What a great way to come back to the game. Of course, I am surprised as anyone that I actually was allowed to play so soon, but hey, Mrs. Paige is a very special person.
And the icing on the cake was it was a the fabled return of Mr. Peter Van Schaik, who, after a long sojourn in Connecticut, graced us with his presence for the day, and he did everything, field, hit, drop balls, strike out. Unfortunately, this visit was not indicative of things to come, but hey, a path is made by laying a single stone at a time. There's a stoner joke in there somewhere but I can't find it.
For a day that was supposed to rain, we lucked out, and only had a short period of strange light where the clouds looked ominous, then the sun came out again and we were good. We ended up with 14-14, a rather large number, and there were enough representatives to get a old guys versus new guys game together. So we did.
The new guys ran away with it, no other way to put it. We started out strong, Pete scored our first run, and we put up another and we were in the lead 2-1 for at least a while. Johnny started for the homers and Sean was on the hill for the visitors. Well, those two runs must have really scorched Sean's pride, because he settled down into strike out mode and ended up with about 10 K's and a complete game. Ouch. Johnny did his best to hold back the tide, but there were some real strong bats to contend with on the visiting team.
We flailed away, and our defense, while being mature and well rounded, couldn't keep up with the hit parade. By the time I came in to pitch, the visitors were up 4-2, and we kept that for a good long while, but we just couldn't score a run, or really even get a decent rally going. Maybe we were distracted by all the visitors, Dani came out to root for us, as did Pete's kids and wife, and Ed's kids and his wife and a host of others.
We convinced the homers to keep playing, since we could, but it just got worse, and in the last inning, the visitors started to really exploit the weaknesses, and put up at least another 3 runs. I left before we got our final licks, but I am not holding out too much hope for late breaking news of a big comeback.
On a serious note, We got a bit of club business to take care of. Tim is being fined $5 by the kangaroo court for refusing to sit out in a game that was 14-14. He was specifically asked about it and he chose to ignore it, and even continued to play into extra innings. I have been itching to play for the last 3 weeks, and I still sat out for two innings. The team had ample back up catchers. Not acceptable, sorry Tim. You can pay the fine to Bob, who will verify to the court that it's been taken care of. Everyone else, pay attention. The fine and punishments go up exponentially, now that everyone is aware of the rules.
Highlights:
* Pete made a number of great catches in short right field, like he never missed a day
* Duane played a great 1st sack, digging out some balls that would have been hits for us usually.
* Rich, as usual, killed it at SS
* Sean's performance was awesome.
* We got out of a bases loaded jam, to keep the score close, that was satisfying.
* JT made a number of great catches in right field, which we know is not his favorite position
* Rick had a great hit, and then slightly re-injured himself. At least it was a solid hit, get well soon!
* Jay also had a hit and then a flare up of a nagging injury, rehabbing is a slow process, sometimes, as much as it sucks, you have to go for complete rest
* I now have an 0-9 slump going, with 2 strikeouts, and about 6 ground balls that never made it past the grass of the infield
* Richie was foiled in a foot blocking the bag steal attempt. One of our many rally enders
* I threw a fast ball and had my body buckle under me, that could have been a lot worse
* We kept score officially, or as officially as the MBC is going to get
* Tony had a nice rope early on to get our only run production started
* Dennis also had a few hits and continued to put his recently healed ankle in peril
* Thanks to Nick Smith for keeping everybody in line and demanding that people sat out their fair share (for our team anyway...)
* With a few exceptions, most of the runs for the visitors were earned, just solid singles.
* Mitch had a great battle at the plate that ended with a line drive
* I was K'd looking on a pitch that was low. To end the 9th inning. Real low. Tim should be fined another $5 for that, but as a participant in the event and official of the kangaroo court, I think that would cross into malicious use of process. MBC law dogs please verify that this is the proper use of this legal term. And yeah, I probably should be swinging with 2 strikes, if you want to be a dick about it.
* We were helped by a infield fly rule as well. Sad game when that is a highlight for us
* Aiden looked good chasing the soccer ball around and kicking it into the fence, I would love to play soccer if I could run more than 90 feet at a time
* Noah might have had 2 hits and 2 stolen bases!
* We almost had Noah picked off at third, but I couldn't hold on to the ball, and then fell over. I really thought I still had it. My glove needs re-lacing officially, I have noticed that its a lot floppier with the laces all broken.
I may even make it out next week, but it's a crap shoot. Thanks again Pete for the appearance, lets do it again soon, big guy.
S. Paige
1 comment:
Nice seeing you other, Pete!
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