I’m writing this blog entry on my Northwest flight to Williamsport and the  Little League World Series. While I’m looking forward be heading to the series,  I’m not as excited as I have been in years past. Don’t get me wrong, I love my  job with Active.com, the relationship we have built with Little League and  being fortunate enough to be able to attend the World Series every year. But  this year will be different; I won’t have my wife Holly or my stepson Chris  with me.

!http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-20122/Holly-Banner.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9563|height=292|style=padding:8px;|align=left|width=220|src=http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-20122/Holly-Banner.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9563!Holly and Chris have made the trip to Williamsport with me for several years and we would make the ten hour drive a relaxing two day trip. Holly and I even got engaged at the series in 2003 and in 2004 I had major surgery and couldn’t drive and spent most of the time in the back of our mini van sleeping while Holly had to do all the driving. At the series, Holly has been a tireless worker helping the Active team with everything from setting up our display tent, handing out pins, applying tattoos, taking pictures, and just being a great ambassador for Active. Holly is one of those people that can talk to anyone from a small child wanting one of our (or Dugout’s) tattoos’ put on their face; to a!http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-20123/Tom-Holly-Kiss-Scoreboard.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9563|height=254|style=padding:8px;|align=right|width=312|src=http://community.active.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/38-20123/Tom-Holly-Kiss-Scoreboard.jpg?blogID=8913&blogPostID=9563! Little League parent that wanted to know more about Active and eteamz and what we do; and to everyone at Little League headquarters including President and CEO Steve Keener. She has what you might call a “following” at the series. While I may know a lot of the same people at headquarters, district and league officials, etc., Holly knows all the “important” people, like the Security guys, the guys that drive the golf carts, the guys that check the Section 1 tickets, the guys who sell lemonade, the guys who have the “best” trading pins… ok, yes, she’s a flirt and a darn good one. It’s gotten to the point that when I meet up with someone I know and say “hi”, they only want to know, “where’s Holly?” We even talked about having a trading pin made that was just for her and it would be the “Where’s Holly” pin. I have a feeling that since she’s not going with me this year, the pin would be a highly collectable one. Sure wish I had gotten it created. But as you can tell, I’m really going to miss having Holly with me in Williamsport. She is so much more to me than just my wife; she’s what keeps me going day after day.

I’m going to miss having Chris with me too. For his part, he always brings a friend from home and just enjoys pin trading, watching some great baseball and meeting new people and just having fun. He is really bummed that he’s not going this year either. He made some friends in Williamsport over the years and has kept in touch with them and always looked forward to seeing them each year. But he’s also starting high school this fall and has already started his two-a-day workouts for football and can’t miss that either. He’s looking forward to being a freshman and he’s pretty excited about wearing the same football jersey as his brother did on Varsity; not just the same number 32 but the same jersey. Apparently the Varsity got new ones this year so the JV got the old ones which is certainly ok with Chris. But, I’ll miss him in Williamsport too.

Well, the plane is landing so I’ll close for now. Next post  will be from Little League headquarters and the World Series!