9/12/10- Cop Field

Somehow, on Satch's anniversary weekend, he was lucky enough to get a reprieve to play ball, don't ask me how, but let me say that Mrs. Satch is s special kind of woman.... Well, hell, we knew that already, she's also a player for the MBC!

17 brave souls came out to Sundberg, greeted with the hazy day and an empty field, either league play is over now or the other teams have fallen off the face of the earth. It also marked the first Sunday of gridiron football, that most hated of sports. I am thinking of making it a constitutional change to the limited MBC rules that football is not allowed to be discussed, any thoughts?

Satch and Sean squared off after a few missed games, and both did not disappoint the fans, well, if we had fans. Sean had a lot more zest on his fastball, courtesy of some sort of workout regiment that he has been on, which frightens and confuses us. In any case, it was working, and neither team scored much in the way of runs in the first few frames. The homers drew first blood, and we answered back, Satch himself scoring on a hit to right, coming in sliding like a professional. Bob figured it was about a 4.5 on the Richter scale. We see sawed for a few more frames, and us visitors took a one run lead, that became a two run....and then the wheels fell off.

Satch threw five decent frames and bowed out, wary of the lack of constant throwing as off late. Greg took over the bump and kept the homers off balance. Sean lasted an inning more and then gave up the leather to the workhorse, Johnny Bartlett. Somewhere in the middle of the game, the score suddenly jumped from a good game to a not very good game, as the visitors took advantage of some botched plays to run up five more runs. You could smell the despair in the homers dugout from across the field. Mainly due to the fact that the home team hit the ball exceedingly hard all game, they just happened to hit it right at someone each time....with a man on base who got doubled off....usually to end an inning. WE visitors were more cagey, relying on weak ass ground balls to get booted and thrown away. That's Mission baseball!

In any case, the game wound down, each time the homers would get something started, there would be some sort of horrible calamity and the threat would be over. The 9th was no exception as Sean pissed on a ball to left, hitting from the right side against lefty Brian Phelps who had come in to get some work. Pissed on or not, it landed square in the glove of the outfielder. It was just that kind of day.

Highlights:

* Four line out double plays!

* Tim showed up in the second inning, and was an RBI machine all day, and even stole a base!

* Satch hit a powerful line drive that disappeared int the grass in the infield and barely made it to the edge of the grass, giving me time to beat it out, weird stuff

* The return of Duane, mind the knee and the back! Great to see you out again!

* Elvin's dogs were a constant sort of amusement for the team, and our only fans

* A new guy from the Bay to Breakers game came out again, and seemed to enjoy himself

* Sean had his mojo working on the mound, but Satch was the thorn in his side all game, finishing with a 1.000 OBP.

* The knuckleball was really dancing today, and got revenge on James with it

* Two or three broken bats, all on slowballs

* Lets remember to not give up too early when you muff up a play in the infield, just relax, find the ball and check to see if you have a play

* It was entertaining watching Mike Lattig in left, watch a ball hit to the gap in Left and Center, and not even move, meanwhile Bob in center was running after it like it just insulted his dog. Lattig acknowledged us and tipped his cap to us on the bench after the play

Same place, same time. Someone pay attention as I am heading out to the woods again.

Good fishing.

S. Paige