting week! The 12 Year Old Dizzy Dean World Series was held in Moody, Alabama from July 18-23. There were 16 teams in the tournament from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee. You were supposed to finish 1st or 2nd in your state to qualify but then there were some open spots for other teams to be invited, too. We usually take off work the week of the world series but because it was held so close and neither one of us could really take off, we just decided to stay in Moody over the weekend and then drive back and forth the rest of the week. Friday night we got to the ball park about 7:30 for opening ceremonies. All the teams went out on the field for a ceremony and then there was an AWESOME fireworks show!

Our first game was Saturday at 12:30 against the Rockdale Mustangs from Georgia. We beat them in 4 innings 10-0.
Our next game was Sunday at 1pm against the Sandy Springs Storm from Georgia. They were the State Champs in Georgia. We beat them 4-1.
Monday we played Jefferson Parrish Recreational Department at 2pm. We knew from watching their game the day before that their fans were loud and obnoxious and that they might give us some competition. Well, we were right! At the top of the 6th inning, we were losing 10-4! We were the visiting team so we had one more shot at scoring enough runs to tie or get ahead or that was the ballgame. I'll be honest, I just knew we were beat! We hadn't been hitting that well and it just wasn't looking good. But, we did it! We scored 8 runs that inning to make the score 12-10 and then we got them out before they scored any! It was awesome! We were so proud of our boys for coming back like that! It was probably 100 degrees that day at least and one of their players had a heat stroke during that last inning. He left in an ambulance and had a seizure on the way to the hospital. Scary but we've heard he's okay.
Tuesday, we played Northwest, Florida at 2pm. This team had some huge, grown men looking boys on their team and had pretty much dominated every team they played. They were cocky and we were a little nervous about it. We played for about an hour and then the thunder and lightning started so we had about a 2 hour rain delay. We ended up beating them 7-0! They were not happy about it and kept saying, we'll see ya'll again. They were wrong, they lost their next game so they were out of the tournament! This put us in the championship game on Wednesday.
Wednesday we played Panhandle, Florida for the Championship at 6pm and they had to beat us twice. We beat them 14-10! So we won the Championship! It was great! Chandler has played in this tournament every year since he was 6 and the closest they've ever come to winning was when they were 10, they came in 2nd! It was so awesome to see them finally achieve this! They went 23-0 for the all-star season! Thanks to all the support of our family for coming to watch Chandler play! My dad came Sat and Wednesday. His friend Rick came with him Wednesday. Ashley and Collin came Sat. I could not believe this cause it was so hot and she doesn't like hot weather! Richard's parents were there the whole week. Russell and Jill came Wednesday night. Thanks to other family and friends for your support from home! We are so proud of Chandler and for his talents and the good kid that he is!
This is the banner Richard made to hang on the fence at the games.

2008 12 year old Dizzy Dean World Series Champions!

Hudson was really tired one day on the way home from the ball park. Notice his wooden bat tucked under his arm! He had a great time swimming in hotel pools, playing with his friends, and eating lots of snow cones and dipping dots!
This is not a good picture at all but this is the dog pile right after the last out was made to win the game.
Our State Championship banner. They now have a World Series one, too. Their picture is on the changing billboard on the corner of McFarland and 15th Street (the side coming from Skyland) for 2 weeks. Check it out if you get a chance.