Greenville Drive

This is the player that gave Mikayla her ball! Thanks #24!
Drew and Mikayla pose with Turner, one of the players that signed their balls!! Thanks Turner!
Mikayla takes a rest with Cathy! Drew shows off his "professional ball"!

Mikayla and Drew enjoy ballpark food!

Drew and Mikayla were really into this game! The player standing in the coach's box (with the blue jacket on) is the one that gave Drew his ball!


Monday night, a friend of our family sang the National Anthem at the Greenville Drive Baseball Game. Emiline is in the eighth grade and was chosen at an audition where she, along with several (in the hundreds I think) other people were vying for the chance to sing. We were delighted when Cathy, Emiline's mom, invited us to go with their family to support her! Emiline's sister, Tina, and I have been friends for almost 15 years - most of the time I feel like part of the family.

This was the first "big" baseball game that Drew and Mikayla have been to, so we were pretty anxious to see how they would react. When we got to the stadium, the first thing Craig did was buy Drew a blue Louiville Slugger bat and Mikayla a pink one. Who's the softie here?? We were pretty excited when we found our seats with the rest of the group (there were about 20 family members/friends there to support Emiline). They were on the first base line - front row. I must say though that I was a little nervous to see a sign that read Caution - please be alert for foul balls or slinging bats. It also didn't help to hear Craig say "you better be watching...and if I say duck, you better duck". Drew and Mikayla were just excited to be that close to "big" baseball players practicing on a BIG baseball field.

Emiline took the field and did an amazing job singing! Drew watched in amazement as the game began. Mikayla wasn't real sure if she liked this new situation or not and stayed in my lap most of the first two innings. During that time, a few foul balls were hit and some lucky fans recovered a few of them. At the beginning of the third inning we went up top to get something for dinner. While we were enjoying our Papa John's Pizza, Drew managed to get on the big screen as he danced to music that was playing. He also got to dance with two pizza slices (people in costumes). I couldn't believe that I had left my camera down at our seats. A funny side note to the pizza slices...when we were leaving the stadium after the game we were asking Drew and Mikayla if they had a good time and wanted to come back. They both said yes, but Mikayla said "I can't like that french fry". She was talking about the pizza slices - she's not real fond of people in costumes. I laughed until I cried about that!!

When we went back to our seats, the game started getting good. Until this point, the Drive were losing 2-1. During the middle of one inning, Craig told Drew to wave at one of the players standing in the dug out with a ball. Seeing Drew waving at him, the guy decides to come over and give Drew the baseball. This just made Drew's day. He said "I got a professional baseball now!" The player even gave Drew a "high five"! You would know I didn't have my camera ready for any of this, but I did get plenty of other pictures...as you can tell from the top of this post! The Drive finished the game by coming back to win 5-3 and we were all screaming like crazy. Mikayla got a game ball as well when the players were walking by our seats after the game. She was waving at one of them and he pulled a ball out of his pocket and gave it to her. These men were so nice to do such a little thing for my children and it is something neither of them will forget! They even got their balls signed by some of the players before we left! This was a wonderful trip for our family, and I'm sure we will be going back many, many times!!