TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

As far as I'm concerned any time spent at the baseball field is time well spent and yesterday was no exception. What a fun day. On Thursday Jeff asked Stephanie, Eric and Alyssa if they wanted to play in a celebrity softball game. Someone that Jeff knows works for a company that was a sponsor for this game. It was a fund raiser for the American Red Cross. Jeff couldn't play but the other 3 wanted too, not knowing what to expect. Stepanie and Eric ended up on the winning team playing with Dane Iorg, who played on the 1982 and 1984 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and Scott Nielsen who pitched for the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees along with Kim Nelson who played BYU and is the head baseball coach of Timpanogos High School, the current 5A state champions. Alyssa played with Vernon Law, 1960 Cy Young winner for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Gary Cooper who also played in the Cardinal orginazation, and with Vance Law. It was so fun to see the kids playing with, talking to and having so much fun with these baseball players. We didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be so much fun for them. I even got to go down after the game and hit, or I should say, TRY to hit off of Vernon Law. 4 of us got to see who could get the farthest hit. After swinging and missing and ending up on the ground, I got up brushed myself off and promptly hit a "shot" that trickled through the infield. I guess my glory days are way behind me. Earlier I had commented to Yvonne, Dane Iorg used to coach me in 9th grade but he would never remember me. AFter the game i went down and talked to him and asked if he remembered me and he said "yea in fact when Eric told me his name I said, i knew a Richins kid once that I coached". I can't believe he remembered me but it was fun to visit with him for few minutes. Eric and Stephanie both really enjoyed him and Alyssa and Stephanie had a great time joking with Gary Cooper as well. And to top it off in this mornings DAily Herald on the front page is a picture of Alyssa with Vernon Law. How fun that was to see. Anyway a great time was had by all of us.
On another topic, we got very encouraging news about Olivia last night, she is finally showing a little progress. She is off of dialasis (sp?) and th ey are trying to get her off of the ventilator. They got the bone marrow test results and they showed that the leukemia is still in remission, which was a big relief. She is still very sick but it is great to see some improvement.
Randy