With the rain we had on Saturday, I never thought we would actually have had a game, but lo and behold, the sun came out, the dry ground sopped up the water and with some work by our pre-game grounds crew, we were on our way. Or they were anyway, I didn't get there until the top of the 2nd, but whatever. We were once again over the limit, and a moratorium has been called on bringing any new people to the game until further notice...and yes, that means YOU too.
Greg and the visitors were complaining about lack of bats and thus, claimed me for their own, which was OK except that I had to take off my MBC jersey, since the game had officially been deemed Mission versus Others. In hind sight, the MBC team might have needed my bat more, but I digress. Snyder took the bump for what seemed like the first time in a long while, and he was on cruise control. Johnny Bartlett started for the homers and threw well, but was less untouchable than Greg, and was hurt by a number of Swampy-esque bad hops.
The game was up for grabs in the early innings, but as it progressed, the hit and runs parade continued for the visitors, while it dried up and blew away for the home squad. Brian Phelps came into try and stop the bleeding, but was no more successful. Satch came for the four (five) inning save, and seemed to have a lot of different stuff working.
By the 7th inning, the score had become a bit stretched, but all of a sudden, the homers straightened up and scored some runs, and we were looking at a 10-7 ball game. But not for long, as we roared back and put it way out in front again. Daniel rolled in, a victim of the time change, just in time for the 9th inning. We scored a few more, the homers went quietly, and then we talked them into a 10th, with the hopes that the game might have a big comeback. Didn't happen.
But we felt bad, since our half of the 10th inning we had sent a bunch of people to the plate, it seemed like we were on the verge of being a bunch of dicks. So we gave the visitors 6 outs, and then 9 outs. Unfortunately, half of our team went home after the 9th, since they apparently don't like playing extra innings, so the homers had to field a lot of positions for their own inning. Everyone got a chance to hit, with the exception of Ed and Phelps, who are owed by everybody for their supreme sacrifice.
Highlights:
* No new guys. Period.
* Thanks to all that tended to the mud before the game to make it playable, and Jon Mcg for the scouting report
* Duane made a number of nice catches in no mans land
* Mitch was a terror with the glove and the bat all day, and thankfully I was on his team this time
* Greg didn't catch all day, which may be a record
* Bob was HBP, in the shoe again. Maybe his shoe has a magnet in it
* New guy Rob threw the ball back to Johnny harder than Johnny was pitching
* New guy Rob's kid was the real MVP, for straightening our gear and being an almost overly eager bat boy
* Dustin Skiles handcrafted himself a Golden Sombrero for the day
* Nick made a nice play at 1st.
* We rolled a double play, the old fashioned way.
* I think I actually deked Dustin at SS with the most hacky deke of all time.
* Tony caught a line drive and had about 10 minutes to double the runner off first. But he hurried the throw and it ended up out of bounds, lets all take our time....
* I realized the specter of a fastball is just as effective as a real fastball. I threw about 7 real fastballs in 5 innings, and just threw change ups the rest of the time. The slow curve was my real tool for the day
* Bob and I committed seppuku in the 10th to get the homers their at bat, with a 2 out squeeze play.
* Phelps just barely missed sending a meat pitch a long ways, too much uppercut
* Tip for the Day: Outfielders, remember that the worst thing you can do is hold onto a ball. It is literally better to to heave the ball in the direction of home plate, with no discernible human target, than it is to hold it and look around. Get rid of it.
* Jay's foot is healing, and he proved it by feinting and antagonizing the pitchers on base all day, which he says is one of his favorite things to do.
* My first two hits (a professional scorekeeper might disagree, but MBC would log them as such), were to the exact same place and should have been clean through, but Ed knocked both of them down
* Ed also had about 7 more ground balls come to his way in 2 innings
* I made two base running gaffes in one inning, and still scored. First I didn't score when I should have, and then went home on a ground ball to the 3rd baseman. Luckily he threw it so hard that it popped out of Adam's glove, and I skated in
* Bob had a big fly, that no one was gonna get
* Gaspar had a nice line drive up the middle, just to skew the whole Gaspar shift notion
* Thanks to Bob, Gaspar, Adam, Rob, Brian Phelps! and Tim for catching
* Dustin recorded two outs against his own team, in right field in the 9th inning. I would have dropped at least one of them. Just saying....
* Brian Phelps laid it out, also in pursuit of his own teams hit, that homer squad had some real gentleman on it, I can tell you.
In closing, here's the new guy policy until further notice, as best described by paraphrasing Wentzle Ruml VI in Dogtown and Z boys, "You couldn't just show up with some new guy, grab your board and expect to drop in. You had to call a meeting, you had to call a meeting and clear that shit with everybody. And guess what, if you didn't, then YOU didn't ride...no shit, almost happened to me once."
Not sure where we will be next week, but I can tell you there won't be any more new faces.
S. Paige
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