Sorry for the late additions, time just keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future. The Labor Day game,which was my first in a little while, was well attended, which made it both an anomaly and a pleasure. Sorry to say that the numbers coming out for baseball have been pretty paltry lately, and we have tried our best to cull the email list to only those that have a reasonable chance of showing up, or at least want to stay up to date on our game.
I will attempt to consolidate the games, for brevity and clarity: I pitched 10 innings on 9/3/17, and lost the game after having a shut out for 6 innings and leading the game for 9 innings.
Other than my inability to get some people out, and the hitting of the other team, I was helped along in my loss by an uncharacteristically dropsy infield, where pop flies were treated like the other man's job, and ground balls found the wrists and arms of players rather than their gloves.
Oh well.
As the visiting team, we scored one run each inning in the top of the first four innings. And the score remained 4-0 through the first 6 innings, something that I was very proud of, and as we know, pride does indeed come before the fall. It was palpable to Greg and myself when the momentum suddenly changed, a tweener begat an error, begat another error, begat a ground ball that was hit softly enough to be an impossible play, et cetera.
The home team deserved to win because they did not give up, they kept their heads in the game, and and capitalized on the chances they had. After Sonny started the game, Nick W. pitched several fine innings of relief work to keep the game close. They tied it up late, and then in extra innings, Jimmy's New Guy friend put a softball swing on a do nothing changeup and hit it over the left fielder (who was also on their team) for the win.
Highlights:
* Felt good to air out the ol' soup bone for a lot off innings
* Elvin was good at not letting himself out of the at bats, and I don't know that I got him out (at the plate...)
* Bob sneered his way through the game
* My favorite part was Tony leading off an inning with me behind him, and I told him if he got on that I would bunt the second pitch. Well, he got on to the tune of second base, and he and I traded knowing nods, I placed a bunt down the third base line for an uncontested infield hit. He was hoping they would try and then he could have scored from second.
* Don made some much needed catches in center field
* Abe was his usual dependable hitting and field self
* Greg and Gaspar did a great job behind the dish, and I was sorry that I was not able to get the win for them
* It was a beautiful hot day at the yard, hot weather makes it easier to pitch for sure
*One particularly galling play, Jimmy was covering in left field, and was playing what appeared to be an extreme Gaspar shift. Except that Gaspar was not up. So a routine fly ball to left became a triple. I am all for cheating but you got to sell it.
* I almost didn't make it to second base, because I was talking to Adam, you gotta watch that, he draws you in
* I also made another bonehead running play, I really got to start asking more often how many outs there are. I think I am used to always being up with two outs that I assume that is the default when I am on base. In any case, I was on second, ball hit to short left, doubled off. Fuck.
* Sonny had a nice hit down the left field line for a double
9/10/17- Camp Swampy
So this one happened yesterday, a bit more fresh in my mind. The boys were with me, so we got out early to have some time to play with on the improved playground at Balboa. There was some beer league championship game happening on our field, and they weren't giving up before it was over, so we schlepped all the gear to Camp Swampy, which I don't think we have played on since April. We only had 15, and the 3 McGrath boys had to leave early, so we tried our best to get as much in as possible, before the game turned back into a pumpkin.
The boys insisted on playing on this huge fallen log, which was OK, other than the jagged pieces of broken branches that were lying around. But they were occupied at least.
The homers, which was my team, had lanky lefty Liam to start, and he looked good, snapping off some quality pitches. He threw hardest, of course, against his brother, Aiden, which is to be expected. Aiden did not go down without a fight though. It was great to have two new generation players, a few more years and my boys will hopefully be out there too.
Lattig started for the visitors, throwing breaking stuff all over the map, and then when you think you are going to see a curve ball, he would pour one in on the outside corner. We jumped out to a lead, raised it to 5, the visitors came back slowly and surely, and I think by the end of the game which was about 6 innings, the score was either 6-4, or maybe even 6-5, us.
Mitch and Greg caught the game, and did a fine job, especially with a lot of balls in the dirt.
Highlights:
* James tattooed one to me in left while the boys were out there with me, luckily it came right at me, and the boys had helmets on.
* Chris Powell had a rare dropped pop fly, which is usually his forte
* The visiting team was stealing bases all over the place
* Lattig had an at bat with at least 6 foul balls
* Abe did double duty in center since I had kids on either side of me through half the game
* John McG had a good game, almost took out his own kid with a slide, and was the lynchpin to having the game in the first place, vis a vis his progeny
* Mitch hit a gapper in right that I thought might be an in-the-parker. He settled for a triple
* Nick W. came out with is two daughters, thenone of them got stung by a bee and they all had to leave. I don't know if he got a chance to bat
* The one silver lining on the shortened game was that the boys got to do a lot of hitting on the diamond after the game.
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