9/28/25 GGP

Another humid foggy day.  Another disappointing turnout.  

Although we did a little math and counted at least 7 players that can usually be counted on to be there that were not for legitimate reasons. The parking was a breeze too!  

Satch threw another CG, working the ol' soup bone with a lot of change of speed stuff, the occasional curveball that was either a strike or right at the hitters back.  Still workshopping that one.  Nick W. started for the visitors, and is stuck in a doom loop of back tightness that has again forced him to leave the mound in the middle of an inning.

We had 11 by game time, but were buoyed by four league players that came from their game to fill in for us, thank you Elias, Byron, Ben, and Nico! Thanks to Alejandro for being the ambassador of the game.

At our high point, I think we had 16, but people started leaving mid-game, so we were never really comfortable.  The visitors scored 2 runs in the first inning and we answered back and then piled another 2 on.  The score was 4-2 for a few innings, and then our team exploded for some bases loaded magic and when the dust had cleared it was 10-3.  Elias was destroying the ball, and running and sliding harder than we have seen at our game in a long time.  He even slid headfirst into home on a close play at the plate.

After Nick bowed out, McG came in and did very well for not having any prep time.  After he got through a few innings, then Jacob came in for a while and was throwing a pretty good knuckleball for some of the game, which was nice to see. Then he took himself out of the position mid-inning and Byron came in to finish up the mop job.  Byron had a nice zip on his fastball and a sneaky delivery.

We tacked on a few more, and decided it was time to end, when the roster fell from 15 to 12. Nick W jumped ship to the homers to make the balance right, and from there the visitors managed a baserunner in the 9th but that was it for a rally.

Final 12-3, Homers

Highlights:

* Big thank you to the league guys that made our game possible! Hope to see you all again

* Don was right on time, in the 3rd inning

* Our team had an early issue with ground balls, just getting eaten up by them, but the defense settled down and we locked in

* Thanks to all the catchers (and pitchers) they were at a premium: McG, Gaspar, Nico, Don, Alejandro, Kenball

* Alejandro had several infield hits due to his hustle down the line

* Around the 4th inning my arm finally warmed up and I finished the 4th and the 5th with strike outs looking

* So many pop-ups, the changeup was working well for that

* Great play on a foul ball by Gaspar

* Cap tip to the visitors for playing good defense while filling in for us, great catch Don.....SHIT!

* Patrick went up and got one at SS for a fancy snare

* Elias had more hustle than any of us, with at least 3 extra base hits, including a bases loaded triple, and he almost caught Patrick on the basepaths

* I announced in the 9th that everyone was getting a fastball down the middle for their first pitch. Sometimes what you want the most is your downfall, and we had 2 quick outs to start.

* I don't think I have seen this play before, ground ball to the right side, 2nd baseman picks it up and then runs to first for the out.  There was a convergence of myself, Adam, and Elias, and that is the play that made the most sense. And yes, I did cover the bag like I am supposed to.

* Gaspar, the consummate gentleman, offered to have us play 2 outfielders, since last week we did it his way.  We played full field for the first part of the game, but with the exodus in the 6th, we shaved it down to 2.  No real difference.

* Adam had two nice running plays on short pop flies

* I may be coming out of my extended slump, 3 hits including one that Nick signaled should have been a HR, but I was content to take a double. I don't want to hurt my arm patting myself on the back, but it was a pretty impressive hit

* Roll Call of the Faithful: Lynch, Gaspar, Nick W., Don, McG, Anna, Patrick, Jacob, Adam, Elias, Byron, Ben, Nico, Satch, Alejandro, Kenball

9/21/25 GGP

Super shitty parking.

Warm day, muggy, almost sultry.  Then the fog rolled in, and I found myself still sweating in the fog.

I started for the visitors and Sonny for the homers.  

Sonny is still pumping strikes, and has developed some good off speed stuff

We had 15 at a high point but barely 14 for most of it.

Highlight of the game: The reemergence of Abe!  Back from a 4.5 year hiatus, his daughter in tow, and the rest of the family making an appearance at the end.  Welcome back, and don't be a a stranger!

Gaspar vetoed my suggestion that we keep to 2 outfielders, which I like since it doesn't make that much of a difference for our teams, and we get to not be running in an out from the outfield the whole time.  So instead I played outfield as much as I could to give them a taste of what that extra fielder can bring to the game.

A guy from a previous game played with us, big shout out to Mark!

No Greg, no Tony, no Mitch, no Sean, no Adam, no McG's.

Don was late, but early by his standards.

The game was back and forth, both of us were throwing efficiently. Sonny quit after 6, HR came in, did well too.  I stayed in and ate the whole thing, as my team was low on pitchers.

My team was up, after some rough patches.  Going into the final inning, technically the 8th because people had to go

I coughed up the lead in the bottom of the 8th, and the homers won the game. 

6-5(?), homers

Highlights

* Well, 14.5 ain't bad I guess.

* I am going to keep pushing for a 2-outfielder defense, if things don't turn around with our numbers.  As a non-strikeout pitcher, I of all people, should care a lot about the quality of my defense, and honestly, it doesn't make that much of a difference.  But being able to sit on the bench and have a conversation with a person I haven't seen in a few years does.

* Sonny and HR both pitched well

* I struck out Don with one of two decent curveballs I threw the whole game

* The Gaspar shift paid off every time.

* Mike N did a fantastic job behind the dish for the whole game

* We managed to keep to the two original balls in play for the whole game, and they were beat up by the end of it

* Nick W. was the defensive player of the game, with several great catches in the outfield on balls that no one thought would be caught.

* We managed a double play on one of those catches as the baserunner was convinced there was no way Nick would get the ball

* Nate was out and hit the smoker of the game, a big drive to left.  Unfortunately, his team didn't care enough to help him with base-coaching, so he listened to me from the mound, and got thrown out trying to make it a homerun.  The picture is where it landed, but then it rolled onto the dirt and it was off to the races

Roll Call of the Faithful:

HR, Sonny, Don, Nate, Abe, Powell, Nick W, Satch, Jacob, Mark, Mike N, Mike L, Alex, Lynch, Gaspar

9/7/25 West Sunset #2 Field

 A shit attendance for a pretty good game on a great day. 

I know it's still technically summertime but we have had really bad numbers for most of our games for the past 3 months and this game was no different, we had 13 people.  I sent an angry email cursing everyone and the first week of NFL football, but that didn't seem to do any good.

The weather was amazing, hot by SF standards, a bit muggy and sometimes overcast, but all in all a great day for some baseball.

We figured out the best way to divide was to do 6 on 7 with 2 outfielders, that way we were still only exchanging 2 players and there was no clear advantage. I started for the visiting team and Phelps for the  homers, and he went 6 innings and then Nick W. came in, but tweaked his back and took himself out of the game in mid-inning and Brian Phelps came back in, that was different. 

I was emboldened by the fact that I had Sean catching for me—which was a first that I could remember— it also guaranteed that we were going to see an amazing sweat design appear on Sean's shirt. He is no stranger to excessive perspiration, but today's output was a Hall of Fame day for sure.

The game started out fairly even-handed, but somewhere around the third inning, I lost the ability to get an out—along with the rest of my team: double play balls turned into bases-loaded situations, ground balls turned into RBI doubles, and so forth.

The team eventually took pity on the score and made it a soft 9 - 2 with the caveat that if we approached the tying run, the score would be reassessed to what it actually was, Amazingly we ended up coming back and scoring several runs and the home team had to reassess and we entered into the later part of the game with the score 11 - 9.

I came out of the game and Sean came in and really shut down the home team for the rest of the game so once again I proved to be the problem. I also can't seem to hit my way out of a wet paper sack these days. I'm not sure if I'm getting old, losing my baseball skills, in a major slump, or maybe all three.

In any case we roared back and tied the score in the ninth inning at 11-11!

We couldn't believe we had come so far but then we still had to hold the home team and no one was able to do that. They loaded them up and scored the winning run before we had gotten our first out.

Final Score- 12-11, Homers

 Highlights

*Thank you to everybody who showed up on a day that we should have had extras

*Two left-handed catchers played in the game Sean and Brian Phelps I don't know if that's a first for the Mission baseball club I feel like we may have had it before but certainly not with Sean attached

* We also had the first-ever balk enforcement, and then a second balk! Mike N deked Nick hard core (enforced) and Phelps balked on the shitty mound (overlooked)

*The one really rough thing about West Sunset #2 is the sun on the left side of the diamond both in the sky and reflecting off the ocean is completely blinding

* I have it on good authority that Dan was on his phone in the outfield, and still managed to make a catch when the ball was hit his way.  Not the way we learned how to do it, but effective, I guess

*The home team couldn't help themselves and had several opposite field hits which with 2 outfielders really sucks the second baseman is effectively also the right fielder

*I was a disgusting 1 for 6, but at least the one hit was for 2 RBIs that started our comeback rally

 Roll call of the faithful: Anna, Nick W, Nick S, Jack, Greg, Phelps, Chris P, Jacob, Mike N, Sean, Patrick, Dan, Satch,