8/15/10- Cop Field

A great day for a ball game...if you live in SF anyway. Anywhere else in the world and you would be wondering, why am I freezing my ass off and yet, still muggy and warm? Well, another glorious week at the Cop Field, full of shotgun-loading cops and drunk Latin baseball players, and the MBC somewhere in the middle trying to get a game going. Luckily we had more than enough people, some 22 or so, and with a mighty gallop, we took the field once more.

Of all people, Brian the Circus Girgus wanted to start on the bump, and while we have seen a real spectrum of outcomes from this, the MBC is all about what you can do today, not what you did yesterday or five years ago (unless it was being an asshole, then history does matter.) Brian struggled a little to start off, but that is to be expected when pitching in the concrete and bone dust that is the Cop Field mound. The visitors ran up a few, but we answered back with some of our own and the game was underway. We faced Dustin Skiles, fresh from ACL rehab, and while claiming not a 100%, he was doing fine. He managed to keep Satch limited to one hit for the game, and had a few more strikeouts peppered into his repertoire.

This game, as most do, came down to defense and timely hitting. The infield was slow as molasses in January, and still had the crazy hops element, which added some excitement. In addition, there was a group of geese eating in the outfield for the whole game, and no amount of yelling or threatening seemed to do any good.

The game see-sawed, I remember it being 5-5 in the fifth inning and Circus exited with a ND. Satch came in to mop up and James took the reins for the visitors. Then the homers broke loose for a couple and it stayed 7-5 into the 8th. We padded our column into the 9th, and while the visitors managed to scrap a few, the top of the 9th saw no comeback and the game was 10-7.

But wait! So many people, why wouldn’t we play an extra inning? Just for fun. The rationale being of course that half the people could leave and we would still have enough to fill the diamond. And so we did (as Lattig put on his shoes and shook his head), and the visitors made it interesting, with a run scored and men on 1st and 3rd, representing the tying runs. But Brian Phelps, that cagey lefty was able to stave off the attack and the visitors were turned away once more. Cue fog, wind, Advil and beer.

Highlights

* Johnny almost was arrested for animal cruelty for the double he cracked into the flock of geese.

* Brian Phelps back from Italy, Dustin back from surgery, Stoner back from daddy duty, John Spack back from where ever he was, welcome home!

* We had a couple of nice relays, one at home that got a runner.

* Tony left us for a punk rock game and party, then came back when they didn't get their shit organized. Thanks Tony!

* Bob pissed on another ball, and hustled like he was 20 years old

* There was some sort of situation that warranted a team discussion, I forget the particulars, but I know I scored and had to go back to third, legs don’t need that. EDITORS NOTE: It was brought to my attention that the situation was the catcher not calling the ball fair or foul, and as such, the play was ruled safe at first, runner to 3rd. Ed, the catcher, claimed it was due to his rookie status as backstop, I think James' 28 balls in the dirt meted out enough punishment to make up for it

* D-Ski and Noah brought a friend out, and I don’t just mean the Colt 45’s and Jameson

* I bought a new wood bat at West Coast Sports and while I didn’t get a legit hit with it, I crushed one to center that felt really good.

* Both teams had some great situational hitting to right field

* Circus did it with the arm and the bat

* Thanks to the platoon of catchers we had out there, Noah, Bob, Mike, John Spack and Ed, who caught for the first time, and had a real natural instinct for blocking the ball, which he had a lot of opportunities to do

* Adam Pfahler played 3rd base for the first time in a long while

* It has been agreed that played 2nd is just weird, the perspective is all screwy and no one gets used to it.

Editors Note: When playing extra innings, or just in general, the course of base runners should be to ensure that people get at bats. Now we have all been picked off at one time or another, but come on, bouncing off the bag, trying to freak out the pitcher is a moot point. Even if he gets flustered and balks, we don’t count it, it just slows down the game and takes away concentration that may be needed to throw strikes (this is the MBC after all). So, let’s all be heads up there, take a big secondary lead if you have to be active, know where the SS and 2nd are playing (base coaches, who’s got that kind of energy?) and not ruin someone’s at bat.

Cop Field, same time, 3 pm.

S. Paige