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07/25/06
What a trip it was…
Filed under: General
Posted by: Gavin @ 9:59 am

We arrived in Park City on July 19 and the first thing that we noticed was the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working.  The highs were in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s and it was warm in our room.  We finally notified the front desk as we were heading back to the room after dinner.  Maintenance was called and they stopped by to check out the AC unit.  Sure enough, the compressor had failed.  He stated he would have to notify the front desk.

 

We didn’t hear anything until about 8:30 and they told us that they could move us to a two bed room but we would lose the studio that we were in.  This meant losing the microwave, stove and fridge which we were very pleased with.  Or we could stay there with the use of a fan and they would replace the compressor the next day.  We chose to stay in the room with the fan and survived the first night…  Barely. 

 

The two beds in this room were doubles and Carol and I fit snugly on the bed if one of us was always on our side.  Trying to roll over in the night meant waking the other.  Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep this first night.

 

July 20 2006

 

We all got up after a restless night and had breakfast.  Before we knew it, it was noon and we were supposed to be in Heber City for warm-ups before the game.  So, we’re running a little late.  I called the front desk to let them know we would be gone so they could replace the compressor and repair the air conditioning.  Then we ran over to Albertson’s and picked up another bag of ice to fill the Styrofoam cooler that we had purchased the day before and filled with Gatorade and water.  Filled the cooler with the ice, covered it up in the back of the Dodge Magnum, closed the back hatch and climbed in to get on the road to Heber City.

 

I pulled out of the parking lot and heard this crash in the back.  My minds eye tells me that the Styrofoam cooler has tipped over and nothing is left in it.  Damn it.  I pull into the next drive and park.  Open up the back of the Magnum and sure enough, it’s tipped and the ice and water is all over the back.  We stand the cooler up and fill it with everything that we can gather and decide that putting it in the back seat between the front and back seat would help keep it upright.  So I grab the refilled cooler and proceed to put it in the back seat dropping it the last couple of inches due to the limited space available to maneuver.  This wasn’t a good thing as it landed on a corner and busted the cooler up spilling its contents all over the floor of the back seat this time.

 

Shit!  I can’t believe this.  It’s now 12:15 and we’re really late now.  I slam the door shut and climb into the car and head down the road for the 30 minute drive ahead of us.  It was a completely quiet ride that trip.  The one thing I noticed as we were approaching Heber City was that there was still snow on the mountains off in the distance.  It is July 20 and to see snow on the mountains was still cool even for me to see.  I pointed the snow out to Tyler too.

 

I got Tyler his vest from the back of coach Matt’s truck and got it to Tyler and then I briefly told Matt about our situation and that we were going back to the Smith’s that we saw heading into town to clean up our mess.  He said that was fine, he would take care of Tyler for us.

 

Game time, we’re facing the number one team in the state of Utah to start the tournament.  We know it won’t be easy but if we can stay close, it should be a good game.

 

1:30 PM           Chandler Red Sox (2) vs. Utah Horns (14)

 

OK, we didn’t keep it close.  We didn’t look bad either.  They just looked really good and really aggressive on the bases.  We just couldn’t stop them.

 

We had some time before we had to be back for the next game so we decided to go grab a bite to eat and head to the hotel for a little rest.  By the time we got to the hotel, it was close to 3:30 and the air conditioning wasn’t fixed yet.  The temps were in the high 80’s and it was stuffy hot in the room.  I called the front desk for an update or a status and they said they would have to call me back.  We never heard from them by the time we left for Heber City for the next game at 4:30.  I was getting a little frustrated with them, but there wasn’t anything I could do then.

 

7:30 PM           Tuff Country Predators (4) vs. Chandler Red Sox (7)

 

We played better and we were able to hold these boys off.  They were another good team.  I guess that’s what you should expect at the Tournament of Champions where you must have won a previous tournament to be invited here.  But we won so we were positioned nicely for the games to come tomorrow.

 

We head back to the hotel and arrive about 10:15.  Still no air conditioning in our room and no messages with a status that I had requested earlier.  I head down to the front desk and speak with both clerks.  They have no rooms available so Willy calls a manager and asks if they can put us up in one of the available condos?  About 10:45 we have everything worked out and we’re heading to a condo about a mile away.  So we pack everything up and in about four trips we had the car fully loaded headed to the condo.  By the time we were able to get into the condo and unload the car, it was 12:30 and we were all dead.  I think we finally hit the sack around 1:00 AM.

 

July 21 2006

 

This place was better than where we had just come from, but the queen beds were hard as rocks.  I think my body ached from the hardness of the bed.  I didn’t sleep very well and woke to find the toilet plugged from a previous resident.  It was still hot in the unit as they had the thermostats set at 85 when we first arrived and the AC unit doesn’t cool the unit very well it appears.  So how good was this upgraded condo?  I don’t know yet. 

 

We get up and head to Heber City for today’s games leaving our sleeping quarters behind (thank god).  We get out to the ball fields around noon for a little batting practice and everyone’s hitting good.  Wilson and Cord both hit the parking lot several hundred feet away.  Looks like this should be a pretty good game.  I hope we play well.

 

1:30 PM           South Valley Sliders (10) vs. Chandler Red Sox (2)

 

We didn’t play well at all.  It seemed that everyone including our Tyler struggled on the mound this game.  The errors out in the field were horrendous. It was so reminiscent of the games the All Stars played.  Errors and no hitting won’t win you any games.  We came all this way with the assurances of the coach that this was a good team and they would handle the ball behind our pitchers.  I didn’t see it here today. 

 

We grabbed a bite to eat and returned to the field to get ready for the next game.  Originally we were thinking that we were done at this point but apparently at least one 2 and 2 team was going to make the cut to the Semi’s so we still had a shot.  So let’s go out there and win this one to play on Saturday.

 

5:30 PM           Chandler Red Sox (6) vs. South Valley Bombers (13)

 

This was the worst game yet.  After three innings we were tied at 3 but then we let down in a big way.  The fifth inning saw 5 errors alone with 9 runs scoring.  Wilson was on the mound and no one could get an out for him.  This was not Wilson’s fault by any means.  He pitched a great game.  I felt so bad for him.  I felt so frustrated for us.  We came all that way and we played horrible as a team.  We were done.  Knocked from the tournament Friday afternoon and we’re not leaving until Sunday noon.

 

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the condo.  We had dinner with Lora, Mark, Courney and Canyon who were in town for the Triple Crown World Series with Courtney’s Impulse Blue team.  It was the one happy and bright spot in this whole trip.  If it wasn’t for them, this would have been the worst… OK, it was the worst trip I have ever been on.  We enjoyed getting out of Phoenix for a few days and the heat, but it was hot up there.  It was just a horrible trip.  I hope Tyler had fun.  That’s what the trip was for so I hope he got something out of it.

 

We changed our flight to Saturday afternoon and headed home early.  I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  My body ached from the bed and both toilets were leaking if you could get them to stop running which was a battle of its own.  I just wanted to get home.  I was so glad to land in Phoenix around 6:00 PM Saturday and know that I was going to get a good night’s sleep which I did.  I slept hard.

 

Well, that was my Utah baseball trip.  I did have some fun but these are the things that I remember from this trip.  That’s it for now.  We’re back into the swing of normal everyday life again without a whole lot of baseball or softball in it for a couple weeks.  Then the Rebels will start back up and the Fury will start playing in some tournaments and leagues again too just in time for school to start for the kids.  Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be typing at you later.

 

In case you were interested, the semi’s and finals ended up with the Utah Horns winning the whole thing.  The games played out as follows:

 

July 22 2006

 

11:30 AM        (Seed 1) UT Horns (12) vs. (Seed 4) SF Heat (3)

1:30 PM           (Seed 2) SF Red Sox (11) vs. (Seed 3) SV Bombers (2)

 

3:30 PM           Championship game: UT Horns (7) vs. SF Red Sox (4)

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