SHOES AND SUCH

Three things I want to say about the above picture...the third one is the shortest and simplest so I'll get it out of the way first. Under Armor is the new Nike.

O.K., now to the real reason for the post. The shoes above belong to my oldest, Alex. He's 14. These shoes are almost the same size. Please!? When I was 14 I think I wore a size 9. When I got married at 24 I wore a 9.5. Now that I'm pretty darn close to 20 years older than that and gravity has done it's job I wear about a 10.5 or 11 depending on the shoe! Is Alex going to be this gigantic monster in 3 to 4 years? Well, we do know this...yesterday Alex got his arm x-rayed because he fell on it playing basketball with some of his buds and it's been hurting for several days. The good news, there was no fracture according to the film. What we learned from the film was that the growth spaces in his wrist and elbow have pretty much closed. What that means is that he's pretty much done growing, at least in his right arm. The doc did say that his spine will probably continue to grow over the next couple of years. That was certainly good news to Alex because right now he's about 5'8". It's pretty tough to get to 6'1" - 6'2" if you've stopped growing at 5'8". Now there wasn't an x-ray of his foot...we can only hope the growth spaces have closed there as well! Size 16 anyone? Does anyone have the website for the shoe of the month club?

Now, for the second main reason for the post. If you'll notice these are brand-spankin' new, shiny, red, unscuffed, lightenin' fast, fresh-out-of-the-box, haven't-made-an-error-yet, baseball shoes! Baseball season is here. Pitchers and catchers reported a week ago. Positions players are rolling into camp (except for Manny Ramirez, because, you know, it's just "Manny being Manny"). The JD Babe Ruth Reds have had 2 practices.....BASEBALL SEASON IS HERE!