2018 San Quentin Series- Game 1

 It's that time of year again, when the team makes the trip north to SQ to play the inmate team.  It's been happening for a lot of years at this point, and we almost always have a good time.  The problems, when they occur, are usually administrative in nature.  Obviously, we want the prison to function well so that everyone remains safe.  But it can be trying, when all you want to do is play some ball.

Two reports so far on how the game went, the first from Nick W:

It was a doozy. A back and forth nailbiter finally sealed by an 8th inning dropped 3rd strike that scored 2 runs, and bookended by opening day ceremonies with a touching goodbye to Elliot and Phelps having to drive to Novato for a spare set of car keys because he locked his in his trunk.

Final score SQ A's/Giants 11, Mission 8

And this commentary from Sonny:

 Sean threw a runner out at first, with his amazing deceptive leg-kick-looks-like-he’s-

already-pitching-but-throws-to-first move.

Chris made a major league-like out catching a grounder at SS and long throw in air to first.

Mike threw some great pitches in the 9th , almost everything dipping down right at the plate.

I had longest at bat of my life fouling off like 14 balls.

We had three errors on one ball, first Sean missed it, then I missed it then Greg missed it.

So we are 0-1 in the season, with about 4 games to go.  Let's hope for a better outcome in May.  Strangely, two of the three people who contributed to this blog article, are two of the only three MBC players that you can actually identify in the Religion of Sports: Through the Darkness documentary that filmed last year while we were there.  

Here's a screen shot, with Elliot talking, and Chris "Stretch" Rich, the former inmate who returned to give some inspiring words to the players.  As for the third man, well, shoot, everyone knows who he is.