Three Up...Three Down!

For those of you who don't know us personally...I have a big family...huge...and I love it. My mom has 3 brothers and sisters, for a total of 10 nieces and nephews, and now that we are all getting married and having babies the numbers are growing everyday (5 great grand babies and one on the way for my grandparents). My dad is the third child in a total of 10...I don't really want to take the time to sit and count all of my cousins, and their kids right now...but you get the picture. We are all spread all over the country now. I have family members as far west as Oregon and as far east as New Hampshire. Just a little tidbit of info about us! ;-)

Now for the real reason for this blog...one of my cousins on my mom's side of the family, Andy, is a fantastic baseball player. He always has been since he was a young boy. Several of my cousins are exceptionally athletic...I was not blessed with the speedy gene. I always had great rhythm and stamina for dance, and loved it, so that's where I stayed. (Couldn't even do that now if I tried, but that's another blog for another day!) Anyhow...Andy has always had a dream of playing professional baseball in the Major leagues, and he has taken one more step in that direction recently.

He graduated in May from Franklin University in Indiana where he played baseball for four years, and now he has been signed by an independent professional baseball team in Florence, KY...the Florence Freedoms. He is on their pitching rotation and starts about every fifth game as I understand it. Luckily he is close enough to Louisville (where most of our family is) that folks can make the trip to see him when he pitches at home. We obviously can't be there for it...but when we're really lucky, he starts on a weekend. Those games are aired on the local Fox network in Florence, and we can watch them online. Can I tell you how cool it is to sit on my computer here in GA and watch my cousin play professional baseball in KY? Awesome! We got to watch him play on Saturday and the girls got a big kick out of it. We were eating dinner when it started, so you can see in the attached video that we were watching from the dinner table. For days after that, Lilly would ask to watch the baseball game at dinner every night. The video is a little dark because of the lighting in the room, but I wanted to share anyway... In one of the first few innings, Andy got the first 3 batters out and we began chanting, 'Three up, three down." The girls thought this was funny, which is why I grabbed the camera. Of course they weren't nearly as enthusiastic about it when I started filming, but what can I say...at least we have it on tape! To translate a little 'Lilly talk' before you watch...in the beginning when I ask her who we are watching play baseball, she said 'Mommy's friend, Andy.' We tried to explain to her that he is my friend, but that he is my family too...my cousin...like her cousin Carson or Matt. I think we just confused her more though... Nonetheless...enjoy! And if this video attaches easily, I'll try to make a habit of filming more to post on here at times...we shall see...

To Andy...we are so proud of you and pray that all your dreams come true!