The Birthday Baseball Bunch

Last month my youngest niece, Jessie Prescott, had a baseball-themed birthday party.  This event was held at the sprawling southwestern Ohio estate of my niece's Grandma Maria.  Below are just a few of the untold millions of photos I took that day:

Jessie prepares to take a mighty cut into a giant, inflatable..... ummm..... something or other.  A jet of air suspends a Wiffle Ball, simulating a tee from which participants attempt to drive the ball through one of the holes that you see on the playing field at the back of the..... umm..... something or other.  Everyone in attendance referred to this as the Joey Votto game, thinking the ballplayer atop the something or other bore some sort of resemblance to the Reds' MVP first baseman.  Could not they plainly see this was a right handed batting player?  The bulky muscles gave the ball player, to my eye, the very resemblance of Ron Gant.  

Among the many baseball-themed games Lou creatively devised for the party was "Strike Zone:"

What might appear to the untrained eye as the underside of a box spring with a strike spray painted onto it is in fact the underside of a box spring with a strike zone spray painted onto it.  This produced hours of fun.  Even long after the last of the party guests rounded third and headed for home, we adults filled up the strike zone with our respective repertoires of pitches.

While Lou and Jessie attended to the ceremonial flag raising at Grandma Maria's mailbox.....

..... I sought out the solitude of the ball field which Lou expertly mowed into Grandma Maria's ballpark-sized side yard:

For perspective, I am standing behind third base, the pitchers' mound at center, home plate at right.  The steeple of St. Biblioteca-in-Tomes watching over our festivities in the background.  

After the preliminary games (such as "Strike Zone," above), it was time to Play Ball!  Lou arranged the kids alphabetically according to height and divvied them into teams:

This process took longer than you might expect.

Eventually, Lou had them whipped into shape!

After two innings of exciting baseball, it was time for birthday cake!  In a flash, the cake was devoured by hungry kids and one uncle of  gluttonous appetite!

No photos of the baseball game are known to exist.  Even better, however, I captured much of the game on film [OK, digital memory card].  Check out the two Lombardi-Cam videos linked below:

Jessie Prescott rips a single!

Alex Russo rips a single!

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In other sporting news; If you had Wise Dan to win and set a course record this weekend in the Woodbine Mile (in Canada), you scored.  The last line in the Daily Racing Form's report reads as follows:

Of the $685,361 that was wagered to Show on the race, $617,584 was bet on Wise Dan. 

Looks like people are finally catching onto the Wise Dan Free Money Express.  If by "free money" we understand it - these days - to mean "pennies on the dollar."