One for the records

In case you missed it on the ESPN highlight reels, young Mr. Austin had quite a night at the ball diamond last night.

Carter had an 8 o'clock game so he was pretty excited to "play under the lights." On the way to the game, Dad asked him: "What's the funnest part of baseball?" After a few missed guesses, Carter said, "Hitting!" And Dad replies: "That's right. And in order to hit, you have to swing the bat!"

Now Carter has had a few hits this season but mostly he gets walked or he strikes out "looking" -- as in not swinging.

Last night's game started much the same. He had walked twice and struck out once -- plus had two fielding errors he was a bit pouty about.

In his team's last at bat, the Tigers needed 4 runs to tie and 5 to win. We amazingly got 3 runs in, had 2 "men" on and had 2 outs when it was Carter's turn to bat. No pressure, right?

I said to the mom next to me, "Wouldn't it be great if he could just get a good hit here and get those guys home?" I could tell Carter was determined to do this, too. He was swinging ... But missing.

He had two strikes on him. This is the type of moment a kid either dreams about or dreads. The next pitch was coming and Carter started swinging and I wanted to shut my eyes. But he hit it! He hit it! Over the head of the right fielder!

After tagging first, he headed to second and I thought, wow, he's going to get a double! The right fielder was throwing the ball in and just as the shortstop was catching it, Carter rounded second and ran right past him. I yelled out a "what is he doing?!"

The shortstop was throwing to third. The base coach signaled Carter to hold up. I expected to see Carter slide into third. But no, he somehow knew the third baseman was going to drop it so he rounds third and heads for home.

By now we're all screaming and laughing because we can't believe what we're seeing! The third baseman rifles it in to the catcher. Carter slides into home. Safe! An in-the-park home run! Game over. Tigers win!

Technically, Dad says, it's not a real home run since he reached most of the bases on errors. But we're still going to remember it as a home run in our memory banks (and our scrapbook, of course).

What's the funnest part of baseball, Carter?