The Hogs won--and I have proof!

I have MUCH from the last week to blog about, but I have been hindered because all of the topics I have to discuss have accompanying pictures, which I did not get a chance to download off my camera until moments ago. Now I have them, so the only obstacle is deciding where to begin.

I think I'll start with Friday night. Matt and I took Abby to a Razorback baseball game. It was the first game in our weekend series against Vanderbilt (they are the #1 team in the country; we are 9th). We inherited our season tickets from some friends who moved, and they are killer seats--front row, a quarter of the way from home to first. We prop our feet on the visitor's dugout. The weather was perfect, and the stadium was packed. The game turned out to be really exciting, with a 7-7 tie going into the 9th inning. No one scored, so we went to the 10th inning.

(To all my non-sports friends who read my blog and are falling asleep right now, sorry--bear with me a moment.)

Vanderbilt didn't score in the top of the 10th, so we were up. After a base hit, a sacrifice bunt got Sean Jones to second base. Our next batter hit a high pop fly that went way into right field. Jones raced for third base--and then kept right on going. He slid home and touched the base a millisecond before being tagged by the catcher. SAFE! We won the game, and defeated the #1 team. It was fantastic. I had my little camera with me to take pictures of Abby in her cheerleader getup (picture in a moment), and when I realized Jones was going for home I aimed the camera in that direction and clicked as I cheered. After things calmed down and we were picking up our stuff, I finally remembered to take a look at the picture. Talk about good timing.

You'll note that Jones' hand is on home plate and the catcher has the ball about a quarter of an inch from his back--he's clearly safe. Amazingly, the shot was taken in the split second after he slid in, but before the umpire called him safe. How cool is that?! I'm quite proud of myself

Surprisingly, Abby did very well at the game. I thought she would get bored, but she enjoyed it. She learned what strikes and outs are, and cheered with the Diamond Dolls. And ate ice cream. It was probably her enthusiastic presence that inspired the Hogs to win. It certainly made the mascot's evening:

That rounds out the first photo-assisted blog. Check back soon for more--maybe even later today!