Sunday, August 1, 2010

7/31/10- San Quentin





Our final game of the season against the Giants, and it was a foggy gross morning as the team congregated in the parking lot. Satch had imbibed a bit too much of the devil's brew the night before and barely made check in, flying low, sweating cactus liquor. Luckily, Saturday the security and such is a little more lax, and we were through with no trouble. The first thing we noticed was that there was about 13 players instead of the usual 28, we found out later that alot of the prisoners were in lock down due to the stabbing that had occurred earlier that week.

The other big news was that Stretch was transferred to Tracy to do some sort of prisoner work thing, since he was proficient with computers. Not a very fitting ending for a guy who really was the heart of the SQ team for such a long time. But I guess that is the way it goes when you are no longer free....we'll miss him.

The new pitcher for the Giants didn't seem all that overpowering but he certainly managed to keep us off balance for the first few innings. As usual we made our five errors in the first couple, as the adrenaline soared and the hands got fumbly. Not to take anything away from the G-men, they were murdering the ball, and have the early fog to thank for deadening the air on a few that should have been gone. Satch finally settled down and started in with the change of speed stuff which was working pretty well, at least they were popping the ball up. In an unfortunate mistake, I drilled a player in the helmet with a fastball, which is something that no one wants to see. He seemed alright, and I talked to him after the game and he was very cool about it, but a tense couple of seconds.

The score was 5-0 in the fourth and we hadn't had a hit yet, so we decided that was the first thing to take care of, and Mike Gaspar complied with a infield roller, and we were off and running. We broke the shutout, got a few more. They tacked on a run, we answered back, Sean providing the momentum with a double down the line. Noah promptly stepped up and pissed on the ball, sending the horsehide into the gap in left center, and suddenly it was a 6-6 ball game. We savored the tie for less than 1/3 of an inning. Johnny Badass (the intense catcher who owned me all day) drilled the second pitch, scored on the next hit, and we were in the hole again. Deeper and deeper it went, and it was 10-6 by the time Satch bowed out in the 6th. Sean came in and shut down the offense, but Rico, the cagey lefty for the SQ had done the same to us.

We flailed away our 8th and in the 9th, we showed some spark of comeback, with the bases loaded, Sean again drilled a ball into right, but unfortunately right at the fielder, who caught it and almost doubled up Satch on first. The momentum shifted, and down we went. We gathered on the mound, Kent said a few words, praise was given to everyone who had come out, we shook hands one more time, and headed out to the world.

Highlights

* Sean and Noah had great hits, Cagle had a nice one, but he needs to listen to the bench when they are screaming at him to stay at first.

* Phil Snyder, out from the red rocks of the southwest joined for his first game in the big house.

* The umpire was equally fair in the balls and strikes, and although he fucked a few calls, he acknowledged them to Greg.....

* We picked off a guy at third, but the base umpire wasn't paying attention, DAMN!

* Sean made some amazing catches in center field, actually Noah and Gaspar did as well, the outfield was solid all game

* Well.....there were a few in the outfield where the fielder just stood there shrugging since the ball blend in with the wall

* Had a real bad news bears play pop up behind the mound, I should have gotten it, but in my state, I was really afraid I might trip, fall and throw up at the same time....

* I hit 4 ground balls to the exact same place, second base. Two of them I got on, errors. I always have bad luck in the clean up spot. I'm a fifth spot kind of guy.

* Thanks to everyone, keep the ears to the ground in case we have a cancellation and a game becomes available.

S. Paige








No comments: