East Side Thunder 6U World Series 2016, Southaven, Mississippi

After 6 long weeks of Drew talking about playing in the world series in Mississippi this summer, we finally made it there.  Imagine staying in a hotel 20 minutes south of Memphis, TN in late July with 5 other baseball teams in the same hotel filled with 6-8 year old boys running around. If you don't drink, this one weekend would make you want to.   A little baseball loving boys version of pure happiness.  And for the parents, well.. we drank for our sanity.  :)

They had opening ceremonies for the tournament with teams from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Just imagine the crowds... keep imagining, now reduce the amount of teeth these people have, and you then you can have a better picture.  Outside of some of the spectators, it was a really cute night. All the teams get on stage and as they are introduced they throw out candy, water balloons, inflatable baseballs, silly string.. you name it, out to the kids in the crowd. It was cute to watch, even at 100 degrees 200% humidity.

The boys played some amazing baseball. They were really competitive and I was thoroughly impressed with the level of playing for all the teams there being 6 years old Drew's team beat the Alabama and Tennessee state champs in some really close games. They ended up losing to Canton which was a real bummer since we had them almost the whole game. I have never been so upset to lose a game I didn't even play in before. I wanted a win for the little boys so bad... next year we will get it.  I think it was 6 or 7 games from Fri-Tuesday - which is a lot of baseball, especially in the heat.

I love this picture of Hannah and Drew. It was right after the game where Drew hit a 3 run home run for the team to take the lead against the Tennessee state champs. I was such a proud mom, and hannah was such a proud sister. she was so happy for him jumping up and down cheering.

While Hannah doesn't like the admit it, she had a fun summer with all the boys and the siblings. She went to every game and played with the boys brothers and sisters and made a lot of new friends along the way. She had a great time in Mississippi andI think she got a kick out of the boys... especially Tripp and Gino.

This is the look of Drew when his team wins in a nail biter game and everyone is jumping up and down cheering after extra innings. It was 15 minutes later after all the celebrating we are leaving the field and he looks at the coach and says " hey coach, did we win?"

Coach looked at him like.. you have got to be kidding me?? And laughed, a lot. But that is what I love about Drew. He LOVES to play baseball for the sake of playing. And no matter what the score is ( not that he pays attention), he gives 110% no matter what. He is there to play the game and give it his all, regardless of the score.

So the Thunder season has come to and end, and Drew loved every minute of it and wants to do it again next year. He will have to try out in the spring and hope for the best!It is a really competitive league with kids pulling into this organization from three surrounding high schools. I told him if he wants to make the  A team again and go to Mississippi again he needs to keep practicing. He has now requested a "training room" in the basement :)


It was a fast, busy, hot summer of baseball, but it was fun. We met some really great families and made some new friends. Drew and Hannah both made new friends and it helped get us outside of our neighborhood and meet new people. Overall a great experience.  Go Thunder! Until next year....