Baseball, Kuwait and More Baseball!

This year Mason celebrated his 10th birthday back home in Texas.  GranBobs (Rod's dad) came out to visit us last week, and we decided to let Mason fly home with him.  The transition back and forth to Dubai is probably the hardest on Mason, and it's safe to say he was really home sick this year.  I know each year it gets tougher for him as he's really starting to miss his friends back home.  Fortunately for him though, the baseball season in Dubai is from December through March!  The baseball fields are less than 10 minutes from our house, so we spent A LOT of time there this year!  Between his private lessons, team practice, all-star practice and games, he was at the fields at least 5 days a week.  The twins loved going up there as much as he does, so it was a great place for us to all go during the afternoons.

This year Mason played on the Rangers, and they finished in first place with 11 wins, 1 loss and 3 ties!  Mason was able to play a variety of positions from pitcher, catcher, shortstop, first, second and third base.  He also ended his last at bat with a homerun!!

 Baseball field where Mason plays most of his games

The batting cages

Mason also had the opportunity to play on the Dubai Dodgers All-Star team.  Their team played in Kuwait against teams from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar!  This was such an awesome experience for both Mason and myself (we had to leave Rod and the twins at home as Rod had a big weekend of racing in Dubai).  This was the first time for both Mason and I to travel outside of Dubai and in the Middle East, and it was less than a 2-hour flight away.  We spent all of our time either at the ball fields or the hotel, and traveled via bus to and from the fields.  Once we reached our hotel, the  guards used a search mirror to inspect underneath the bus.  Then we entered through a metal detector as we walked into the hotel (except the detector beeped continuously as the boys walked through with their bat bags!  I guess we were not a big security threat!)  I got the feeling that Kuwait is somewhat liberal but it had more of an authentically Arab feel to the country.  Alcohol is also totally prohibited in Kuwait!  I'm so thankful Mason had this opportunity, and they finished third in their division!

Mason came in as the closing pitcher against Kuwait and no runs were scored! The game ended in a 4-4 tie, and Kuwait was the tournament champion

 He had the highest batting average on his team of .666!

 Coach Michael is giving a team pep talk before the Bahrain game!

 Mason was one of the team captains vs Bahrain.  They won 9-2

 Fun pool time at the hotel after their games

 DLL (Dubai Little League) sent 5 teams to Dubai, so we had over 125 people staying at this hotel.

 Team meeting after Day 1 of games

Playground at the Kuwait fields 

 The Kuwaitis were excellent hosts!  They provided daily food coupons for the players, bottles of water, baskets of fruit and snacks!

 Entrance to the Kuwait fields

 One of the major highlights was the Taco Bell stand!!

 Mason really enjoyed playing catcher!

A big win against Qatar! 

 Tournament photo with all 6 teams

 The third place Dubai Dodgers

Mason really enjoyed his training sessions with Coach Sean and two older baseball players.  They were excellent role models for Mason, especially his buddy Lincoln.