First off, I cannot begin a sports-related post without congratulating Roger Federer on breaking Sampras's record for the most major tennis titles in a career. But damn... my boy Andy Roddick sure made him work for it. Roddick gave us one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever, losing in the 5th set, 16-14 (!!!); and if he doesn't win the damn thing one of these years, it will be a crime against all humanity.

Anyway...

This is going to be the week from Hell. It's time for Little League All-Stars, and so Trevor has a game Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... and then Friday we will be leaving for the Shore Leave convention near Baltimore in the wee hours of the morning.

It's been over a week since the regular season ended, and Trevor's Dodgers went out on a very positive note. The penultimate game was a week ago last Thursday, and Trevor got his third start on the mound this season... and ended up with his third win of the season! (Woo-hoo!!!) He was helped out by the unbelievable hitting of our shortstop, Scottie, who had nine RBIs on the day, including a grand slam homer in the second inning that put things out of reach very early-on. (He would have had 11 RBIs if he hadn't missed clearing the top of the fence by about a foot later in the fourth inning.) The team cruised to a 14-4 victory.

Then on Saturday we played our final game of the year at Edwardsburg, and even though Scottie missed the game due to a family vacation, the rest of the team was pumped and ready to play. The coach allowed all the 12 year-olds in their final game to bat at the top of the order, and kids who had struggled all year suddenly began hitting like madmen. We had the same crappy umpire who blew the call in our tournament game, and the guy remained true to form, failing to call obstruction while one of our runners literally had to climb over the catcher to reach home plate. But it didn't matter. By the end of the game, Trevor and most of the other 11 year-olds were watching from the bench as we capped things off, winning 16-4.

So the team finishes up with a winning record (7-6, including one forfeit). Trevor finishes the regular season with a batting average of exactly .500 -- second-best on the team (behind Scottie). His pitching ERA was an impressive 2.0 -- again, second-best (behind Scottie). All the final stats are uploaded here.

Now the "real" tournament begins. The first four games are in a round-robin format, so we'll at least be playing through Thursday. The first two are at home against Warsaw and Concord, then we're on the road against Goshen and Middlebury. If we finish in the top four out of the eleven teams in our district, we'll move on to the semifinals on Sunday (which Trevor, unfortunately, will miss due to our trip out East). Given the hectic schedule of the next few days, updates may be erratic, so check the Elkhart paper for the results.