11/8/20 A Cold and Rainy Affair

 

Thanks again to James for keeping me honest, and the blog moving forward.  Sounds like I may not have missed the most comfortable game, but I still wish I had been there.- Satch

Welcome to another episode of This Week in Mission Baseball!

'Twas a cold, dreary, rainy game for the most part. The home team is not proud of their win, despite pushing about 11 runs across the plate. Why not? Let's give out some awards and see what happened.

SWINGS OF THE WEEK: We're giving this one to Mike L., the toughest out in Mission Baseball these past couple of months (along with Aaron, but Mike has played more). Mike continued his assault on the right-center gap, with power, and the man has been racking up doubles galore. Honorable mention: I'll give this to myself for an OPPOSITE FIELD HIT! Indeed, I followed a little coaching advice from Sean, waited on a pitch more than usual, and pushed one to an empty right field (beat the shift!) on purpose. Yeah!

PITCHES OF THE WEEK: Let's give this to Sean. I would not call it a dominating performance, but he threw well enough and let his fairly solid defense do their thing. 

GLOVES OF THE WEEK: Nick W! In a game that did not showcase the best of Mission Baseball fundamentals in the field (first sun and cold, then rain and cold... Aaugh!), Nick W. made a smothering catch up the middle at second and flipped the ball to second from the ground to get a force out. It was a momentary stop-gag for another home team half inning of death to the visitors by a thousand small cuts. Honorable mentions: Stoner made a falling-to-his-knees catch in center while adjusting for the sun. Welcome back to CF, especially at Portrero! Also, shout-outs to Greg and Mike N. for plenty of impressive stops behind the plate. Sonny and Sean threw quite a few in the dirt; these guys stopped them all!    

AAUGH!

- The weather. Not only did the sun f*ck up some folks early on, but later the cold and rain made for tough conditions, especially when trying to field... (thought continues below)  

WORD OF THE WEEK: Bloopers! Why was the home squad not proud of their one-sided victory? Most of our runs were base-to-base, push them across, one at a time, lucky/sloppy bloopers either whooshed around the infield by the wind, or dropping just behind the infield dirt. The visitors were good sports about it, regularly laughing at how long some innings were and whether they would ever get the next out. I know that at least two of my "hits" were bloopers of this fashion. Not our proudest victory, but as Bob says, "I've lost so many times in life... I'll take the victory no matter what!" Something to that effect.