No Bats XXXVI is officially in the books, and if Cincinnati taught us anything, it's that you can plan a weekend down to the minute, but Mother Nature will ultimately do whatever she pleases. We opened Thursday night at the Reds Youth Academy with our historical roll call, a changing of the guard as Johnny G's 35-year Iron Man streak passed to Mike Steffgen, and our usual draft-night chaos, capped off by the great bun shortage of Thursday night, forever known as BUNGATE.

Rain wiped out Great American Ball Park for most of the weekend, so we pivoted back to the Reds Youth Academy, playing four muddy, memorable games on Friday. The Reds grounds crew eventually earned us an afternoon of open batting practice on the field at GABP, where rookie Ryan Martin put one into the seats. Friday night at The Filson, we paused to remember the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and the loss of founding member George Simmons, and Brian Crawford received the George W. Simmons Award for Service Above Self for his charity work in Bimini.

Saturday brought more rain and no access to GABP, so No Bats XXXVI improvised an indoor mushball tournament—complete with a live overhead-net rule—that turned into one of the more memorable days in club history. The championship between the Louisville Bats and Daytona Tortugas needed extra innings before All-Time Teamer Don Lippert's ninth-inning home run, on his birthday, sealed a 17-16 win for the Tortugas.

We closed things out back at Great American Ball Park, presenting the Reds Community Fund with $83,000 raised by everyone who attended, donated, or found a way to help. It capped off a weekend built on an outstanding rookie class, a new Hall of Fame class inducted Saturday night at Rhinegeist, and a full slate of season awards. The Daytona Tortugas were crowned No Bats XXXVI World Champions, and Brian Crawford took home the championship bat for his first title as a manager after a long No Bats managerial career. Long overdue, Craw.