Basketball with Grandpa Joe

We have been spending a lot of time lately with Hiroki's Grandma and Grandpa, my Mom Julie and Dad Joe. If you have spent any time around the Fingerhuts, you know we love basketball, and Hiroki has picked that interest right up. He has a nose for any ball, no matter the size, shape or color.

Mom and Dad met at Benedictine College, and Mom pulled out a bib for Hiro to show his Ravens pride. I wonder if Benedictine (near Kansas City) has a crawling race?

Papa Joe has always been a basketball coach. He coached high school teams before he had kids, then he coached or assisted with all four of us kids in not only basketball, but practically every sport we played in grade school, and even some high school rec teams. These days, he doesn't have any kids young enough to coach, but he has stuck with several teams at St. Paul School in Fenton through their grade school years. Since the beginning of the season, Dad has requested that Hiroki get to meet his eighth grade girls team. So on Friday, we went to their practice, and Sunday, we went to their game. Hiroki had a blast.

Papa Joe held him for a bit while the scrimmage was going on, and Hiro was riveted!

Then Coach Grandpa called everybody together to wrap things up, and Hiroi was surrounded by bunch of smiling teenage girls. He was more interested in the ball, and I'm sure he will laugh at this picture someday.

Sunday, the girls played a league game at Holy Redeemer school. Hiroki watched the whole first half, then enjoyed lunch fed to him during the third quarter. The St. Paul girls fought hard against a tough Holy Redeemer team, but were down in the fourth quarter. Hiroki would have been into it I'm sure, but he was under the Hooter Hider drinking dessert from Michiyo. We cheered as Papa Joe shrewdly called a timeout to get his girls to focus on a full court press and as many 3-pointers as they could handle. They cut the score to 19-16 with about a minute to go, but ended up with a 23-16 loss. They were not too down about it, nor was Papa Joe, who got to watch part of the next game with his grandson.

Michiyo noticed that Hiroki had matching colors with Grandpa.

Funny moment: While this young women set up to take the first of two free throws, somebody's cell phone went off, but she swished it. Right as she was launching the second free throw, however, Hiroki decided to unleash his own ring tone, letting the entire gym know he can say, "DaDa!" in a very loud voice. The poor girl airballed the free throw. Sorry, chica!