What a day for a ballgame. The warm has entered the City, as it usually does in October.
Earthquake weather, the old timers will say.
Non-frigid baseball without fog is an acceptable tradeoff for theoretical increased likelihood of a tremblor, says I.
Unfortunately, our rookie of the year went down with an injury before the game even started, Anna was fielding a throw at 1st during warm ups and felt something in her calf twinge up. She stayed for the bulk of the game, but never got to the point that she could play. Get well soon! Ice, Heat, Ibuprofen, Stretch, repeat.
Lattig started for the homers and Nick W for the visitors. Nick was in the groove, although he kept complaining about how hot it was on the mound. He controlled the homers well for 4 innings, giving way to Chris P and McG for the final inning.
We ended up playing only 8 innings because the October light is not very forgiving. Lattig pitched well for the homers, and kept the game close, and hit Bob in the neck, so a good outing all around. Satch came in to relieve, and was subject to a brutal inning of dinks and drops, coupled with strong line drives. By the time I left the game, and HR took over to mop up, it was fairly out of reach, though we did provide some semblance of a comeback.
Final score, 11-8.
The real news is that we had not one, but two notable first-time occurrences in the pantheon of MBC play (as far as any of us could remember, anyway):
1. Runner on third, Adam hit a ball right back up the middle, so up the middle in fact that it hit one of the reserve balls behind the mound. Baseballs go in two different directions. Chris P picked up one and threw it to Bob at first, where it sailed over his head and into out of bounds territory. The other ball was picked up by Nick W and thrown home to nab the runner trying to score.
So either a.) fielders choice 3rd out at home, or b.) run scored, E-6, with an automatic free base. We decided that the law of do-over was the most reasonable solution. The next hit gets chopped down third baseline, Adam does not run because he thought it was foul, however, it is called fair and the force out at first negates our team from scoring at all.
With a history of upwards of four reserve baseballs, rosin bags, sweatshirts, sunglasses, gloves, cigarettes, joints, and other smoking accessories all potentially being behind the mound during a game, this is the first time that anything has ever been an obstruction to a hit ball.
2. It has long been discussed that a big hit--that would surely be a homerun in any ballpark with a fence-- might be considered an automatic round tripper, enabling the batter to run the bases without fear of being tagged out or of showboating reprisal. How to do it without a donnybrook erupting was the sticking point. Well, it happened, and a couple of variables made it an easier decision than expected.
The hitter: Satch.
The pitcher: Chris P.
The hit, well, by all accounts landed here, about 383 feet, bounced and rolled to rest near the pitching mound, which is about 465 feet from home plate:
Things that helped this to happen:
- A very big bat.
- A little league fall ball practice on the other field. Luckily no kids were injured but the ball bounced into their infield practice.
- Mike Lattig, a homer, playing replacement left field retrieved the ball and signaled a four bagger, and no one really argued.
- General consensus of sympathy for Satch, who was already straining to make it to 2nd even on a hit that far, but then took third when it seemed that could be done safely
I was willing to take a ground rule triple on the deal, but it was decided that it should be homerun, and who was I to argue?
The person I want to acknowledge here is Chris P, who was very decent about the whole thing. No one wants to be the first MBC pitcher that gave up a no-fence, no-contest homerun. The really painful part, though, is that Chris has probably hit balls that same distance several times and has never been granted the luxury of a trot. He deserves it, and I hope that he gets one for himself soon. I will be the first in line to support it.
It was posited that in all those games at Potrero Rec, we never had anyone hit one out, Chris P. of course was one of the few that came close. For posterity, here is what the middle of the roof past the fence is at that field, a mere 358ft:
Ok, I will stop now.
Highlights:
* Nick pitched a hell of game
* There were a couple of scorched line drives that were caught, Mike Lynch almost lost a hand on one, Adam turned another one into a double play
* We had a sure fire play at home, but the infield grass killed the throw
* I noted in real time that I did not swing while HR was stealing, a pet peeve of mine.
* Thanks to McG, Greg, Gaspar, Chris L for catching
* Thanks to Mike L for making the call and the team for supporting it
* Urano had some big hits, and big plays at SS
* McG came up big with the bat
* HR made some much needed catches in center
* There is no rubber on the mound right now, so it's like the Wild West pitching, its disconcerting.
* Gaspar has gone back to metal
* I got Bob to foul out on a knuckleball, haha.
* I want to acknowledge all the MBC hitters that odds are should have had their turn to trot: Chris, Rich, James, Rick K, Sean, Phelpsie, Dave, Duane, Loren, Carter, Elan, Kyle, Pete S, add your name here.
Beautiful day, great game, thanks everyone.
