April means baseball and #priceless family traditions for this family of sports nuts. From reading our past posts you know how much our family loves to play and watch sports.
Last month our whole family was totally into March Madness. Our three children carefully studied Warren Buffett’s $1 billion challenge for the perfect bracket. Along with everyone else in the country, our bracket was completely blown in the first week. Don’t worry! Next year our ambitious kids plant to run more algorithms to figure out the right picks. I’ll keep you posted about that!
And for this Tennessean, anyway, how disappointing that the eighth seed Kentucky didn’t win? Did you know that the last time an eighth seed was in the final was in 1985? That year Villanova upset heavily favored Georgetown to win. Who remembers where they were that night? Probably not many of you, but I remember our Bryn Mawr gang parading down the Main Line. More about that night another time…
So now that spring is finally here, April means baseball!
1. Little League Starts
Baseball season kicks off in our town with the annual Little League parade and champions game. For our family, the parade is such a wonderful tradition. We look forward to it every year, and do you know what? It (almost) never rains.
April Means Baseball: Little League Season Opener
Our son was drafted to the majors, but much to the chagrin of serious Yankee fans he plays for the Mets. Luckily, his team won the first game of opening day. Yankee great Yogi Berra said, “Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets,” so not only are we are looking forward to a great season of Little League, but the Little League season opener also marks the launch of our annual family tradition of hitting professional baseball games.
2. Our Family Tradition of Hitting Every Major League Ballpark
A few years ago, when we decided to visit family in Pittsburgh and in Evansville, Indiana, we researched places for family fun along the way. Since our family is filled with both baseball players and fans, we decided to map out our trip by visiting Major League ballparks along the way. Our children happily embraced this plan and were especially enthusiastic about collecting a signature ball from every park.
Along the way, we always rounded up local friends to participate in the festivities, which has made for some pretty wonderful memories. So far we have visited 20 of the 29 Major League teams’ ballparks:
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Cincinnati Reds
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Cleveland Indians
- New York Mets (both Shea and Citi Field)
- New York Yankees (both the old and new stadiums)
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Washington Nationals
- Baltimore Orioles
- Detroit Tigers
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Anaheim/LA Angels
- Chicago Cubs
- Chicago White Sox
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Boston Red Sox
- Houston Astros
- Texas Rangers, Dallas
- Atlanta Braves
- Tampa Bay Rays
Soon, we will be launching our blog series on traveling to the different parks. Has your family done something similar? We’d love to hear from you! Please share your tips and funny stories!
3. #Priceless Baseball
Since we love baseball so much, we often tweet about our visits and events. Last year MasterCard graciously invited us to attend the All-Stars concert in Central Park. This season, MasterCard again discovered our tweets and offered us the #priceless surprise of attending a Yankees batting practice. Unfortunately we were visiting family in Texas at that time, so MasterCard sent us a Daryl Strawberry autographed baseball instead. You can only imagine the joy on the boys’ faces when it arrived. One of the favorite things of childhood is receiving a package in the mail! Just #Priceless! We thank MasterCard for the generous gift and plan to continue to use our card as we travel across America to different parks!
4. Great Baseball Movies Hit the Screen
Another way we get into the spirit of the baseball season is by watching our favorite baseball movies, such as 42. This season, Disney is celebrating the start of baseball with a pitching contest for its upcoming release, Million Dollar Arm. The movie is an incredible true story about two young men who grew up in India and went from never throwing a baseball to getting a Major League tryout. To create excitement, Disney is giving amateur baseball pitchers in the nation a chance to compete for a $1 million prize in the Million Dollar Arm Pitching Challenge.
Amateur baseball pitchers—male or female, who are legal United States residents at least 18 years of age or older—are invited to qualify to compete in the preliminary rounds of the Million Dollar Arm Pitching Challenge at either Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida, Disneyland® Resort in California or the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day at the Tribeca Family Festival in New York City. The three contestants from each location who throw the fastest pitches will advance to the finals and have a chance to compete for a $1 million prize at the world premiere of Disney’s Million Dollar Arm in Hollywood, California. Official rules are available on Disney.com’s Million Dollar Arm homepage at http://movies.disney.com/million-dollar-arm/special-event
Check out the trailer for the movie:
We can’t wait to see the movie when it opens in theaters on May 16th!
While we are talking about movies, we also want to sneak in a recommendation to check out a wonderful documentary by local high school student Zack Samberg and fellow NYU Violet Ben Altarescu called The Book of Lone Peak. This short film is about an unusual basketball team from Utah who inspires all with their unique style and dominating performance to become the number one team in the nation. You can buy it on iTunes for only $2.99 here The Book of Lone Peak.
Meanwhile, we are going to enjoy one of our favorite months because April Means Baseball and #Priceless Family Traditions!
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