It felt like this game was not going to happen, which is usually what starts happening around this time of year. It rained really hard this week, which is good for the state, bad for baseball. However, a quick recon on Sunday morning came back with good news, as long as we had a rake, the field was definitely playable.
Hooray!
I was doubly pleased because this is one of two weekends a year that I am guaranteed to play baseball if I want to, having turned 48 this week, birthday baseball is the best! While we are on the subject, a hearty birthday greeting to Mike Naldony whose birthday actually fell on Sunday!
The weather was not exactly what one would call enjoyable, but at least at the beginning, it was dry-ish. A light zest in the early innings, became a short big-drops-only rain, and then it stopped for a while, and then the zest got heavier and became a mist and then a rain, briefly. By the 8th inning, it was wet enough that we were going to stop, but then it cleared and we were able to get the whole game in.
With plentiful parking in the park due to the damp conditions, we had enough to start the game on time, and with Sean starting for the homers and Satch for the visitors, it was game on. The grass was surprisingly dry for the what the weather had been like, but the mound was a different story.
It sucked.
The clay made for very slippery conditions and every time that I started to have a good landing zone, it would give way like a creaking levee and my foot would slip just enough to make me fearful. Sean didn't seem to have the same problems, so it may have been an issue of tonnage, but I threw 95% fastballs, or should I say "fastballs" since I couldn't really bear down. The curve was erratic and the change up was useless, I never realized how much I rely on my landing to stabilize the ol' dipsy-doodle.
We each scored a run early on, ours coming from Mike N, the birthday boy and lead-off hitter crossing the plate in the 1st. The homers followed suit with an awesome safety squeeze, courtesy of the squeeze man himself, Greg. We scored another run and it stayed 2-1 for a while. I left after 3 innings of almost falling on my ass and Dave took over. He didn't seem to have any problems with the landing either, Sean stayed in and kept pouring it on.
We tacked up a few more runs, and it was 5-1 through the middle innings. More than most games, we had a Latin contingent out in force, all of them solid players and not a one of them over 5'2" except Erasto, who is probably a towering 5'5". As much as we tried to get them to sit with us on the bench, they preferred to stay within their own group, at one point we had an all-Latin outfield, which may have been an MBC first. Wherever they were sitting, we were glad to have them.
Gabe came in to pitch for us, and if you have ever faced him, you know it is a not a fun experience. He did well, as did Erasto who came in for the homers. I think we scored one more and Mike N came in for the close, and he pitched admirably to cap his birthday game.
Final, 6-2, visitors.
Highlights:
* Thanks to everyone who came out to play, we were 11-11 at our high point.
* Mike N did it all, bat, ball, glove, base stealing, happy birthday!
* Another game with several hits down the 3rd baseline, including one that went foul then came back and bounced off the bag
* A lot of strikeouts on a day that I would not have expected it
* Don showed up in the bottom of the 1st, so, early!
* Always nice to have the Tim vs Sean battle, it's like our own little Civil War.
* I may be wrong here, but my thought is that a pass ball at 1st that hits the cement or fencing should be ruled a dead ball, and the runner gets 2nd. My rationale is that there is probably something else over there that it will hit, and its easier than trying to parse out the play
* Patrick and Jacob both did a great job catching
* I had one of the longer singles of late
* Nick Smith made two (!) foul ball catches at 1st. I complimented him as I passed him on the field and he asked if I was talking to him.....
* The Safety Squeeze!
* Thank you to all that stayed to rake and clean up the field after the game, which hopefully will keep us on the good side of Parks and Rec.
* To satisfy one kernel of conversation from the bench, here is the measurement to the berm in right field. The story goes high school Barry Bonds hit a ball to the houses on the other side of Lincoln, which I call bullshit on, as it is easily 700+ feet.
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