My Baseball-Playing Brother

I've never written how amazing my baseball-playing brother is. So I thought I'd take a second & let you all know.

For those of you that don't know...my brother's middle name is Inning. Yes, as in a baseball inning. My dad had an imaginary baseball team back in the day & the 1st baseman's name was Curtis Lemay Inning. So my parents named my brother Curtis Inning Cauffman. So it totally fits that he is just an amazing baseball player.

And no, I promise you, I'm not just saying that because he's my brother! Just looking at his stats you can tell that he's pretty darn great. He will be 18 next week so he plays Legion ball. We don't have a baseball team associated with the high school here so anyone that wants to play plays legion ball.

They start super early...like the middle of March & their last weekend tournaments are the last weeks of July or 1st weeks of August. They play TONS of games. Each weekend they have a double-header & then once school's out they play double-headers on the weekdays too.

They also play in numerous tournaments throughout the season. Now, I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but if I remember right, they either got 1st or 2nd place in EVERY tournament they played in. One of those is the Lewistown Annual Gjerde Tournament that lasts from Thursday through Sunday. They, of course, got 1st place in that tournament & of course, there was an MVP in each game. At the end of the tournament they announced who the whole tournament MVP was.....drum roll please.......CURTIS CAUFFMAN!!! We were soooooooo stoked, excited, happy for him! My mom was even in tears & I was holding them back cause I didn't want to look like a cry baby! ;o)  Here are a couple pictures of that...

Getting his Tournament MVP trophy

 The team congratulating him

(Oh...& he is really #11, but there was a jersey-mishap the morning of the game so he had to wear #13.)

The whole team. Curt is in the bottom row, 3rd from the left.

 A close-up of my cute little brother. Ok so he's not little anymore but he'll always be my little bruddah!! (He's the 3rd from the left on the bottom row.)

 Proud big sis & Curt

 Proud mom & dad with Curt. (And yes, folks, my dad was making that face on purpose.)

The Redbirds had a great season. At one point in their season they were undefeated for about 25 games in a row & Curt was on a 20 game hitting streak (approximately). They even beat the team TWICE that always wins state. So they were on quite the high there for a while. Unfortunately though it wasn't meant to be & they ended the season not making it to state.

The Redbirds last tournament was this past weekend where they had their district tournament. The top 2 finishers go to State. They actually lost their very first game, which was a complete shock to everone. They started winning though & they kept winning & winning & winning all the way up until the last game, which they lost. If they'd have won that game, they'd have gone to state. But they got 3rd in the District Tournament so everyone was happy with that.

For quite a long time Curt was the leader of the team in both home runs & batting average. He ended the season tied for the most home runs & was 2nd in batting average. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me! Here are a couple more pics of my awesome baseball-playing brother!

Him & a teammate warming up.

 Waiting for a pitch in his usual position, catcher.

Here's a little 4-picture play-by-play:

Up to bat, waiting for the pitch...

 Here comes the pitch...getting ready to swing!!

SWING!!!!

And RUNNNNNN!!!!!

Curt, You are the most amazing "little" brother a sister could ask for. Baseball or no baseball I love you like crazy. I'm VERY proud to be your SFAM!! ;o)