Sunday Update from CK

Today the team went to church at Orchards Church of the Nazarene. This is one of those towns that seems to have a church on every corner, and there are a couple of Nazarene churches in town. We learned at the last minute that we (Dean and I) were about to go to the wrong one. It would have been sad to miss, since the church had a welcome greeting on the marquee. Our team, coaches and a few parents accounted for probably half of the attendance, and they were stars. The pastor came over before church started to meet our home run hitters and winning pitcher from Friday night's game.

In the afternoon the team went to the Bryden Canyon Golf Course where our corporate sponsor/honorary coach and the sponsor for the Lee University team put on a BBQ for the two teams. The teams feasted on pulled pork, brisket, and all the sides. They had competitions between the teams for putting, drives, chipping, etc. Our team did not do terribly well in these events - we claim it's because baseball is our focus right now!

We continue to be amazed at the town's enthusiasm for the tournament. The local paper, the Lewiston Tribune (www.lmtribume.com) has a special daily supplement to the sports page with articles and photos covering the tournament, teams and games. Needless to say, the favorite is host Lewis-Clark. At last night's game between L-C (as they abbreviate) and Oklahoma City, the fan presence, involvement and volume were just amazing. Someone told us today they just love baseball here. Even Little League games are heavily attended and hotly contested.

The Sea Lions spent the rest of Sunday relaxing. We took a walk with Davis on the Washington side of the Snake River, went to dinner, and dropped him off for a planned hot tub party. They have most of tomorrow free, too, with game time at 7. (This part of Idaho is on Pacific Time, even though other parts are on Mountain.) I hope they are still fired up and ready to play ball tomorrow night after all this down tme.

I'll leave you with a picture of the ballpark last evening as the sun set. The stands were full. Friday's attendance set a record at over 8,000 for the day - approaching the attendance at some of the A's games we've been to this year!

~ Claire