6/9/19 GGP

I was a tad late, owing to other duties, but I made it out.  The weather was beautiful, almost too much so.  It has been a long time since I experienced 91 degrees in SF.  The park was alive with lots of people, and the olde tyme baseballers were doing their thing.

When I arrived, it was 0-0 in the 4th inning, and Brian P and Sonny were having a strong back and forth.  They both looked pretty good to me, and continued to do so, though our team gave up some unearned runs in the 5th.  Just. Could. Not. Get. A. Handle.  Mike Lattig, by his own admission, had a very off defensive day.  Not what one wants to hear from the 1st baseman.

The visitors scored a few and it was 3-1 when we had to give up the field.  Greg would have been proud in the even-handed non-dickish way we did so, packing up at the stroke of 5 to give the All-Stars their chance to play their game.  The olde-tymers were almost down with their game, so we hung out on the grass for 20 minutes and waited for that to be done so we could finish.  It was leisurely.

I had pitched the last inning on the old field, and the first inning on the new field.  I have to say I preferred the mound of the East field, which is completely backwards, given that it is the JV Field of the two.  Arms felt good.  Hip felt bad.  Another day in paradise.  I did get out of a bases loaded jam, with the help of a revitalized defense, so that was awesome.  And I struck out Loren, who was even later than I was.

Chris P came in for the 9th, and did a great job.  We went into the bottom of the 9th trailing 6-1, and I think that we scored at least one, maybe two off of Nate, who had come into pitch after Sonny.  But too much to surmount, and on a replayed third-out (Tony couldn't let the game end on a questionable 3rd strike call, and it was redone, this time he soft-popped it to Urano).

Final- 6-3?

Highlights:

* Great showing, and what a day for a ball game!

* We lost Mike N to a injury at 1st, it was a strange one, he was going back to the bag, and suddenly he was on the ground, looking like Buster Posey post-Cousins impact.  I guess he rolled his ankle, so hopefully it is minor. Get well soon!

* Lots of fair balls down the left field line

* Brian P had a booming triple, and I mean booming, this thing was soaring over James' head

* Before I got there Mitch apparently made a fantastic full extension diving catch to rob a hitter.

* Mitch also made a great 3rd out grab in foul territory while catching

* Chris P continues to hit the hardest balls, but right to someone's glove

* Abe had a classic sac fly, something that doesn't happen too often in our game

*  Thanks to everyone who played and substituted, we had to swap out players with all the different things going on, people leaving, more coming, etc.

Stay cool.  This weather reminded us all that I have proposed an MBC East Bay game, I am still working on it, maybe July-August?  The good news is that the new solar cover on my pool is actually doing its job.

S. Paige