Picture Day

I know we didn't have a game yesterday, but something more important happned!

Ok, not more important, but it was a fun little break from the normal routine.

Yesterday was picture day. For all of you who don't know what that is, we all dress up in our sparkly clean uniforms, smile big, and make each other laugh while they're trying to get their picture taken by saying embarrassing things.

First, we all lined up for our individual picture. They had us all stand up straight, hold a bat (even the pitcher only's), and flash a big, fake smile.  "Look at that Athlete of the Week smile!" we said to Matt Sinderson to make him blush. Matt Sinderson was named one of the Star Tribune Athletes of the Week. We are all very proud of him and we all think it's funny that he gets embarrassed whenever anyone brings it up.

There was also the option for players to take "Buddy Pictures". The first set of buddies to get their picture taken were Tim Shannon, Country Mike Larson, and Jack Hamilton. Hammy and Tim held Mike up softly, similar to how a mother would hold an infant, and they all smiled for the camera. They weren't even close to dropping him. The next set of buddies to pose were Jack Retica, Benny Chistopher, and myself. Benny crouched in the middle of Jack and I, and made an intimidating face, while Jack pointed and looked off in the distance. At the same time, I was pointing at Benny and making an odd face. I asked Coaches Berger and Lerner to take buddy pictures with me but they both declined.

Then came the group photo. They had us line up tallest to shortest, which instantly created a sense of competition between everyone to determine who was actually taller. After people had finished going back to back and figuring out who was taller (more dominant), they got us in team picture formation. The standard formation is one row of players in the front sitting on the bench with their hands on their knees (the two players on the end holding a piece of equipment special to the given sport i.e. bat, basketball, fencing foil); one row right behind them standing on the ground, trying not to touch or tease the players on the front row; the last (also best) row being all of the behemoths standing on a bench to make them look even taller (and more dominant) than all the rest of the mere mortals. Can you tell which row I was in?

Benny Christopher was in the front row and in the middle of the pictures, he was called out by the picture lady for making funny faces. While that may have been funny, he should have been smiling respectfully like Jack Retica and I were doing in the back.

Picture day was a success.