Thursday, August 6, 2015

8/2/15 West Sunset



A hell of a game, if your name was Sean. 

Just hell, if you were the team facing Sean. 

Yes, indeed, Sunday’s game proved that one must never get tired of being surprised.  For starters, we had 12 people show up for a game at West Sunset, on a day that was as close to perfect as they come.  Greg was injured, and so he selflessly volunteered to play all time third base.  It was dubbed as the Heads vs. the Squares.  I tell you, I guess there is something to this clean living thing.

Satch started for the homers and was excited to pitch again, an excitement which didn’t last too long.  The other team brought their bloop game, and when only you have two outfielders, bloops turn into doubles.  And then the visitors also hit the crap out of the ball.  So there was that.  And our team forgot how to catch the ball for a while.

Sean started for the visitors, and didn’t really break a sweat until the middle innings.  After we had suffered through a 5 run barrage, he set us down in order with about 8 pitches.  Not fair.

The game went fairly quickly, as you might imagine, and the only person on our team that managed to get a hit in the first 2/3 of the game was Tim.  But none of us could do anything.  Literally.  Gaston finished with a 0-6, as did Dustin.  Between the two of them, they had 7 or 8 strikeouts.  Sombreros abounded like scrambling banditos in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

I bowed out after 7, gave the ball to Gaston and tried to figure out how the score was really 11-0.  Gaston minimized the damage for the rest of the game, but that is a lot like telling the guy who stepped on the landmine that his hat was untouched.

So we get to the 9th, and Sean still hadn’t given up a run.  That was our focus, just break up the shutout, don’t give him the satisfaction.  And to his credit, after a base runner got on, he didn’t hold me on; he went from the windup to improve his pitching, not thinking about letting me have 2nd and 3rd (defensive indifference, as everyone on their team was happy to remind me). 

And we still couldn’t get it done.   I considered if I could make a break for the plate and take out Carter, going in shoulder lowered, but that’s not the way we play….but I considered it.

So down we went.  I am proud that we were part of this game, even if it was embarrassing.  ‘Cuz I was there.

Highlights:

Sean Paul Presley
Complete game.
Score: 13-0
4 hits, ~10 K’s.

* MITCHED!  Mitch managed to steal at least 3 hits from me, by playing me perfectly in the gaps each time, left center, right center.  Ironically, if we had 3 outfielders, those hits would probably have fallen.

* Abe moved up in the AOY 2016 votes by bunting with a 6-0 lead.

* Carter made his own bat with a lathe, and it didn’t break!  And he got a hit with it!

* Tim was our only offensive threat, and he caught the whole game!

* I did manage to strike out Carter, twice, the second time telling him that the same slider was coming.  He didn’t believe me, I guess.  I had resorted to Psy Ops to get outs by that point in the game.

* Bob was hit, as was Carter, our two ball magnets

* We had to fill in at 1st for the other team, to which Abe refused to hold on the runner, increasing his AOY chances

* Sean’s sweat-stained uniform was a thing of beauty by the end of the game

* Thanks to the noble players who braved the beautiful day and lack of traffic to have a game:

All-Timer
Greg

Visitors
Mike L
Mitch
Abe
Bob
Carter
Sean

Homers
Gaston
Dustin
Tony
Tim
Satch

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