Manage My BlogFor the last time this season, we traveled to Charleston, WV, to see the Grasshoppers vs. the Power. The Power pulled off another victory. Noah and Luke got to throw out the first pitches at the game. Jane and I were laughing because we both noticed several of the Grasshopper players coming to the front of the dugout whenever they were throwing out the pitch.
We feel as though the Grasshoppers in total have become part of our baseball family. We can't wait to see what happens with Spike, Scott, Justin, Blake, Logan, etc., do next season and beyond. We wish them all the best. They have been great to the boys and to us! We are EXTREMELY excited to see what happens with Brad, also! We know that he will move up and he will still be the same person. That is the most important thing. Brad did end up pitching a fantastic inning, as you'll see by looking at the pictures linked on the first page.
We just want to thank everyone for following throughout the season. We especially want to thank Sue for everything she did on the Biography Page (which was EVERYTHING). :) We want to thank Brad for everything! After the game, he gave Noah and Luke his hat from the game. They are TOTALLY enamored with him. He also reassured them that this season was special for him, also, and that we would all stay in touch. As a parent, he has helped restore my faith in humanity and mankind in general.
I cannot really sum up what all of this has meant, so I won't even taint it by trying. As we communicate and/or visit, etc., throughout the offseason, we will continue to update the site.
Thank you ALL for a wonderful season and for following along with us!
David, Jane, Noah, and Luke Thomas
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permalinkOnce again, we traveled to Charleston, WV, to see the Greensboro Grasshoppers vs. WV Power. The Power pulled out another victory, but the boys had a great evening!
They got to talk to Brad for a few, as did I. They got to talk to Martin Maldonado for a few, also. They got to stretch like Brad was before warming up. Brad still hasn't gotten to pitch during this series, but we're hoping that he will tomorrow. That will make it even more special. The day the boys throw out the first pitch, Brad gets to pitch, and it is the final regular season game.
Noah and Luke are slowly coming to the realization that they probably won't be able to see Brad as much as they have been. I don't know what tomorrow will be like, but I'm sure that there will be two sad boys as we drive away from the park tomorrow afternoon.
I talked to Brad some about this, so hopefully the boys will not be too sad. As I've heard many times, good friends NEVER say goodbye, they ONLY say see you later!!
I'll catch you up tomorrow evening/night!!
We went to Charleston, WV, to see Brad and the boys play the WV Power. In the end, the Grasshoppers lost, but we had a great time!!
First, Noah has brought along one of his best friend, Jackson Adkins. Martin Maldonado saw Noah and Luke, so he got all three boys and took them back to the locker room for awhile. They loved that!!
Then, they came back out and shortly afterwards, Brad came out. They got pics with him, got to chat a bit, but he needed to go get started on stretching. We moved over to the Grasshoppers side of the field. Each of the boys took out their Grasshoppers team card sets and got a few autographs. Jackson got a baseball personalized by Brad. Jackson had a wonderful experience for his first game in Charleston.
Luke got to be the guest announcer for the Grasshoppers for an inning while they were batting. Noah and Jackson got to do a Dizzy Bat contest! Noah won, but we're all going to share in the prize!
We're looking forward to see the guys today! Hopefully they can get a win!
We took a weekend trip to Greensboro to watch the boys play a couple of home games, thanks to Katie Dannemiller.
We got to Friday's game late and the Grasshoppers lost. Brad didn't pitch, but we saw him for a bit after the game. We got to meet his host family from summer ball. They were great!! The stories they could tell!
We went to the Natural Science Center in Greensboro early on Saturday. I would recommend it for people that are going through that area. While gone, we missed Brad calling (the wrong room. :) ) for lunch.
We went to the stadium and got a great tour!! The boys loved playing with Miss Babe Ruth and loved the tour!
We saw Brad before the game. He pitched 2 1/3 good innings to get the win! They came back and won that one. We saw Brad for a bit after the game. We got to meet Stephanie. Brad took the boys down on the field and let them run the bases.
We loved the weekend tremendously. The boys missed Brad as we left, but we reminded them that we'll be going to all three game in Charleston over the Labor Day weekend!!
Good luck, Grasshoppers!!
We saw the game in Lexington last night where the Grasshoppers beat the Legends, 14-2. Brad pitched 1 1/3 innings to finish the game off.
He did well. The boys got to see him for a bit before the game. We got to chat some. After the game, we got to chat a bit more. The boys wanted another picture with him. We got to meet him mother, also.
She was great!! No wonder Brad is so wonderful! We can't wait to see them both (since she'll be visiting then also) in Greensboro for the August 25th baseball game.
Well, we discovered that Brad didn't have any "manufactured" cards except for the team set. That isn't acceptable for our favorite player.
I have some friends who make wonderful custom cards. They took some of the pictures we took at the Mothers' Day game and made him 12 different card designs based on popular card sets. There were 8 of each design. We really hope he likes them.
Today, we met a great baseball player and a great person. His name is Brad Stone and he is a bullpen pitcher for the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Single A Florida Marlins affiliate).
This being Mothers' Day, we wanted to have the best family day possible. Brad helped to make this possible. Jane said on the way home that meeting him and him being the person he is made the day even more special.
He took the time to talk to the kids. Once he finished pitching, he even brought baseballs over to the boys. After the game, he came back over, personalized autographed the baseballs to each of the boys. He took the time to take pictures with them.
Since then, we've sent him several 8x10s of him pitching. He kept one copy of the picture of him and the boys (as we wanted him to) and sent back two that were personalized autographed to each of the boys. He also included 2 cards from the Grasshoppers team set that were personalized.
