What a day for a ballgame, as long as you know what it is like in SF in July. So, it rained on the Saturday, and the grass was wet, and there was a heavy moisture in the air for the beginning of the game.
The good news was that we had a lot of players come out of the woodwork for the games, making us wonder where the fuck these guys are the other 51 weeks of the year when we play Havana 6s.... The bad news was that no one thought to bring a grill to this BBQ. Panicked phone calls were made, and we ended up fine, but it was pretty ironic.
Game 1:
Satch started for the visitors and Sonny for the homers, and we bandied it back and forth. We took the lead early, and kept it. Our team was mostly newer guys vs. the old guard, though with a few notable exceptions, mostly Chris Powell, Don, and Satch. Powell did his thing, though he clanged a few, probably nervous with his wife and kid watching :) But the plays he made were outstanding, including a sliding ground ball stop, and initiating a much needed double play.
I don't want to toot my own horn, but I threw a complete game, and had a few sub-8 pitch innings. The key, once again, seemed to be batting practice fastballs, and let the human factor do the rest. It works! The finest moment was a bases loaded, no outs jam that I got out of, and then had the same thing again the next inning, and escaped with only one run scored.
We stretched our lead over the game, and never really let the homers in close, though they did score one in the 9th. Our last two outs featured a surprise guest appearance at first, which was awesome, and we held off the homers and finished 6-3.
BBQ break
Greg, and Lisa C brought grills to save us, and Nick W had his camping stove full of carnitas, so we did alright with the food. Thanks again to Mr and Mrs Tiemann for the organization and use of their reusable picnicware, and thank you to all that brought something to share.
The AOY trophy this year went to a hard-nosed scrapper who goes by Marcella Gries. For those that don't know, she was the recipient of a Sonny fastball, right in the face last December. She took it like a champ, and even made up a Xmas card with her cat and her black eye.
That was an AOY move if ever there was one. So we decided to split the award, she got the trophy and the recognition and Sonny got to be the Asshole with the scepter, some guilt, and a few vague threats of retaliation.
The Rookie of year award went to the Band, who has entertained us for the past few years, and was much deserving. They stuck around for the whole time, and shared our food and good times. They are a worthy addition to the game.
Game 2:
Always tough to get back in the saddle for game 2, which saw Nick W and Tony square off. We swapped places, so that we were now the home team. Nick was throwing good, as was Tony, and it was a low scoring affair, with the visitors ahead 4-2. HR and Mitch came in after Tony, and Daniel was pitching after Nick, when I had to leave in the 7th inning. I turned to the team to fill me in as to who won that game, and Tony reported that Mitch got burnt in the 8th inning, due to some costly errors and the homers went up 6-4.
Mitch kept his cool and didn't lose it even though it was ugly. And that's was the way it ended, homers 6-4.
Highlights
* Great to see everyone!
* Get better soon Anna!
* Iron Man Award goes to Chris Leavitt who caught both games, one for each team!
* Mike Lynch made a classic play at 3rd, backhand on the line, turn and fire to 1st to get the runner
* Dan, Powell, James all had big hits
* Doc came out! He didn't ump or play, but it was great to see the Gray Ghost!
* Poor James took a ball to the chest that thumped so hard, we felt the concussion on the bench. he was stealing home on a passed ball and Mitch threw to the plate before the pitcher could get there: THUMP!
* Daniel made some great catches in the outfield
* JT got a really nice hit off of me, which he said raised his vs. career average to .120. :)
* Sonny has developed some sneaky breaking balls, which make him much harder to hit
* Loren made his yearly appearance, refused to play defense until necessary, and wore track cleats. No Bieber bag though.
* Another long ago, Noah, came out and hasn't missed a step, though he might argue with that evaluation based on his crippled quad swing
* 2022 AOY Marcie reported the following:
- I made a sweet out near the end.
- I gave shit to Don since I since I won a trophy and had a
few cutwaters
- We lost our lead
- Tony made a catch but bonked his head.
- Daniel hit Mike at
bat like 17 times. He made it home eventually to score I believe.
- I feel like Bob made a sweet hit
- J.T did something cool
- We may have eaten some eggs
that were in the sun too long but still alive
- We took home a watermelon and it's been great for breakfast
since.
* I remember the Daniel-Mike N at bat, and yes, Daniel hit him multiple times, some skimmed, some thumped
* The HR shift is like a reverse augmented Gaspar shift, right field play in, almost between 1st and 2nd, please remember it
* List of players we expect to see more often- Daniel, Storm, Loren, Nick Seuser, Mike N, Noah, Stoner
* I want it noted that both teams did a great job of NOT swinging when they had a teammate stealing a base.
* In addition to his catching 18 innings, Chris L also made a nice catch on a pop foul, and had soe well struck hits
* James cursed one of my new bats by using it before me, marking it up, and getting an out. I broke the hex by the second game, but man, it was close call. You don't want to let that fester....
* Hope everyone stocked up on Advil, ice, and beer. It was a great doubleheader!
Don't look back.
S. Paige
