Baseball Tournament in Eugene, Oregon

Sun. July 25th - Fri. July 30th

Let me help Grandpa!







I'll drive Grandpa. I'm already buckled in.

We left Helena Sunday with our grandson and one of his All-Star team mates to take them to the Babe Ruth regional baseball tournament in Eugene, Oregon.


Our first stop was to see the Silver Dollar Bar with over 55,000 silver dollars on the walls near the Idaho border.





We stayed over night at the tri-cities (Kennewick, Richland & Pasco) in Washington and saw several miles of these ammunition bunkers the next morning just over the Oregon border. The Umatilla Army Depot.

Mt. Hood, Oregon. It was such a clear day, we could see it from at least 120 miles away.

Carter and Jaret just right of center on the bridge at Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls about 30 miles east of Portland.

Jaret and Carter doing a little pitching and catching practice in the backyard at John's cousin's house in Portland.

Our first morning in Eugene practicing at the batting cages in the mall.

Chowing down at the food court after practice.

Carter at first base for the around-the-horn trials the day before the tournament. They also had agility trials and a home run hitting competition.

The finals for the home run competition for the 12 year olds. Two boys tied with six home runs each out of twenty times at bat. In the tie breaker,

one hit o and the other hit 5 home runs out of 10 times at bat. Pretty amazing.

Our team marching in for the opening ceremonies at the minor league game the night before the tournament.

All the teams lined up on the field.

Did somebody say hot dogs? Let's eat!

Coach's talk after we lost our second game. He asked, "Who likes to win?" No one answered. So he asked again. Carter immediately jumped up and yelled, "Carter Wald likes to win!"

Carter pitching.

Carter went to supper with his team mates, so we did a little exploring. This sign is in front of the track at the Oregon State campus. It indicates the cities and years in which they had athletes competing in the Olympics and how many miles it was to each city.

Steve Prefontaine from Coos Bay, Oregon was the best distance runner in America. He was killed in a car accident.

Statue of Bill Bowerman, teacher, innovator, visionary and motivator at Hayward Track Field at Oregon State. He experimented with his wife's waffle iron, trying to make better soles for running shoes. He ruined several waffle irons and finally came up with what eventually became Nike.

There was a steeple chase race going on while we were there, so we watched for a while. About half the people going over the hurdles fell in the water every time they came around. It was kind of fun to watch.

Carter playing first base. Carter made the first two outs at first and the third was a pop fly. 1-2-3. The second inning Carter made the first out at first again and then there were two strike outs. 1-2-3. Third inning Carter caught the hit and touched first for the first out. Then there was one on base, a force at second and a strike out. Almost 1-2-3 again. Fourth inning Carter caught the first hit and touched base for the out. Then there was a long pop caught for the second out. Then Carter caught another grounder and hustled to first. 1-2-3 again. When you're hot, you're hot! 10-0 in 3 & 1/2 innings.

Boy, these bats are heavy, but WE WON, WE WON! They were like a whole different team the second day.

Fourth game Carter pitched an awesome game.

First inning was a strike out, a single, a pop fly to center and a pop fly to right field. Almost 1-2-3. Second inning two singles, a pop to the pitcher caught and fired to first for two outs and a hit straight to first base for the third out. There were a lot more very good plays and several very good hits.

One of Carter's hits almost hit the fence. They won again 5-4 in five and a half innings.

Team picture after their second win. They were one very happy team. I guess their coach was right. They were better than that and they just needed to be reminded of it.

Tourney's over. Time to party and head back home to Helena.


I apologize for mixing up the order of my posts, but I don't know how to fix them. So the post that should be after this one is before it. Just click on older posts at the bottom of this page to see the most recent one.

Tarra