Tonight we hit "Kids Night" at the Anchorage Bucs game. It was my first visit to the Anchorage Bucs, who are part of the Alaska summer college baseball league. Alaska's league is well-regarded and some of the best college ball players from the nation come here to practice and play in hopes of hitting the big leagues after graduation.

The kids really enjoyed themselves, as did my dad and John (and me too). John was a college ball player and really knows the game. And I reminisced about how I became entranced with the game in middle school and started begging my dad to teach me the game while looking at the stats in the morning paper. I had almost forgotten my brief but passionate affair with baseball. Truly, it's one of the few sports (besides tennis) that I really know the lingo and rules.

Christopher was very pleased to chase the foul balls, and even got one. And he saw two of his kindergarten buddies there (girls) and wanted to spend the game impressing them with the foul ball he got. Scary visions of my boy in high school flooded my imagination. Cate, the monkey girl, enjoyed climbing up and down the bleachers. All in all, a really nice (and not terribly expensive, especially compared to that Alaska Aces game we went to this winter!) way to spend a sunny Alaska evening.

The only downfall? We left early after the 7th inning stretch but it's still a late evening. Other kids maybe handle that better than mine -- mine were getting a bit on the grumpy side by the ride home.