Day 5: Baseball in Montclair = lotsa carpooling

Saturday was our hardest day. We had to get to two baseball games in the Oakland hills (7-9 miles from our house). The field for one game was two miles uphill from the nearest bus route (on Sundays). B had to be at his warm-ups only 15 minutes after N’s game started. And to top it off, Kim had to run a workshop in SF during midday. We had to figure out a way for the four of us to converge from three different directions on B’s game.

Despite the challenges, the four of us combined managed to log 40 car-free miles to only 16 car miles. Kim went to SF and back on BART, then took the trusty #18 to B’s game. J+N walked B over to a neighborhood synagogue and left him with a teammate at a bat mitzvah celebration. B and his teammate (plus family), then walked and drove (Carpool #1) to B’s game. J+N walked home (stopping at Andronico’s to pick up more kids’ 10-ride cards for AC Transit), then scootered down to San Pablo Ave to catch a bus to the house of one of N’s teammates. Carpool #2 took us up to N’s game at Robin Perry field. There the mighty Giants took on the feared Yankees in the “Peanuts” division of North Oakland Little League (see photo of N at the plate).

With the game over, Carpool #3 carried J+N on to B’s game, where we met Kim (fresh of the #18) and Nana (who’d driven from Berkeley). N + his teammate played in the outfield and ran the scoreboard while B’s Osprey won their playoff semi-final and secured a spot in next Saturday’s final game!

Afterwards, we piled into Carpool #4 with Nana (and another car with N’s teammate and parents) to head out for a celebratory pizza and ice cream.

Total = 31.3 miles on bus + BART, 5.9 on foot, 2.8 on scooter, and 16 in cars.

Two final points:

• Because of the CFC, Kim convinced her colleagues to meet at a location near BART, instead of far west in SF’s Richmond district. The change of location meant that several other East Bay participants arrived by BART instead of driving. Score one for smart growth!

Next Saturday will pose an even harder challenge: B’s baseball victory means that next weekend will have 3 baseball games, in the same difficult-to-reach places. Plus we’re also supposed to go camping with B’s class!