10/9/17 Cop Field

It is official.  The Mission Baseball club is experiencing a drought of players.  We thought it was just the summer doldrums, but it's October now, and we had 10 players show up yesterday.  Sure a few of the regulars had legitimate excuses but even counting them, were are barely 15.  I am not helping the cause any with my own spotty attendance but for fucks sake, we need some new blood.

The field was in amazing shape, so good that we almost didn't want to set foot on it until we had a team.  We approached the Mexican teams that were having batting practice on Camp Swampy, but they wanted nothing to do with us.  We asked a father and son that were practicing in left field, and they were excited to play.  Ended up being the best thing we did all day.  Javeed and Janier were both excellent, especially since one of them was a 10 year old kid.

So we ended up with 6-6, also known as Havana 6's if I am not mistaken.  No one sat on the bench for more than a minute or two the whole game, and we played with two outfielders and all fields open.  Tony pitched for the visitors and Satch for the homers.  It was a pretty low scoring affair, given the holes in the defense, the visitors were ahead for the entire game, but the homers slowly chipped away at the lead.  We scored first, but then went silent for several innings.  Tony is currently unhittable at times, he struck out quite a few of us, some more than once.

We entered the bottom of the 9th (which was really the 7th or 8th, just to get on with it) only down by a run.  I had a spectacular O-fer going, struck out the first two times, high pop fly, another pop fly.  Tony got me in the hole 1-2, and I was determined not to strike out on the Uncle Charlie again.  I reached out about 3 feet off the plate to get the ball and wristed it right between SS and 3rd.  Finally!

I was forced off on a fielders choice but Elvin got on, took second, and was hit home by Don to tie the game.  Bob stepped up and in true AOY style, hit a ball to right field where no one was playing and the game was ours.

Not a bad little game for such an ugly showing.

I am not going to harp on no one showing up because it doesn't seem to work, or that our email has about 100 people on it and we can't get a full 18 regularly but if you are reading this, better start asking your friends about playing, we need warm bodies.  If you are a once in a while player, start making it more often.  If you are a stranger who enjoys a quality and friendly game of baseball, let us know.

Highlights

* Tony threw another excellent game, new iteration of the player the SS/CG pitcher.

* Chris Powell was 5-5, all line drives, amazing

* Thanks to Ed and Bob for catching in addition to playing defense.

* While we are on the topic, Ed let a fly ball bounce right past him while filling in center field for us, which scored 2 runs.  Suspicious behavior....

* Janier had a legit hit to right field, as well as making several good defensive plays at 2nd.  His last hit was a line drive straight back at me, which I luckily caught in my glove rather than my face. Gamer!

* His dad hit two triples before I got him to reach for a knuckleball

* Ed on the other hand hit the knuckleball up in the air twice in a row for infield outs

* Wes Phelps was cheering us on, sharing his seaweed snacks, and napping in the outfield.

* We turned a legitimate double play in the early innings!

* Not too many hits to the opposite field until the last inning

* Elvin played well at 1st, scored the tying run and stole and almost slid into 3rd...

* Nick W scored our first run, and appeared to be suffering from the fall out of hustling for the rest of the game

* I think Tony joined me in being anemic at the plate

* Don was HBP 3 times by Tony.  It was brutal.  :)

Well, hope some people are inspired to come out and play, we could use about 6 more regulars.

S. Paige