Talk about a delayed post...sheesh! I've been busy...yeah, that's right...with another cold and still catching up on laundry and household tasks. Now that I'm more or less caught up, I can write about how awesome Cooperstown was.
For those of you who are baseball illiterate, Cooperstown, NY is home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. That was not our reason for making the trek to NY, though. Our son's baseball team was invited to play at the Cooperstown Dreams Park (CDP) for their 10U week of top-notch competition. CDP runs from June through August, 12 weeks of play. The level of play is comparable to what you see each year on ESPN at the Little League World Series. The major differences are that CDP teams are usually just from the United States (though there are occasionally Canadian teams that play) and are, for the most part, not All-Star teams. Yes, there are some All-Star teams put together for the sole purpose of coming to CDP, but most of the teams are teams which have been playing together for at least one season.
The Boys' Experience
The teams come to CDP and spend the whole week there, boys and coaches together. The sleep in barracks as a team, shower as a team, eat as a team, and spend the bulk of their down time as a team. One of the biggest activities when first arriving at CDP is pin trading. Each team has a specially designed pin so that the boys can trade with one another. Our team actually had five pins, though I don't think anyone ordered all five for their son to trade (I could be wrong). You can see an example of one here (top right corner). Coaches, umpires, and families get in on the pin trading too, but for the boys this is the big activity on CDP Day 1.
Opening Ceremonies
Three paratroopers jumped out of the plane flying above us. It was remarkable to watch them float down and see each one hit their mark in the outfield.
These men weren't young, either! One of the boys' mom got a really great photo of our boys at the CDP gate looking up at the men floating down from the sky. Once I get a copy of it I'll
share it here.
After the paratroopers, we finally were able to watch all the teams march into the CDP stadium. Since they were going in alphabetical order, our boys marched in fairly early. Our John was one of the boys holding the Cincy Flames banner (the one on the right):
After all the teams were in the stadium, they were ready to start the Skills Competition. Eight of our boys took part in Around the Horn Plus, (which is some complicated game of throwing the ball from player to player as quickly as possible). The rest of the boys took part in the individual skills competitions: King of Swat (homerun derby), Golden Arm (outfielding), and Roadrunner (fastest base runner). No competition was won by our boys.
The Rest of the Week
Since I don't want to bog you down with the details of each and every game we watched, I'll just share some photos. The weather was absolutely ideal except for one day. That day happened to be the day my mother and cousin drove up to stay for a couple of nights. It was our hottest, most humid day there, and it ended with a thunderstorm which delayed the boys' late afternoon game.
Anyway, here are some photos:
John posing before taking his spot in right field.
On the mound for a really big win!
The flag in left field.
The double rainbow as we wait for the Closing Ceremonies to begin.
Closing Ceremonies was where the boys were inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame (imagine how long it takes to name all the boys for 96 teams!). As a memento, they received their Cooperstown Dreams Park rings.
All in all it was a remarkable experience, one the boys will remember for a lifetime, I'm sure. The week-long experience of doing everything as a team has really made some strong bonds between the boys. We're looking forward to going back when the boys are 12!
