©MaryMcgintyPhotography

©MaryMcGintyPhotography

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All photos on this blog are the property of Mary McGinty Photography (unless noted otherwise) photos may not be used or copied without my permission




Jul 28, 2010

Time out from the toilet...to sweep a tournament!!!





The 13U Thunder hosted the Lombard Tournament this weekend.  Mother Nature called and cancelled Friday and Saturday. Saturday night our Thunder dads were out shop-vacing the fields at 3 locations. Sunday 6:45 am they were out grooming all the fields. We completed an entire tournament in one day utilizing 3 of Lombards Senior ballfield parks. The Thunder swept the tounanament. Our boys played a triple header; they practiced 1 hr prior to game 1, then 3 back to back 2 hr games with only a 10 min candy bar-drink break . The Championship game was 2 hrs later. We won all 4 games....3 by slaughter.

My house was still filled with sewage...I used a 12 ft piece of PVC pipe and fished out TJ's uniform from the sludge. My dear team-mate mom, Karen washed and dried it for me. The boys stepped up, as we were not the only one w/o water and power. Look at their faces in the team pictures...sweaty, dirty, hot and tired boys. Needless to say a good 11 hours of baseball in the 95 + heat index is taxing.

TJ and his special fan...

Jul 25, 2010

The Flood


We woke up to a flooded lower level and street. Seems like we've been through this before...we have, 2 years ago FIRST FLOOD and clean-up

Life throws you curve balls, can't let it get you down. Here is how we made the best of a rainy rainy day





kayak parking here


gotta love the self timer on continuous shoot mode...
Look closely in the water...my stainless steel front loader was bobbing and tipped over...with all the clean clothes I had folded on top

look how deep the water is...we can access the breakers from the laundryroom window...thank God

No reason not to enjoy yourself, just because your house is underwater. A bunch of friends came by to make the best out of a rainy day


No many people can say they kayaked in their backyard


Water volleyball
The afternoon sun came out and it will rise in the morning...

I see land!

Jul 23, 2010

A great week in Michigan!


The 13 U Thunder travel baseball team and their families just spent 6 days  in St Clair, MI. for The CABA National Tournament. What an oportunity for these young boys. We had an absolute blast! We are very fortunate to have a great group of boys and an even greater group of parents. We didn't know how our team would compare on a National level. Our 1st game was against Ohio and they are a fulltime team coming in with a record of 56-11 (this season alone) our record was 10-3...notice a game amt difference? They chuckled when they heard our record "oh God, they are a part-time team" scoffed a parent.. Well this part-time team won 7-5...take that back to freakin Ohio. They were stunned and didn't know what hit them.
 The 2and 3rd game was a back to back double header
Our 2 nd game we slaughtered a poor Michigan team...no thrill in that. Our 3rd game was against the Michigan State Champs that just returned from Puerto Rico....our boys were tired (100 degrees) and totally intimidated then fell apart...we lost. I don't know if we could of beat them, but boy I would like a second chance as I think we are capable of giving them a run.
We went into the single elimination playoff 2-2 and guess who we played? Ohio...yep. They were out for blood. We were winning 1-0 until the 6th inning (play 7) when they scored 3 runs we couldn't recover.
Our coach and boys at the Detroit Tiger game
TJ was entered in the Home run derby and around the horn skill competition.
Each boy had 1 event except for TJ and a couple other players .Only 4 per team could be in home run derby (quite the complimant to TJ) TJ hit 3 homeruns, 5 won the trophy. You get 10 hits and there are markers           that  you have to cross to earn 2 pt...5 pts if you go over the fence. TJ earned 6 pts.

My TJ up to bat in the 1st game against Ohio..Oh yeah, my baby hit a 2 run homer...when it counted, in the game! Big freaking deal at this age because the fences are 320-345 ft...up from 220ft last year.

Coach giving TJ the Home run talk.."don't get excited as you have 3 more at bats....but good hit"
Yes, my baby pitched in a National game
He mainly plays short
Hot, hot, hot...boy was it HOT!



All the parents
A well earned swim after long days on the field...our boys practice an hr before each game. That is my little Karrick on the other side of the pool face down by the left railing
My little Karrick...I thought for sure he would get malled by the team playing keep away. Thank you Emily and Isabel for protecting him
Tiger's Game...we made the board

        Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
Look at poor Callahan's face as he pulls his cap down...my mere presence mortifies him. He doesn't see the humor in my loud fun loving personality. TJ totally gets it and nothing I do embarrasses him




Hey look we're on TV

I love that the boys were fascinated with the bullpen...watching professional pitcher warm up is amazing. The new Detroit statium is incredible...something to see everywhere. Here the boys are watching the Texas Ranger relief pitcher...over the wall down about 10 ft


We had a ball and did so many things together in addition to the Tiger's game. e.g....many wonderful team dinners, swimming, go-carting, bumper boats, mini-golf. We had a private room at Hockey Town before the game.There were many a late night gatherings in the lobby where all the adults could relax and have their beverage of choice. A shout out to Mrs Howard who had the guts to host a team sleepover in her room. God Bless You...you are mom of the year!

The boys had smiles on their faces the entire week...even when we lost. They were all well behaved...maybe 1 or 2 complaints as they played capture the flag in the hotel after hours.

The siblings all had fun too and got to swim whenever they wanted! Players rule: No swimming on game day until game is over. Hard to do when it is 100 degrees.

Can't wait to do it again next year in St Loius




The big kids
the medium kids (siblings)

the little kids
He is just so dang cute I could eat him up!
The boys were very well behaved at Texas Road House...the parents not so much. There were buckets of peanuts on all the tables...it just took 1 person to toss 1 peanut and it was all over
I have a great video of myself and Missy (pink shirt) in a war. We did stay after to help clean up the mess and left the waitress a giant 30% tip
My Tim...the adult, spun Callahan out under a bridge where Cal remained until a bystander alerted the worker...It was against the rules so my husband the adult in the group did it in hiding. Cal was a good sport and laughed once he was rescued
Karrick lapped Callahan 3 times on the mini carts. Well, the "oh yeah, oh yeah" dance from Karrick was priceless. No one had the heart to tell him that Cal was too heavy so his car chugged along.
The boys met every morning in the lobby before the games