Another Exhausting Week

A lot happened this week. First and foremost, my sister Lakkana and her husband Matt are celebrating the birth of their second daughter. I'm not sure of the spelling, according to my mom it's Linsey Rose Raterink, but with all of my mom's strengths spelling isn't one of them. The beautiful little one was born either late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Congratulations Matt, Lakkana and Isabel!

The Neitring Fine Carpentry softball team had a big game this week. We played the #1 team in our division on Wednesday and got beat 8-0. We forced them to play their first 7-inning game of the season by not allowing the 10-run mercy rule to come in to play. Defensively, we played almost flawless, apart from Dave and Jared colliding in right field while fielding a fly ball. Offensively, we could not catch a break. Our team falls to 4-2 as they padded their lead to 6-0 with 4 games remaining.

The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup on Wednesday, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. They gave us another scare by nearly giving up the tying goal again with seconds remaining in the game. This win marks the fourth time in the last eleven years the Wings have won the cup. It was cool to see Chris Osgood win as our goalie again, he was also the starter when we won in 1998 but not in 1997 or 2002.

Last night I got the chance to play baseball competitively for the first time in about 10 years. A friend of mine called and asked me to fill in for a team he plays on in Muskegon. I had my reservations but I accepted the invitation. Before the game I had my brothers, Brad and Ryan, and their friend Cody help get me ready. Thanks guys! While practicing I fouled a pitch off of my ankle, which hurt a lot more than I remembered. Other than that practicing went pretty well considering it had been awhile. When I reached the game, they gave me a jersey and hat, and I was thinking "Uh-oh, what have I gotten myself into?" They asked me to play second base and by this point I was getting incredibly nervous because as a middle infielder you've got a lot of responsibilities. The first inning went surprisingly well, I fielded two ground balls successfully and threw both runners out. WHEW! My first at bat, not so good. I fouled off a couple pitches, but ended up falling victim to a 2-2 curveball which I missed, but so did the catcher. They threw me out at first as I attempted stealing first base. At least I remembered that part where if the catcher misses a strike three pitch you can try advancing to first. my second at bat I fought heroically, but still was victimized by the pitchers curveball. With a 3-1 count, I was fully expecting a fastball and he threw his curve. I didn't miss this time at least, I tapped a grounder to third base and was thrown out at first. My last at bat ended up with another strike out. So, 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts in my post high school baseball debut. NOT GOOD! But I have to say it was incredibly fun, but I can barely walk this morning. -j

Please post a response to let me know that somebody is actually reading these, thanks.