11/28/10- St Mary's

We all saw how the rain was coming down on Saturday, and few thought we might have a game, Satch included. Racing back from the mountains on Sunday to beat the holiday traffic, the call came in from Bob that the Big Rec field was too wet. I countered that I was willing to try. He told me not to bother. The wife started a mental list of things around the house that needed doing. It was looking grim. Then a bolt of lightning from Ed and Jon to say that the St. Mary's Field in Bernal Heights was looking good, and an informal game might just prove perfect. A few more emails came in saying they would try, I tossed those chores out the window and screeched away.

Amazingly, the field wasn't just in good shape, it was in better shape than any of us had ever seen it. The mound was pure clay, the infield grass (yes they have grass now) was short and well managed, and nary a puddle in the infield. The outfield was a little soft and swampy in places, but certainly not any worse than the leaky pipe main area at Cop Field is.

Manpower was looking a little on the light side, but luckily we had a Hispanic contingent of drunken Sunday players who's chosen area of resbit was the St. Mary's field. So with the addition of Carlos, Vicente and Pancho, we had enough for Havana 6. Sean and Satch squared off, and from the beginning we knew that the sun was going to be a problem, whoever designed the field didn't think people would be playing there in November. The batter and the catcher were pretty much blind for the whole game. It made it interesting anyway, but apparently only with lefty pitchers did the ball disappear. Satch got lit up for about 9 runs, including a solo shot to deep right from Sean, and Carlos who proved that one can hit in power slacks and busted penny loafers. Sean gave up one or two runs.

We played as the sun sunk and became more and more a factor, the wind picked up and we realized that the blinding sun was the only thing keeping it from being really cold. Brian Phelps and Noah lent a pitching hand, the visitors racked up some more runs, Carlos gave up and sent Pancho into sub for him, Ed's kids and John's kids enjoyed the air powered Nerf rocket, and we stopped before it got totally dark. Not bad, considering I had given up on the game 24 hours earlier.

Highlights:

* In addition to the home run and the pitching, Sean made an amazing catch to end the game, tracking a ball from SS, to deep left, full extension and a great grab and roll. He almost had one in the fourth, which he missed by mere inches.

* Special thanks again to everyone who came out and Ed and John for letting us know about the field

* I hit a drive of my own off Sean, that I never actually saw, I swung in the general region of where I thought the ball was. Just goes to show ya, vision is overrated.

* Greg brought the gear, which really helped us legitimize the game

* The game had a Mexican Radio soundtrack, reverberating off the stadium seating

* Brian had his own monster shot to right

* We had a couple of real nasty plays which took about 15 seconds to complete, the defense kept dropping the ball, the batter kept walking to the base, the ball dropped and thrown away, the batter still walking.....

* With all the kids and Brian hitting sharp foul balls, we were all happy no one was killed

* Tony looked real pretty chasing down a fly ball. He missed it.

* Adam played some 3rd base and even pitched some warm ups, the shoulder seems to have healed well

* No chores.

Back at Big Rec next week, hope the week stays dry, but hey, St. Mary's with sunglasses is certainly serviceable.

S. Paige