The real news of the day was Tony Rojas, who my kids refer to in hushed reverent terms around the house. When we practice hitting in the back yard, they argue over who gets to be Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, Brandon Belt. They they argue over who gets to be Tony and Greg. So I must be doing something right.
Tony pitched a masterful complete game, the majority of which was a shutout. Our team couldn't have hit their way out of a wet paper bag all day, and Tony was mixing and matching everything under the sun. His sidearm rising slurvy ball found the strike zone consistently, and he got us to hit the ball in the air all day. He was great.
I was given to the other team to provide much needed bat power, and I sucked at that all day. 0-5, I do believe, only once did I hit the ball on the ground, and it was right to Chris Powell.
There were only 7 men on each team, and yet the homers had 4 lefties- Sean, Phelps, Lattig, Tony....yeah, who ever divvied up these teams must be a sadist.....Me and the boys played right field for most of the game but never got a fly ball. The one inning we played 2nd base, there was a fly ball to right, and then Chris Powell of all people hit a scorcher right at me and the kids, I prayed for a true hop, and got it, and threw to first. The boys wear helmets when they are with me on the field, but they may need hockey masks too.
No matter who was pitching the homers would not stop their hit parade. Sonny pitched the first 5 or so, then Nick W. came in but had trouble finding the strike zone. I volunteered to pitch the 8th, knowing that there would most likely not be a bottom of the 9th. I had held back some cookies for the boys to bribe them to sit quietly on the bench while I pitched. It worked and the inning went well enough, although no one could really stop the home team.
The decision had been made in about the 5th inning, with things goign the way they were that we would call the score 8-8, rather than 8-0. This was done to try and foster some competitive spirit amongst our team,but even charity runs could not induce us to play any better, and the homers kept on scoring runs, and by the end of the 8th it was 12-8.
We did finally score a run, which was a small bit of redemption and a feel good story on it own. Liam, the older McGrath boy, had a trying day with Tony, somewhere in the ~3/4 K range, and this was his last chance. Sonny hit a nice sharp single, and was dancing off first, and then second in his surfer gear, ratty T-shirt and black cutoff shorts. Liam laced a line drive into the gap in left, and Sonny raced home. We had finally scored a run, and Liam had avoided a sombrero.
The only run of the day for the visitors it turned out.
Final Score- An honest 12-1 thrashing.
Highlights:
* Homer Team- Powell, Elvin, Sean, Lattig, Greg, Tony, Phelps
* Visitors- Abe, Sonny, Nick W., John McG, Liam McG, Don, Satch
* It wasn't that we didn't get some people on base, we just could not score a run
* Don had several nice hits, and was always stranded
* John McG crushed a ball
* Chris Powell had 3 doubles and a triple, at least
* Don was HBP once, maybe twice
* In the 8th, Don was awarded the SS bad hop trophy for two in a row and that jigged instead of jagging. Luckily, they didn't hit him in the face
* I think our defense in left for the other team was better than our defense for our own team
* Apparently Abe is only a hitting machine when I am facing him, not when we are on the same team....
* Thanks to Greg, John McG, Liam for doing the catching
Let's hope that a few players are inspired to show up next week so we can have a proper game?
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