1997.....that was the last time that I set foot on a pitcher's mound. Until this past weekend....and man, I have sore muscles where I did not even know there WERE muscles!! But, it was all worth it to be able to spend a few hours playing a game I grew up with with guys that I have played with and against since we all were little kids. Not sure if everyone knows, but Heath Dowsey, from Fairhope, was involved in a boat accident about a month ago. In this accident, he lost both his father and his uncle. His uncle's girlfriend and the boat captain was drowned - Heath was the lone survivor. So, as a way to show the Dowsey family some love, some old teammates put together a "tribute" game to honor Big R, Randy Dowsey. There were guys from Daphne, Fairhope, Robertsdale, and guys I played with at FSCC there; in all, close to 40 guys showed up to play. It was awesome to see all these guys, some I had not seen in 14-15 years!! But it seemed like the conversations picked up where they were left off all those years ago!!
Heath's mom, Donna, set the line-ups, and it was gametime!! Now, how us old pitchers got roped into pitching 2 innings each, I have no clue. But, it was like riding a bike!!! And now I feel like I fell OFF a bike!! After 9 innings, the "team" I pitched with ending up scoring more runs than the other team. I am not going to say "won," because everyone won on this day. And with Will Hughes cooking up some awesome BBQ, everyone left with full bellies! It was a great day, and I think it will happen again in the future.
Other highlights of the weekend included the Arts & Crafts Festival. April spent the day with my mom and Aunts Martha and Reenie. It was a beautiful day for the festival! Mackenzie and I hung out and did some geocaching along the bayshore! Then we took a walk to the end of Fairhope Municipal Pier! It was just a fantastic weekend, full of friends and family!!
