Memorial Day weekend is known for that big 500-mile driving event held in the Midwest every year. The one where cars keep going and going and going in circles, seemingly reaching no particular destination but doing it over and over in search of victory nonetheless.
That might sound a lot like the Indianapolis 500, but it’s also an apt description of balancing three kids’ participation in holiday weekend baseball and softball travel tournaments throughout the suburbs.
First off, let me say up front, this is no woe-is-us tale. We’ve been told by other parents time and again to savor this time in our kids’ lives. That it will be gone before we know it.
Nor do I pretend to think for a second we are the only ones in the same youth sports rat race. Quite the contrary.
One need drive no further than the nearest community sports complex on a weekend to find a tournament of some kind or another. That’s one of the many things you learn as your kids reach competitive, club and travel sports age – there’s always somebody running a team, tourney or event somewhere.
For us, this past weekend meant a baseball tournament in St. Charles for our oldest, a softball tournament for our daughter in Algonquin and another baseball tournament for our younger son in Lemont/Oak Lawn/Palos Heights.
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As a way of illustrating the challenge of full child/tournament coverage, here’s the math: three kids in three different tournaments running concurrently in three different locales and only two parents to get them to and from all of these games, while hopefully getting to watch a few of them in the process.
My wife suggested a chart to sort it out. I suggested an algorithm.
It all started early Saturday morning – and I do mean early. My wife and daughter were in the car and on the road from Naperville to Algonquin at 6 a.m. Saturday with the first of three games for our daughter’s team scheduled to start at 8.
Asked to arrive 45 minutes early, players and their parents were already on the road when word came that overnight rains had pushed back the start of the games back to 9 a.m. A long day ahead had just gotten longer before it even started!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, those same rains pushed back the start of the oldest’s first game in St. Charles from 8 a.m. to a much more schedule-friendly 2 p.m. The original plan had been to send him to that game with one of his coaches in time for 7 a.m. warmups while I took the youngest to his best friend’s house so he could ride to that game with the other boy’s parents. I would then head to St. Charles for the two games there.
Instead, I drew a much more manageable 8:15 arrival in Lemont for a 9 a.m. first game there while the oldest stayed home to catch a few extra winks.
This let me attend the younger boy’s first game before leaving him with his grandfather and teammates while I high-tailed it home to have the oldest in St. Charles for 1 p.m. warmups ahead of his two games, at 2 and 4 p.m.
All told, by the end of the day Saturday, the tally sheet read seven games played by three kids in three tournaments in three different towns. And that was just Day 1!
Sunday brought more of the same, as our daughter had one more game at 9 a.m. in Algonquin to start the day. To have her there in time for 8:15 warmups, we were on the road at 7:15 while one of our elder son’s coaches picked him up at 8:10 ahead of 9 a.m. warmups and a 10 a.m. first pitch in St. Charles. My wife joined headed there for the game.
With the younger boy not playing until 3 p.m. in Oak Lawn that day, Sunday was a comparative walk in the park.
Come midday, the two elder kids’ teams had been eliminated from their tournaments, which left just the younger boy as the family’s only remaining hope for a title this weekend. Off to Oak Lawn we went.
By the time things wrapped up there Sunday evening, his team had gone 3-0, putting them in the semifinals of their tournament Monday morning in Palos Heights. And while they came up a little short – losing on a bunt play to finish the game in the final inning – they played tough in their first taste of real holiday baseball tournament experience at the tender age of 9.
In the end, that’s three days, five towns, 11 games and nearly 400 miles driven – short of the 500 they drive in Indianapolis, but no ordinary Sunday drive either.
Another family who attended some of the same games we did had kids in a very similar situation – tournaments in Batavia, Oswego and the same south suburban baseball tournament in Lemont/Oak Lawn/Palos Heights. And while it makes for logistical madness figuring out who needs to be where when and how they’re going to get there, we all agreed on one fact: We wouldn’t trade this for anything.
Though, that last drive home on Monday was by far the most relaxing of all.
Rob Manker is a freelance writer who lives and parents in Naperville.
Twitter: @RobManker