Mission Baseball Club

Safety versus Freedom

2012-01-27T10:57:00.000-08:00

An interesting question arose, started by our AOY 2011 Brian Phelps, as to the new BBCOR bats that have become the only bats allowed by Collegiate and High Schools.

I agree that safety is important, and can say from vast experience there is nothing fun about a hard hit comebacker when you are on the mound. And I can also say that I have personally broken three aluminum bats in my time with the MBC, which shows you that aluminum isn't a forever kind of thing. That being said, I believe we pride ourselves in being a baseball club rife with worn equipment, placing minors in dangerous situations, piecemeal uniforms, non-performance enhancing substance use, questionable base running, balks aplenty, and distracted players.

Single point argument: Krakatoa has a screw in it, which is totally illegal and possibly unsafe, but is anyone going to say that we can't use Krakatoa anymore? They better not while I am still 6 feet above ground.

No one wants to see anyone hurt, but the more rules we have, the closer we come to being the thing that the MBC was created to get away from. It could all change with one bad incident, but is it worth sterilizing the whole population, so that one person doesn't procreate? Sorry for the eugenic analogy (dibs on new band name) but it seems to work.

At the end of the day, wood is great, but expensive, as are the new BBCOR bats, so maybe we can pitch in to buy some more team wood bats or a softly used BBCOR bat? Few of us have the resources to buy the real composite cheater sticks, and even less of us have the hitting ability left to wield the cheater sticks with any sort of real mortal danger, so I don't think that is going to be too much of a problem.

In any case, any interesting conundrum. Here's the original email, and the responses.
>
> Hello Missioners,
>
> Last game a few of us were talking about the new BBCOR bats, since Lattigbought one and I've been bringing one to recent games. There's a reason highschools now mandate these bats, safety. I know we haven't had any incidents,but it only takes one. For some of you true ballets this won't apply since yourock the wood. For the rest of us, I'd like to throw out the idea the weimplement the same rule. After all, we are role models for the community. Iknow this would be an expensive endeavor since metal bats are pricey. But ifeveryone (that swings metal) pitches in, I think we could accomplish this. Iknow someone that works at Sports Basement, so maybe i could get a deal on some.We could even do a bake sale :)
>
> After using one for a number of games, I really like the feel of the BBCORbat. It feels closer to a wood bat. Plus most of the Mission bats show theirage.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> - Phelps

The Peanut Gallery responds:

Greg Snyder:

I appreciate Brian's concern for our safety, especially as a guy who gives up more than his share of sharp line drives.
But I agree with Loren that for our game, the danger is not significantly greater with one type of bat than another, and there are much greater safety risks than our pitchers being brained by a comebacker.
I also agree with Rich that wood bats are much more pleasing on all kinds of levels.
Most importantly, though, I strongly resist rules like this for our little game. People should use whatever equipment they want. We may choose to look down on them for it, but they still should be able to use the bat they prefer.

Jonathan Tiemann:

Much as it pains me, I have to agree with Greg. Part of the fun of our game is being able to look down on the guysswinging metal bats, knowing all the while that they're thinking I'm a fool fornot joining them. On the safety issue I'm happy to defer to the pitchers. I can misplay a ball equally well whether it comes off a wood bat or ametal one.

JT.

Johnny Bartlett:

Very well put, Greg. And, I think, the embodiment of the Mission Baseball Club.

Richie Garcia:

I'm happy with the way things are, but if we wantto give up our current bats, I would vote for just using wood bats.

Rich Janeway:

There is nothing better than hearing (and feeling) a wood bat connect with abaseball. Swing wood, figure out how to get solid contact and you'll never goback! The "ping" is for the kiddos (and the birds)!!!

Rich

P.s. You can buy 4 solid maple wood bats for under $125 at West Coast Sports inSan Leandro

P.p.s. The bigger the bat, the less likely it will break... Trust me! Swing abig bat and swing it hard!!!

Aaron Daley:

Does this mean we have to retire all our old bats? I'm all for safety, but I am pretty fond of a few of those old sticks (Nike PSI, Easton 33.5). Whats the problem, other than the length/weight ratio being too large?

And I'm not the one going out to buy the $350 cheater bat, mine are purchased out of a trunk in a parking lot from a guy with a large facial scar, what's wrong with that?

John McGrath

Is thereobjective proof that the BBCOR bats are in fact safer than aluminum bats?

Loren Myrow:

As someone who has delt with equipment rule changes in multiple sports, I'mpretty well versed in what is going on at the collegiate/hs level. Thereason the NCAA adopted BBCOR is not about safety, but about saving time. A couple years ago, there was a NCAA committee that proposed ways toshorten game times from an average of 4+ hours to an average of 3. One ofthe rules implemented was a "pitch clock" and the other was to pullback the bats. This bat recall coincided with Gunnar Sandberg from Marincatholic wearing a comebacker in the head & any time a child is severelyinjured by a metal bat, parents (including soccer moms) question the safety ofa game that involves chewing tobacco, metal spikes and trying to throw a rockhard ball as hard as you can adjacent to someone trying to hit that ball ashard as he can. I'm all for safety in any situation, but if safety is the#1 concern here, then our pitchers need to start wearing helmets... Which wouldbe amusing seeing as half the batters of MBC don't wear helmets.

Anyways, my two cents.

There'sa couple factors involved with the BBCOR bats (batted ball coefficient ofrestitution) that make them different from the previous BESR models (ball exitspeed ratio). Essentially the overallweight, balance and barrel size are the same for both types of bats. Both have a -3 length to weight ratio, both areavailable in metal and composite models & both will produce ball speedsover 100mph if hit on the sweet spot. The main difference is in the size of the sweet spot and how much thegraphite composite models "open up" with prolonged use. Most bat manufacturers have gone to either avariable wall thickness or have inserted multiple metal rings inside the barrelin an attempt to bring the sweet spot from 5-6" with the BESR models toapproximately 3" for the BBCOR bats. This smaller sweet spot of the BBCOR models reduces the exit speed ofoff center hits by a significant margin when compared to BESR bats. That being said, if a stronger MBC playerhits a ball up the middle going 100mph, it matters not what type of bat hitit. I personally don't feel that MBC isoverpowered at the moment and I enjoy the relaxed atmosphere that allowschildren to play soccer on the sidelines, dogs to assist in outfield strategyand the use of "questionable" equipment purchased from the trunks ofscar-faced gentlemen. If safety is ournumber one priority at the moment, perhaps there are a few things that shouldbe addressed in addition to a rules change regarding our bats.

Jay Cellini:

I'll chime in that Ilike the idea of using wood, bamboo or BBCOR and I agree that it only takes one"incident" to ruin someone's (everyone's) life and I do not think itis worth it and besides I would like to try pitching someday (no laughing) butam scared ****less about getting drilled off of one of the metal bats. Asmany of you know, (and yes, I am aware it is obvious so no ridicule please, I'msensitive) I'm coming back to baseball after a 30 year hiatus and I am astounded atthe way the ball moves coming off those aluminum bats! In the outfieldwhat I remember vs. what I experience in the connection vs. distance/ball speeddepartment is amazing (and scary). There's my 2 cents.

ChrisPowell:

The question you need to askyourself is do you want to be like a Major
Leaguer or a Little Leaguer?

Duane Harris:

I'm all for wood and/or thenew BBCOR bats.

With that said, I also see where both Loren &Aaron are coming from too.

Whatever is decided, I'm cool with as long as I'mon diamond playing ball

Bob Carey:

Speaking of safety: I always wear a cup, but seldom wear a batting helmet. Wonder what this says about my priorities?

Regarding the bat issue: It’s been a good discussion; however, I don’t believe it’s a huge problem at this point. Of the bats I’ve seen used in our game, I can think of only three or four that have are true cheater sticks. Three of these are bats owned by individuals and I’m only scared of one of them with it in his hands (go ahead and try to figure out who it is). The bats in the team bag are almost all old and most of them are pretty dead — yes aluminum bats lose their pop. Anyone who is buying a bat going forward should go BBCOR (there’s not much other choice in adult bats). For the level we play, they should buy last year’s models instead of paying full price. All of that said, everyone knows I choose wood.

Bob

PS: Aaron pointed out that I messed up the time in the announcement. It’s a 1PM game at W. Sunset.

Dustin Skiles

Atta babe bob. Good Point. Go Wood.

1/15/12 and 1/22/12- West Sunset and GGP

2012-01-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

No one has written up the game for the 15th thus far, I heard it was a cold windy wet affair with disagreeable overtones. Additional comments and highlights and low lights will be posted as they trickle in.

As for yesterday, the heart was willing, but the weather was not.

Thanks Mike Gaspar for doing an early recon, Bob for sending out the updates and making the final hard call, and to Ed for this picture (and for stating that he doesn't care about football, that's a true MBC'r for you....).

The nice weather is on its way back in to town, so we can be thankful for that.

S. Paige

1/8/12- West Sunset

2012-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

The disabled list is no fun. But if ever there was a week to miss, it sounds like the teams were overfilled as it was. Here with a recap is Mike "Does it all" Gaspar:

It was a sunny, warm, January afternoon. the field looked to be in decent shape. Although the dugout was swampy for somereason. It looked like we might have an18 player showing, but then the second wave came and we ended up with a 13 on13 game. Johnny started for the home team and was looking to build on his scorelessinnings streak started a few weeks ago (see blog entry for 12-11-11). Well he managed shutout the visitors for thetwo innings anyway. Dustin took the hillfor the other team and had an easy 1 1/3. Then gave up a couple.

When thestarters departed, the score was 5-2 home team. And in came Tony and dj for Dustin. Well the scoring got a little hazy from there. I do know the homers continued to add onhelped by some less than stellar defense. Tony meanwhile got out of a bases loaded no out jam punctuated by astrike out to end the inning. I’d saythe score was 7-2 homers after six.

Well thepitching parade continued with Loren giving way to Dennis for the homers andmike and Noah finishing for the visitors. The visitors did rally in the 12th for a few runs. (big hits by bob, Mitch)but I think the final was 12-7.

Highlights:

* Mitch scoredon a infield hit and three stolen bases. Talk about a Rickey run. He also had two doubles and got "mitched"by Chris in left field.

*Paul k. cameout for the first time in 7 months and had some nice hits,

* Bob got hit ofcourse. Tony hit Jeff twice in the sameat bat.

* Loren had agreat game both in the field and at the plate. Also stuck out like three guys.

Sametime/place next week

One mbc familynote: good to see Ed's little guyrecovered and doing well.

Speaking of Ed, here is the RBI Ninja with his two cents on the game:

Comingdown Taraval seeing the blue ocean, I knew there would be a lot of peoplethere. But when I arrived at just before 1, it looked like it would be a 9-9game. Didn’t last long, by the end of the first half inning, I think I switchedteams three times and was one of 12 on my squad. We decided early on to not actlike we were going to play 9, then have extra innings, someone decreed it a 12inning game.

Johnnystarted for the Homers, and Dustin took the hill for the Visitors. Long aboutthe 3rd inning Dustin ran into a few bloops, dinks and good base running byJimmy allowing the Homers to score a couple. Two more were added in a similarfashion the next inning. The visitors got only one back. It could have beenmore had Greg and Tony pulled off a pick off of DJ Greg. DJ was on third whenthe runner from first broke, Greg threw to tony at third for the put out.

Later,Johnny was rolling along getting two quick outs when Mitch came up. He hit aswinging bunt single to third. On the next pitch he stole second. He waited onemore pitch to steal third. His stay at third lasted one pitch too, after whichhe broke for home making it easily. Ben, the batter, wisely chose not to swing.

Dustinbowed out and gave way to DJ Greg, then Mike Lattig and finally, Noah. Johnnywas followed by Tony, Lauren, and Dennis. That was it, I think. Long about the middle innings, the 9th and10th, the visitors fell apart, lots werescored, few were counted. The final score was lost in the sun like so manywould be pop outs.

Highlights

*Mitchwas mitched, by someone, Mike Gaspar maybe, maybe Greg. If it was you, greatjob.

*DJGreg almost threw two runners out at the plate from right.

*Bobwas hit by a pitch.

*Jeffleaned into a pitch and was hit on the arm. He was also hit with the nextpitch.

*Duaneplayed a solid short for the visitors

*Jimmyscored from first after I hit a groundball up the middle. He did some Majicksat third and ended up at home. I am giving myself an RBI.

1/1/12- Cop Field

2012-01-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe its already 2012, but it is. And it was hard to believe it was as nice as it was out on Sunday. But it was. Here's proof, for all those who are no longer living in our jewel of the West...

Yep, so we had 20 guys show up, it was a little sparse to begin and we started to wonder if we may have to Havana 6 it, but then there was the second wave, including one very rough looking Sean "I don't know what end its gonna erupt from" Presley. Strangely enough, Sean and I ended up on the same team, which rarely happens. And we both pitched. And we both lost. But more on that later.

Satch was hurling for the homers, and feeling sprightly and good with the warm sun and the time off, the fast ball was moving, the curve was curving, the knuckle was, well you get the idea. DJ Greg started for the visitors, and was throwing good ball, getting us to pop up, ground out and in general not score any runs. The visitors on the other hand, were not shy about their scoring, getting out of the gate early and running up a 4-0 score before we had ended the 3rd frame. Missed pitches, a constant barrage of short flies to the right field/deep second base area, and timely line drives made for some long innings. We even had John Carey on our team, which should have given us the youth angle, but nothing was working for us.

It didn't help that every time that we hit the ball well, it seemed to be right at somebody, Dennis made some good catches to rob us, and Mitch, playing shortstop, had about 8 put outs. This was taken right before Nick was robbed of a great line drive. Which was pretty much par for the course for us.

DJ Greg sprinkled a few strike outs in there for good measure, and I would say the total K's for both teams had to be at least 12-15, it was apparent what a week off will do for timing.

In the 6th, cruising, I threw a fast ball a little too hard to Will, and felt a painful pop somewhere in the southern rib/ northern hip area of my throwing side. Not good, I finished the inning with a lot of knuckles and changes, and am now looking at rehab time. Greg diagnosed it as oblique strain. I say I pulled my rib meat. Either way, Sean came in to throw and didn't have any more luck than I did. We at least had scored by that point, the score was 5-2, but it didn't stay that for long.

Will came in for the visitors and kept at us with the pop ups, K's and ground balls. We turned away a big scoring opportunity from the visitors and then went down meekly 1,2,3. Not quite capitalizing on the momentum. It was early and sunny still, so we kept at it for the 10th and 11th, but the game never got any better for us homers, the true definition of anemic offense. Not even sure what the final score was, but I know that we lost.

But what a great day and a beautiful start to 2012.

Highlights:

* The weather.

* Dee Dee survived her first baseball thumping

* The field was in great condition

* Bob made an awesome catch at the backstop

* Lots of bunts, both intentional and swinging

* We had a great double play home to third, if only the bases had actually been loaded.

* Mitch may have been thrown out by Greg at 2nd base, I put on the tag, but didn't see a thing.

* Nick Smith finally got the hit that had been robbed from him

* Duane uncorked for his first triple of 2012, starting a new streak?

* Maybe its just me, but in general, I think our outfielders give wayyyyyyyyyyy too much respect to most of our hitters, if someone hits it 490 feet, oh well, but that's not the place to play on a regular basis.

* Speaking of, Loren really got a hold of couple.

* Ed technically broke a bat, but Jimmy Shotwell would have kept using it

* We lost two balls over the cop fence. Damn cops.

* My offense got steadily worse all day, started out with a monstrous double, and by the end I was gratefully taking walks.

* AGAIN, Please try not to swing when people are stealing. Unless you can guarantee that you will get a hit. Which you can't. So don't swing.

* Thanks to Ed, Greg, Bob for catching.

* After a failed center fielder pick off maneuver, we ended the inning with a pick off with the SS. Some people just don't learn.

* Bob was not HBP, but Mitch was. Both of these guys refuse to move on inside pitches. I respect that.

* Late edition- Ed states that he broke that bat. And then Sean struck him out looking. Then hit him, the next AB.

See you in the ice bath.

S. Paige

12/18/11- Moscone

2011-12-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

Satch was up in the hills, having some early holiday revelry, sounds like I missed a good one, and also sounds like one of the teams could have used the extra bat....Here with the Recap is our own financial guru and stalwart MBC'er Jonathan (JT) Tiemann:

It was a nearly perfect day. We had a perfect 18 from start to finish, and the teams initially lookedlike they were matched pretty well. Theday was cool and overcast, though the sun broke through at times. The game started with a couple of southpawsworking, Brian on the bump for the homers and Sean for the visitors. Bob, leading the game off, hit a shot toright center, but Jay ran it down for the first out. That pretty much set the tone for the firstpart of the game, as Brian shut down the visitors in order, and Sean returnedthe favor in the bottom of the frame. The visitors scratched out a run in the second as Sean reached on asolid hit and worked his way around with aggressive baserunning and anotherhit.

Sean kept dealing, and Brian worked out of a two-on, no-outjam in the third. After three, we stillstood at 1-0.

The visitors added singleruns in the fourth and fifth, and when we went into the field for the bottom ofthe fifth, the visitors led 3-0 and Sean (with some fine fielding help,especially from Mitch in center and Lattig at second) had yet to allow abaserunner. But Tony Rojas wore Sean outin an epic at-bat (must've been 25 pitches), finally taking the walk the thirdtime ball four came around. Some slickbaserunning and the home side's first base hit of the game produced their firstrun.

Then came the sixth. Duane, who had been complaining about being in a slump, led off bylaunching a triple over Jay's head, and the visitors' bats came alive. We batted around, plating five and expandingthe lead to

8-1.

On the other side, Seankept mowing them down, finishing with 7 IP, 1 ER, a walk, 6 or 7 strikeouts,and only two hits allowed. Tony pitcheda couple of strong innings for the home side, and Dennis mopped up for them inthe ninth (I can't resist saying I smoked a line drive into right against him,but my legs were so dead by then that it only went for a single). Will and Greg (New Greg, that is, who lookslikely to be New Greg for maybe 10 or 15 years) each pitched a frame for thevisitors, and once they closed it out, the final tally was 11-3. It was a little chilly and we're close to theshortest day of the year, so we left it there.

Highlights:

· * Lattig was a machine at second base, fieldingall the grounders, easy and hard, and making two great catches - one on a foulpopup behind first and one going back into shallow right.

· * Mitch was Mitch in center, but he added a littleflair with a fine sliding catch on a sinking line drive in the ninth

· * Sean was nearly unhittable, recording theaforementioned two-hit, seven-inning gem.

· * I miraculously escaped channeling Juan Uribe andspoiling the into-the-fifth perfecto with an error

· * Nick and Duane both sparkled at first, as usual

· * Duane is officially out of his slump, with atriple and a double

· * Yes, Bob had his HPB.

· * Dennis had a bunt single in the 9th, pushing theball to Bob, who was playing third. Theonly way the play could possibly have developed more slowly would've been if Ihad been involved.

* * Speaking of which, Iwon't mention my idiotic baserunning mistake. Nice peg, Johnny.

* After he finished pitching, Brian went out to center andpromptly made a great running over-the-shoulder catch on a ball Sean hit. I don't think it actually went 450 feet, butit seemed like it. A very loud out.

12/11/11- Moscone

2011-12-12T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't play, but I did make it out to the beginning of the game, with Lil' Satch in tow. We took a tour of the grounds, I gave him his first spin around the bases and explained what one flap down means.

It was a light showing, some thought because of the impending rain, football, holiday parties, or the glut is finally over. In any case, it was 8-7, I felt bad not being able to even it up, but I would have felt worse if I had been suited up and playing when Mrs. Paige got there, hoping to spend time with her boys....even though I place complete (err..almost) trust in the MBC to successfully tag team babysit the kid.

DJ started for the homers, and was off to a rough start, which may be good in the long run if he wants to continue pitching with the club. His experiences with pitching thus far have been pretty easy gigs, compared with what us veterans would describe as the typical MBC outing. This game proved to be much more of a MBC classic, 3 runs scored in the first, more than a few errors, tough outs all around. Johnny Bartlett on the other hand, recognized the defense he had behind him and promptly threw two innings of perfect ball, before finally yielding an infield hit. That proved to be short-lived success as the defense then turned a tailor made double play to erase the threat. Ouch.

The visitors tacked on a few more, and Johnny continued to throw shut out ball, helped by a tricky slow curve that was maddening for the home squad. DJ settled down and the homers hit parade dried up, helped by a couple of really nice plays from Will and Rich.

I had to leave in the 5th inning, with the score 5-0, so here is Johnny Bartlett with a biased review:

I went7, allowing no runs (and precious few hits, if I may say so) taking full advantage ofwhat appears to be a 36"-high mound that really helped Uncle Charlie.Defense was spectacular (as is needed in a shutout), with the Mitch and Chrisflashing quite a bit of leather, but everyone really turned in a soliddefensive effort. Nice plays in the outfield kept Rich off the sacks formost of the game.

Brian took it homefor a 2 inning save. He also allowed no runs, pitching very effectively. Ithink his deuce also liked the high mound.

DJ settled downnicely after a shaky start and questionable defense. I think hewent 6 innings. Dennis came in and pitch 2 innings, both one, two, threeinnings (incredible!). So he really had us flummoxed. Will came in inthe ninth and put us down one, two, three (I believe) with his heatercausing all the trouble.

I think the finalwas 6-0, visitors.

Highlights (that I saw):

* Will and Mitch both had a couple of smokers at 3rd

* Visitors pulled a 6-4-3 classic, and a 4-6-3!

* Dj pitched well, handled the frustrations, and had a real loud line drive

* Johnny was all confidence on the tall mound

* Gaspar up the middle, after only one foul ball!

* Chris was not stranded on base, mostly because he wasn't at 3rd.

* Jeff (Number 84) played Rich perfectly to snare a down the line deep fly ball

* Liam had good contact all day

* Chris also had some nice plays at SS

* Johnny showed the true danger of the defense holding on to the ball, even when its the 2nd baseman, he successfully juked Elvin out and scored a run, while Elvin fake pumped over and over again. Get the ball in, fellows!

* Nick Smith showed off his speed once more

* Dennis pitched 2 perfect innings, with great defense behind him

Brian Phelps had this to say about the game and the practice afterwards:

I relieved Johnnyand got out of a jam after Rich scorched one down the line past McGrath and thenJay had a swinging bunt to Chris. Jay stole 2nd with Rich on 3rd and then stole3rd with Rich on 3rd! PICKLE! But Greg wanted to keep the shutout in place, sograciously let Jay return to 2nd while keeping Rich at 3rd. I then struck outWill on a called 3rd strike. Back door slider and Greg framed it perfectly!

The next inning 2come-backers and a routine grounder to 3rd ended the game. Shutout intact.

Shutout.

Also....

* Dennis came in foran inning. Jeff lined one right back to Dennis who snagged it. Great play.

* I came up andCRUSHED the first pitch, but we had Mitch filling in right field and he made aHELLUVA catch half way into the infield of the other field. I thought it wasover his head, but its Mitch. I tried to tackle him ala Barry Bonds to TorriHunter in the All-Star game. But Mitch put the shake and bake on me.

* PS, Aiden and Liamsaw me flip off Mitch after his catch. Tried to play it off like it was athumbs up. (AOY... whoops)

* Also, after the gamewe did sliding drills. This was for John McGrath who seems to always have anawkward slide. So he and his kiddos, along with Greg (new), Elvin and myselfdid sliding drills for about 10 min.

* Then, to continuepracticing since we only played 9 innings. Bob hit fly balls to McGrath and me,while Rich worked further on sliding drills for the kids. Bob's back onlyallowed for so much and then Rich came in. Holy Fuck Balls he hits a mean flyball, from the Right Side!

* That all lasted for over30 minutes. Until on a sliding attempt my calf crapped up from all the running.Thanks Bob and Rich for the extra work. I feel it today.

Here with more on Mitch's defensive amazements, is John McGrath, Esq.

I can accurately state that Johnny Bartlett pitched at least6 (if not 7) innings of shut-out ball.

Also, of note, Mitch put on two catch-the-uncatchable-ballshows for the ages, in one case robbing Phelps of the hardest/farthest hitball of his life and in the other case, a ridiculous Mays-style over theshoulder basket catch of a pop up out of play behind 3^rd.

Special Note: Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, probably a good bet that there will be no game. The following Sunday will be New Years Day, and we look forward to some real hung over baseball! Maybe even a rematch of the Hippys vs. Squares? Thoughts?

S. Paige

12/4/11- Moscone

2011-12-05T12:42:00.001-08:00

An amazingly nice day, all week long I was hoping that the weather would hold, and dad-gumb it, it did! We were overpopulated once more with 25 players, but it seemed to go alright, although we had trouble filling 9 positions, either because people were being overly polite by trying to sit out, or too many people to keep track of. In any case, we got to play, so who can really complain?

Greg started for the homers and did well in keeping the score close, although the visitors did all their scoring early. Will started for the visiting team, in a surprising move, and did well, held us to a few runs, and had K's as well, including me, thank you very much....

The score stood 4-2, visitors, for what seemed like a very long time. Chris once again was left stranded on base, as we fell victim to the rally killing innings. Will was throwing good ball, but with the numbers we had, he couldn't stay in there forever. Greg bowed out after 4, so it seemed only fair to not let the other team have only one pitcher. When Sean came in, we all grumbled a bit, since it didn't seem like our scoring chances were going up by any means.

On this sunny day in the Marina though, Sean proved to be human, or at least vincible. That's the opposite of invincible, right? In any case, we started scoring runs. We took the lead, 6-4. And the visitors started making errors, and then we scored some more runs, and then the visitors made some more errors. The marathon inning went on and on, and by the time the smoke had cleared, we were looking at blowout time. The visitors managed a run more or so, but it was never close again.

At the end of 9, we lost about 6 guys, but no one really noticed since we still had more than enough to play, so we kept on it, and had some extra inning fun. Tony had thrown lights out in the 7th and 8th, Satch reentered for the 9th, and then New Greg (see highlights for nickname discussion) came in to throw the last couple, and did great.

Sean kept battling and never lost his sense of composure, but it was probably a frustrating day. A special congrats to all the pitchers who threw off of the mound, which was about 4 feet tall and steep on the sides.

Final score, a soft 12-7?

Highlights:

* Both teams had a number of double plays, of the line out variety. Another reason not to swing when a guy is stealing....

* Sean was the one who got Mitched this game

* Dennis tried a slash bunt, which I respect

* New Greg said his Japanese name is Daiji (prouniunced Die-jee) but that somewhere along the line in the US someone referred to him as DJ and it stuck. So I think both are acceptable as of now, but I will wait for confirmation on what he wants.

* Richie brought out a new guy (verboten!) and the new guy hosed Greg at the plate with a spectacular throw (wow!).

* Ed got his RBI, and we answered the question as to whether a man on first is a RBI situation for him (it's not).

* My hitting was all over the place for the day- Dribbler over first, K swinging, solid line drive single, king single of gorks to right, deep drive over center (man that felt good.)

* Gaspar proved again how hard an out he is, he took a walk in the 2nd against Will, after 2 long at bats

* Dennis was almost thrown out at 1st, from left field

* JT might have had an OBP of 1.000

* Thanks to Ed, Bob, Greg, Adam, Gaspar for catching

* John Nero sighting, good to see you out again!

* Richie fell victim to lining it straight back to me (again)

* Adam was the winner of the Dave Johnson lookalike contest

* I made a Brooks Robinson-esque play at third, once I had the ball in my glove I knew I had a chance, but I am not sure I would have bet on me making that play

* Duane made a nice tumbling play on a pop up

* Gaspar also had a great play at home when we needed a run, slid and everything!

* Except for the meltdown inning, the defense on both sides was good

* The lunatic in left was entertaining, he kept reminding us that he was still there, and he had a good eye for balls and strikes

* Bob's hardest hit of the game was a play that the fielder didn't even have to move to make. I bet you wish you had just been HBP instead?

* Mitch had another Rickey run, which I love.

* I am placing a moratorium on helmet throwing, Greg made a good point that it's the kind of thing that once in a while is mildly acceptable, but shouldn't be encouraged en masse, lest we become a game full of tantruming 2 year olds. So, from now on, I will hold the helmet and slam it against the fence while whispering obscenities....

* Dee Dee didn't have to be chased off the field once!

Don't know where the game is next week. I will not be there, next weekend is reserved for spending a much needed weekend out with Mrs. Paige and Lil' Satch.

S. Paige

11/27/11- Treasure Island

2011-11-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

You can see the field right in the middle of the island.

Sean wanted to search for pirate booty while we were there, and while we didn't get any of that, Sean did find himself a chest full of K's. Something in the neighborhood of 9 or so. Dominating for pretty much the whole game. Awesome. But that is only half the story.

We flailed away inning after inning, the only man doing his job was Chris who got on repeatedly, stole bases to put himself in scoring position, repeatedly, and was stranded, repeatedly. The rest of us couldn't seem to hit our way out of a paper bag, and if we did, it was too little, too late.

So the game went on through the innings, Johnny kept it within reason, and our defense had some much needed plays. Satch took over for the home team in the 7th and tried to keep it close. By then the score was 5-0, and Sean was smelling shut out. The bottom of the 9th came, suddenly we had our epiphany, coupled with 4 straight errors from the visiting team. Sean watched his gem bleed away, and before he knew what was going on, we had tied it up at 5-5. Legitimate extra innings!

New Greg (who wants a nickname so he can stop being called New Greg, ideas, suggestions? ) came into pitch for the visitors, The visitors scored a run in the 10th, and we countered with our own to tied it up again. Then the roof caved in, and the visitors scored 6 runs in the top of the 11. Woeful, Woeful!

However, being the comeback kids that we were, we somehow managed to rally again, and while we fell one run short in the end, there is no words to describe the ginger in the homers for coming back not once but twice with big innings.

Final score, an impressive 12-11, Sean's shut out just a dim blur in the rearview mirror. Except for all the strikeouts....

The field was in great condition, and most of us pitched in to rake it back into perfection.

Highlights:

* Sean was lights out all game.

* The visitors had every natural lefty on their team, Phelps, Sean, Lattig, and they all crushed it

* The right fielders for both sides had a tough time with the sun

* We had a great broken leg double play, where in a rare instance we threw it around the infield after a catch in the outfield and did manage to get a runner.

* Chris, in addition to his offensive output, also tracked down some short pop ups, which is his specialty

* Special thanks to Greg, Bob and Mitch for catching the whole affair

* The wind was strangely strong, while never feeling so, we had a lot of pop up plays that went sideways

* Jay had some great catches in right when we needed them

* Duane had a frustrating game, something all of us can relate to

* I am thankful that I got some semblance of glove on the come backer that New Greg hit

* Johnny may have been robbed of an at bat in the later innings

* I broke in my new helmet, got some decent scratches already (Having studied the effects of modeling behavior, I need to probably let the kids know that throwing gear is not what you are supposed to do. It sure is a nice outlet though...)

* Mitch was a terror with the bat and the glove, as usual, including a triple that went right past me, about 5 minutes after I got to the game

* Only 17 players, maybe we should play at T.I. more often

* We had a lot of successful plays on base runners, which is unusual

* Thanks to Liam and Aiden who gathered all of our foul balls, when they weren't summiting Mt. Dirtpile

* New Greg's nickname could be Crusher, based on the huge swings he was taking, I haven't seen a ball hit that high since the last time I did it. It could also be E. Dubs (Effectively Wild), but thanks for hitting me in the 11th, I was debating leaning into one anyway.

* Phelps is mastering 1st now, and managed to catch my first line drive to ruin our early chances at a run.

* I am glad that our team called runners safe in some situations that we could have called them out and gotten away with it, it feels good to be honest.

* Thanks to the visitors for allowing me a pinch runner in the later innings, I strained my quads playing softball on Friday. I don't know what I was thinking, I am fining myself $5, payment to Bob next week.

* Tony is now our resident hoo-doo man, he put the whammy on Sean in the 9th and damned if it didn't work

And now here with a patriotic salute, is our AOY 2011, Brian Phelps:

* Next game Marina, 1 pm.

S. Paige

11/20/11- Rainout

2011-11-22T09:26:00.001-08:00

Well, I guess it couldn't last forever.

Good thing we play every week.

Hope very one has a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I know I am thankful to be part of the best underground baseball club in the world.

And if you find yourself in Placerville on Friday, come see the show, Cozmic Cafe, 594 Main Street Placerville, CA 95667-5610.

Cheers,

S. Paige

A Baseball History Tidbit

2011-11-17T16:47:00.001-08:00

Thanks to my brother for giving me the heads up on this story:

"King" Kelly, his antics, history and his association with a certain fraternal organization close to Satch's heart, The Elks Lodge.

King's Ransom: Autograph Of 19th-Century Baseball Icon 'King' Kelly Could Fetch $100K.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/throwback/201111/kings-ransom-autograph-19th-century-hall-famer-mike-kelly-expected-fetch-least

MBC Stats

2011-11-16T13:28:00.001-08:00

So far, this is what I have been able to compile:

These are the years, and how many games we played that I recorded in the blog, and what percentage of the Sundays that we played, per 52 week year. There are probably a few that are lost to the ages, and a few batting practices that I counted as games; probably a + or- 2 games margin of error.

2008- 3 Games- Incomplete Record
2009- 36 games- 69%
2010- 45 games- 87%
2011- 42 games (with 6 Sundays left to go)- 81% with possible higher
2008-2011- 11 games played at San Quentin, that were cataloged, again there are a few that we missed writing up.

Not too shabby, especially 2010, where we missed less than 10 games for the whole year! I also took a look at the years past, and we have had a bump in attendance around this time each year, so maybe our over-population fears are still a little premature....but that doesn't mean to start bringing 5 of your buddies.

In my limited review, I can say that some of the consistent factors over the last four years are:

Sean is still striking lots of people out
Bob is still getting HBP, and hitting big drives
Satch is still throwing a knuckleball
Mitch is still THE deciding defensive factor
Johnny still throws a lot of complete games
Noah eats a lot of innings
Nick Smith still hits the other way, and grunts a lot while doing it
Cagle still bunts and has good defensive skills and gets caught stealing
The MBC East (Brooklyn Ramblers) are still going strong, Saturday mornings
JT can tell you the runs scored, the runners left on, and the total score before most of us comprehend what we are talking about
Tony still makes every play look pretty and pitches well in the late innings
Greg catches a lot, and seems to be involved in a lot of clutch moments
Gaspar is still hitting lots of foul balls and balls the other way, then as soon as you think you got the goods, he hits up the middle
Lattig's B.A. is about .890
Noah and Dustin still enjoy the Jamison
Girgus is still 90% attitude, when he shows up, which is never
Phelps has excelled in making himself a power at each position he has taken
Ed is an RBI machine
Richie is still a frustrating batter to throw to
Nero is still agile and nimble at 3rd
Stoner makes it out once every five weeks, and still likes sliding for fly balls
Chris hits the hell out of the ball and has great range at SS
Duane's triple record may never be broken
Adam is still a master of the scoop at 1st
Nero, Bob, Adam, Greg, Ed, Noah, Rojas, Gaspar, Tim are all still ready and willing to strap on the tools of ignorance
Kvoriak still impresses all with the deep drives
Infield and short outfield pop ups still plague us as the hardest plays to make

Let me know, if you notice any glaring omissions, it is funny to read some of the names of people who came out for a little while, and then vanished.

In any case, thanks for a great Sunday tradition.

S. Paige

HAPPY 201st Blog Post!

2011-11-14T16:52:00.001-08:00

Hard to believe, but its true. With this weeks write up, we hit the big 200. I will try and makes some calculations as to how many games that is, versus profiles (which I need to do more of), random posts and intoxicated rants and holiday cheer.

Thanks to everybody who reads, plays, enjoys or sends me spam email about how to improve my length and girth.

S. Paige

11/13/11- Cop Field

2011-11-14T13:52:00.001-08:00

Another beautiful day, another overcrowded roster, another see-saw battle.

I was late in arriving, due to my new life, and by the time I got there, it was already 12-12, the warm up alone was pretty impressive, there was about three people at every position in the infield, and another bunch stretching. For a total difference, I got to be on the same team as Noah and Sean, which I am not sure has ever happened. We were the visitors, and Greg started on the hill to face us once more.

Sean and Greg battled it out for the first half of the game, both in top form, and it was still 1-1 in the 4th, which amazed us all, considering the lineups. But we were plagued by some bad base running early on, and while we seemed to have a lot of runners, no runs. The homers eventually started scoring and it was 4-1 for a good long time, with our batters unable to come up with the right hit at the right time.

Trying to remain within the guidelines for overage days, I talked Greg and Sean into bowing out after 5, so that they could sit and we could all rotate positions. They seemed ok with it, but I know its tough when you are feeling good. Satch came in for 2, then Noah in for a few, and then New Greg rounded out our hurlers for the day. WillorCarter took over for the homers and then gave way to Rojas to close out the deal.

I had to leave before the game was officially over, so I am not sure how the whole thing turned out, but I do know that the visitors took the lead in the later part of the game, somewhere in our post regulation play. We had been battling back slowly all game, and at one point thought it was 4-3, but it turned out to be 7-3. Oh well, we made the most of it, and then some. I would be interested to see if the lead held, or if the homers retook their crown. Either way, it was a good one!

Highlights

* At least two double plays were made, and we had a legit shot at an around the horn play, but the safe money was in getting two, which we did.

* My first hit was a rocket that Rich somehow speared

* Rich was once again Mitched.

* Mitch made a number of great plays in the course of the game, a few coming close to dangerous contact

* Loren planned for and invited scorn in a bright Dodgers uniform

* New Greg had a long blast in a serious RBI situation

* Thanks to Ed, Bob, Phelps, Greg, Tim for catching

* The first mention of a crowd reducing sign up roster for games was made, organization and rules continue to creep into our lil' game

* Swinging bunts seemed to be very popular

* Daniel once again had a real great olde tyme look going for him, the short bill hat, the upturned collar, the cocky stride, and he made some much needed catches in the outfield

* Tim stole two or three bases.

* Liam had some great blasts in the pre-inning hitting, and a nice bunt fake steal combo with his dad

* John McG also gave one a serious ride to left

* Tony was sporting some awesome vintage checkerboard specs

* Whoever the guy is that hit the lead off triple to open the 6th, hats off

* It is a much more social game when you have 14 guys sitting on the bench at any given time

* The knuckleball was not working, as evidenced by the one I threw behind Tim (which he tried to catch) and the two I threw to Rich that were as high and outside as you can get

* I was on-base twice, for the two rallies that fizzled for my team

* Another hard part of a large game, is that we all base coach from the bench, and having 12 guys yelling their own opinions of your next move is a little tough to parse out.

* Johnny sent these pictures from NYC, he played in the Brooklyn Ramblers game on Saturday, and from the sounds of it, tore the pitching a new arsehole all day:

Thanks again for the great game, it was nice to have a big jovial bunch, even if we all suffered a little in the at bat department.

S. Paige

11/6/11- Camp Swampy

2011-11-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

With the rain we had on Saturday, I never thought we would actually have had a game, but lo and behold, the sun came out, the dry ground sopped up the water and with some work by our pre-game grounds crew, we were on our way. Or they were anyway, I didn't get there until the top of the 2nd, but whatever. We were once again over the limit, and a moratorium has been called on bringing any new people to the game until further notice...and yes, that means YOU too.

Greg and the visitors were complaining about lack of bats and thus, claimed me for their own, which was OK except that I had to take off my MBC jersey, since the game had officially been deemed Mission versus Others. In hind sight, the MBC team might have needed my bat more, but I digress. Snyder took the bump for what seemed like the first time in a long while, and he was on cruise control. Johnny Bartlett started for the homers and threw well, but was less untouchable than Greg, and was hurt by a number of Swampy-esque bad hops.

The game was up for grabs in the early innings, but as it progressed, the hit and runs parade continued for the visitors, while it dried up and blew away for the home squad. Brian Phelps came into try and stop the bleeding, but was no more successful. Satch came for the four (five) inning save, and seemed to have a lot of different stuff working.

By the 7th inning, the score had become a bit stretched, but all of a sudden, the homers straightened up and scored some runs, and we were looking at a 10-7 ball game. But not for long, as we roared back and put it way out in front again. Daniel rolled in, a victim of the time change, just in time for the 9th inning. We scored a few more, the homers went quietly, and then we talked them into a 10th, with the hopes that the game might have a big comeback. Didn't happen.

But we felt bad, since our half of the 10th inning we had sent a bunch of people to the plate, it seemed like we were on the verge of being a bunch of dicks. So we gave the visitors 6 outs, and then 9 outs. Unfortunately, half of our team went home after the 9th, since they apparently don't like playing extra innings, so the homers had to field a lot of positions for their own inning. Everyone got a chance to hit, with the exception of Ed and Phelps, who are owed by everybody for their supreme sacrifice.

Highlights:

* No new guys. Period.

* Thanks to all that tended to the mud before the game to make it playable, and Jon Mcg for the scouting report

* Duane made a number of nice catches in no mans land

* Mitch was a terror with the glove and the bat all day, and thankfully I was on his team this time

* Greg didn't catch all day, which may be a record

* Bob was HBP, in the shoe again. Maybe his shoe has a magnet in it

* New guy Rob threw the ball back to Johnny harder than Johnny was pitching

* New guy Rob's kid was the real MVP, for straightening our gear and being an almost overly eager bat boy

* Dustin Skiles handcrafted himself a Golden Sombrero for the day

* Nick made a nice play at 1st.

* We rolled a double play, the old fashioned way.

* I think I actually deked Dustin at SS with the most hacky deke of all time.

* Tony caught a line drive and had about 10 minutes to double the runner off first. But he hurried the throw and it ended up out of bounds, lets all take our time....

* I realized the specter of a fastball is just as effective as a real fastball. I threw about 7 real fastballs in 5 innings, and just threw change ups the rest of the time. The slow curve was my real tool for the day

* Bob and I committed seppuku in the 10th to get the homers their at bat, with a 2 out squeeze play.

* Phelps just barely missed sending a meat pitch a long ways, too much uppercut

* Tip for the Day: Outfielders, remember that the worst thing you can do is hold onto a ball. It is literally better to to heave the ball in the direction of home plate, with no discernible human target, than it is to hold it and look around. Get rid of it.

* Jay's foot is healing, and he proved it by feinting and antagonizing the pitchers on base all day, which he says is one of his favorite things to do.

* My first two hits (a professional scorekeeper might disagree, but MBC would log them as such), were to the exact same place and should have been clean through, but Ed knocked both of them down

* Ed also had about 7 more ground balls come to his way in 2 innings

* I made two base running gaffes in one inning, and still scored. First I didn't score when I should have, and then went home on a ground ball to the 3rd baseman. Luckily he threw it so hard that it popped out of Adam's glove, and I skated in

* Bob had a big fly, that no one was gonna get

* Gaspar had a nice line drive up the middle, just to skew the whole Gaspar shift notion

* Thanks to Bob, Gaspar, Adam, Rob, Brian Phelps! and Tim for catching

* Dustin recorded two outs against his own team, in right field in the 9th inning. I would have dropped at least one of them. Just saying....

* Brian Phelps laid it out, also in pursuit of his own teams hit, that homer squad had some real gentleman on it, I can tell you.

In closing, here's the new guy policy until further notice, as best described by paraphrasing Wentzle Ruml VI in Dogtown and Z boys, "You couldn't just show up with some new guy, grab your board and expect to drop in. You had to call a meeting, you had to call a meeting and clear that shit with everybody. And guess what, if you didn't, then YOU didn't ride...no shit, almost happened to me once."

Not sure where we will be next week, but I can tell you there won't be any more new faces.

S. Paige

Pics from the Game 10/30/11 Cop Field

2011-11-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jay Cellini for providing us with another round of great pictures from Sunday's Game.

10/30/11 Cop field redux

2011-11-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

3 million without power, early snow storm blankets East,record breaking storm set itself apart by dumping snow, measuring as deep as 32inches....

Well, aren't we glad we were all smart enough to move to San Francisco, and play abaseball game in high 70's sunny weather? I know I am, (Special hello toall those MBC'rs who moved to the Midwest andEast.) and so were the other 26 people that showed up yesterday, for a game,not a good game per se, but a game.

The scales were a little unbalanced from the onset, when ateam has line up that features Rich, Mitch, Lattig, Sean, Adam...(you get thepicture) one starts to wonder. Not thatwe didn't have our share of hitters on the home team, although you never wouldhave guessed it from the final outcome. Yes folks, we had ourselves a real laugher, but it think everyone had a good time.

Noah started for the homers, and threw with every ounce ofheart that he could muster, he was saddled with facing a killer line up andalthough we did our best, maybe not the best defense. Mostly it came down to hits, and lots ofthem. Sean started for the visitors, andeven coming off a stomach bug, he was still dominant enough to keep us fromever getting close to the lead.

The visitors took turns lumping us for five runs at a time,until we got to the point that we lost track of what the real score was. New Greg took over for Sean and was his usualeffectively wild self. I came in to mopup for the homers, and try to keep the thing from dying on the table. Had a rough first inning, but then we settleddown and had some great defense to keep the game moving.

By the 8th inning it was hard to see, so we tried to hustlein and out and much as possible, and and we finished just in the nick oftime. Final score, realistically, 19-5?

Highlights:

* For such a wide spread of scores, it didn't seem like thegame was particularly fraught with errors

* I had to make the hard, sportsman call, against my ownteam on a two out play that we really could have used. And while it was very very close, Gaspar beatthat throw.

* I watched Sean free throw a change up on the very firstpitch, and I swear I was all over that pitch, until I hit it straight up in theair

* Speaking of, I got Rich to pop up to left center on achange up. Unfortunately my team wasplaying him to pull, at 480 feet.

* Chris Powell had a great triple to bring a little spark toour team

* JT picked me up after my second pop up, for an RBI,cheers!

* The visitors managed a double play, the old fashioned way,to crush our rally hopes late in the game

* Thanks to Nick Smith for bringing the gear, and being theteam dad for the day, we kids tried to keep it quiet...

* Mike Gaspar tried his best to break a windshield, to thetune of five foul balls into the parking lot

* Noah did a great job of pitching/gutting it out, and thenwent behind the dish.

* Brian Cagle came out after what seemed like a long anabsence!

* Our right fielders, JT and New Greg's guy both made somegreat catches

* I played second for an inning and froze completely on adying line drive, which then bounced under my glove. It looked like a rocket for the first 10th ofa second....

* Adam was out on a foul tip that Noah caught in his forearmand thigh. JT told us after the inningthat shouldn't be an out. Here is theofficial rule 6.05 (b):

6.05 A batter is out when-

(b) A third strike is legally caught by the catcher;"Legally caught" means in the catcher's glove before the ball touchesthe ground. It is not legal if the ball lodges in his clothing orparaphernalia; or if it touches the umpire and is caught by the catcher on therebound. If a foul tip first strikes the catcher's glove and then goes onthrough and is caught by both hands against his body or protector, before theball touches the ground, it is a strike, and if third strike, batter is out. Ifsmothered against his body or protector, it is a catch provided the ball struckthe catcher's glove or hand first.

So I don't know, it was smothered against his body, but whoknows if it hit the back part of his glove first or what? What I can say for sure is that it definitelywas not lodged in his paraphernalia.

* Stoner came out for his monthly game, and made goodcatches, and was once again frustrated with the change up

* The bad part of a knuckleball is when the batter managesto hit it, it has a bunch of weird english on it still

* Thanks to Loren for being understanding and flexible withthe latecomer/26 man rule.

* Mitch made his usual assortment of robberies

* Ed caught most of the game, and did a great job ofblocking the ball

* Jimmy almost had one take off his hand at 3rd

* New Greg's guy also had a very loud hit, impressive!

* Duane got some respectable work in at 1st, but needs toremember to keep that foot on the inside edge of the bag, and not let it creepto the middle of the sack, that's how ankles get broken. Lesson to all who want to play 1st.

* Mike Gaspar hosed Jon McG at second, and almost hadanother pick later in the inning, he was spot on all day

Thanks for making it a good one, even without the usuals,Snyder, Rojas, Phelps, Richie, Nero, Johnny, Rick, Bob (maybe he got beanedwith an errant throw in Ojai, we'll have to get confirmation...)

NOTE: Next week we switch to 1 pm start time, Camp Swampy

S. Paige

10/23/11- West Sunset

2011-10-24T12:46:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, October.

As the rest of the world starts down the road towards winter, we get 80+ degrees and sun. Almost too much, the outfielders might have said, but hey, who's gonna complain? We started late due to the league game before us, and Rojas was chirping from the beginning that we weren't giving him time to warm up before game time. Somehow I got there exactly the same time as Tony, and I was on the mound ready to go, so who knows.

We had a stable 11-10, that became 9-9 by the end of the middle innings. Satch for the homers, Sean for the visitors. A little warmer than usual on the diamond, but that is always nice for the arm, which was feeling good. I struck out Richie to open the game, but that seemed to be the high point, as I then gave up a couple of runs. Then a few more, interspersed with a K here and there, including the hardest fastball I have thrown in a while. The lesson for today was when you have a good defense, use it. We managed to score back on Sean to make it a game, and then we had two or three innings of good, lock it down defensive ball. At least 10 ground balls in the infield over the course of 6 innings. I'll take it!

Sean had his change up working, but he never threw it to me, I think, because I didn't give him the chance. I did break out of the slump finally, and was responsible for 2 of the 3 runs our team scored in the first few frames. The first was a ugly gork to right, but the second was a screaming laser beam over Mitch's head that could have been 3 if I wasn't out of shape and being wary of the legs.

We never could really get a rally going, and I bowed out after giving up a sizable number of runs in the 6th, although the score was 6-4, so that's a decent ERA outing, per MBC. New Greg came in and threw well, but had some trouble finding the dish, and the game slowed down a bit. He still was able to strike out a few. Phelps came in to mop it up and did what he do.

Rojas took over for Sean and was looking real good, had all of his stuff working. The sun got pretty brutal around the 5th inning, and it became a crap shoot every time the ball was hit in the outfield. If it got above the bleachers you had a chance of seeing it, but if it stayed low, never see it. The homers went into the 9th with a deficit of 9-6, but never could get it going and with a K of yours truly, the game was in the bag for the visitors.

Highlights:

* It was a great game, old style MBC, no drama, no problems, just a bunch of folks enjoying the game.

* Rich got Mitched

* I was 3-4, single, two doubles, 2 RBI's, and a swinging strikeout to end the game....oh well, at least I finally hit the ball hard

* Thanks to Bob, Adam, Greg, and new guy for catching

* New guy was McG's kid's baseball coach, but he was a kid himself, compared to the mean age of the MBC, looks like he knows what he is doing too

* Our team had two dropped pop ups in the infield, in the same inning, Elvin's new nickname is "Two Hands".

* Rich had some nice plays at SS, and some real big overthrows to second

* Adam converted some real stinker throws into outs at 1st. As usual.

* I played SS at the end, and had Richie picked off 2nd by 10 feet, but Brian didn't see me and Nick Smith hit the ball right where I would have been if I had just left it all alone....dammit!

* Mike Lattig played a great 2nd base all day

* I had Tony and Greg's number all day, but no one else

* Dennis came up big with two strikes to spark his team to rally, nice piece of hitting!

* New guy about took my foot off with a line drive

* Jay came out, had a hit, but after field testing, is looking at long term rehab for his foot. Take your time Jay, it's the only way it will heal. Don't worry, the game isn't going anywhere.

* For the record, Brian Phelps worked at Straw Hat Pizza longer than Aiden has been alive....

* The visitors stole every base they could, that might have made the difference.

* Bob got hit with an overthrow at first, which we all agree still counts. That happens at West Sunset about 400% more than anywhere else

* Rich got hit in the spine, which we all agree sucks

* Daniel had a nice 2-strike hit

* Richie had a real nice hit as well, on a pitch I was trying to bust him inside on

* I think someone hit a triple

* No broken windows, but a foul ball went into a backyard, and hit something brittle. Sounded like a dead tree branch snapping.

* New Greg beaned his buddy, always funny when that happens.

Thanks to everyone who made it out, for making it an enjoyable game!

Not sure where we are next week, thanks to all that volunteered to pony up for the windshield, if needs be. Someday, it will be needed, I am sure.

S. Paige

10/16/11 West Sunset

2011-10-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

Having a baby is a great thing, richly fulfilling, blah blah blah. And while it is a great thing, its not the same kind of great thing as having a really solid day at the plate, or being able to put your pitches exactly where you want them, or hosing some runner at the plate from the outfield. Maybe I just miss playing ball. In any case, there was a game on Sunday, above the minimum attendance again. Here with a recap is Mike "Hit Machine" Lattig:

The day started out warm and balmy with some nice cloud cover - which may have contributed to us staying at a reasonable 10-on-10 for the first time in a long time.

Two old-timers took to the bump to get things started, with Greg firing for the home squad and Johnny doing the honors for the visitors. To Greg's dismay, that meant he started against a top 4 of Mitch, Johnny, Rich and Lattig (as I go third person for a minute...). Not the lineup he needed to face coming off the error-induced drubbing he took a few weeks ago. And sure enough, we quickly jumped to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

Johnny, on the other hand, seemed hell-bent on turning in the first shutout that the MBC has seen in quite some time. The one glitch? In about the 4th inning or so that cloudy sky had morphed into a grayish white glare that threatened even the surest of hands and eyes. Yours truly fell victim with two outs and none on, when Adam hit a little humpbacked liner to second that should have ended things, but instead wove its way in and out of the sun before I made a final, futile last second stab at it once it reappeared to my left.

The homers followed with a few solid knocks, and all the sudden it was a 5-2 ballgame... But that's all Johnny would yield until an inconsequential ninth. Between then he got help from Jason's ability to fend off the sun in center, Rich's ability to glide around at shortstop and fire balls to first, and Mitch's ability to suck up anything hit his way, including a spectacular sliding catch in center.

And while Johnny was spinning his magic, we kept the runs trickling in. The most impressive knock being Rich's wall banger off of Brian after he looked surprisingly uncomfortable for a few pitches. A fact that Greg ill-advisidly pointed out before Rich launched a 370 foot line drive. The lesson there: Don't poke the bear.

I'm not sure what that made the score, but it was a lot to 2 before another 2 out rally in the 9th led to 3 or 4 runs for the homers. And, as seems custom and since it was a mere 5:20 when the 9th was completed, we moved on to the 10th where both teams got a couple of runs but nothing of consequence occured...

Lesson there: Sometimes 9 is enough. (Ed. note: Some of us would play through to Monday morning if given the opportunity, but I know I may be in the minority here...)

I'm old and tired, so I don't remember many details beyond that. A few for the history books and blooper reels:

* Dennis fell down while backpedalling to catch a pop up, but his achilles was fine.

* There were at least 4 balls hit to right field off of Greg that should have been caught, but were lost in the sun and fell for 'hits'. That seemed to be Rich's gameplan until Brian came in...

* Speaking of Brian, he lasered a couple the other way, proving the value of "Hit it where it's pitched"

* Johnny and I connected for a strange 4-1 putout of Greg on a ball that seemed destined for right field. Which proves the value of the pitcher covering on anything hit to the right side.

* We all made it home safely with another game under our belt. Which proves the value of knowing your limitations...

Dennis "300+pints and counting" Briskin had his own description of his swan dive:

Dennis playing 2B backpedaling for a popup, hitting the grass edge, the ball grazing his glove as he tumbles ass over teakettle. That batter eventually scored. Injured? No, just embarrassed.

AOY 2011 Brian "Lefty Stonez"Phelps had these gems to contribute:

* Greg vs Johnny, Johnny donned a #75 retro Mission jersey and pitched like a retro Zito.

* Once again the sun played its part. I nearly caught a ball, hit by Rich, right near Dennis after he lost it in the sun. I also could have made a play, from the mound, behind 1st base after Dennis and Adam lost a popup in the sun.

* Greg made a Willie Mays catch after taking the fateful first step in.

* I had a 15 pitch battle with Rich. After 14 pitches in, Greg (catcher) says "I've never seen you rattled". After tapping the glass, Greg calls for a fastball and Rich puts one off the wall. Thanks Greg.

* The Homer's defense let this one get away.

* The new Greg murdered the ball. One went over my head, so I went oppo the next time up and put one over his head. Then I pitched to him and he crushed me.

* The Visitors had a murderous lefty lineup. Rich, Lattig, Rojas.

Ed. Note: One final aside to the league players, please remember that this game is the only one that most of get to play for the week, and we would like to be able to play as much as possible. This game, while not registered in any official capacity, also isn't a league training session.

Fourth of July Pictures....in October

2011-10-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Nick Smith, here are the pics from our annual BBQ.

10/9/11- West Sunset

2011-10-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

The Blue Angels were heard a few times but never seen, which was fine with us. Aiden walked around with his fingers in his ears for a half hour, just in case. We had to wait for the league game to finish up, so we didn't get started until about 3:15. The fog stayed around for a the first few innings and then it got sunny and hard to see, warm, but muggy. We were 12-11, but everyone did real well at taking their turns at sitting and making sure that everyone got to play. Nice work everyone, and thank you!

AOY 2011 Brian Phelps started for the home team, and he definitely brought his A game. His crafty pitching racked up 6 Ks in about 5 innings of work, and he had some nice footwork on the mound as well. Satch started for the visitors, and didn't do horribly, but what a lineup to face! Every power lefty in the MBC decided to face me, one after another, and they all whacked me around. It was one of the stronger batting lineups ever assembled

And true to it's talent the Homers took the lead early, and held it for the whole game. We were looking down the barrel of a 7-2 game before we knew what had happened. Inning by inning we scratched our way back, and for a time, we actually kept the monsters at bay. By the middle innings, we actually had clawed our way back to a one run game, 7-6. We savored it, and then the home team woke up again and started busting us up again like a cheap pinata.

I had bowed out with the close game, and sent in Tony Rojas to throw. He did well, managed to strike out a few, but the batters were just too many, and the runs started to pile up again. Phelps went out around the same time and in came the new old guy, who had a live arm but not as much control. He threw effectively wild for a few innings and then Sean came in to close the game. Yeah, that really inspired our late inning rally hopes. In any case, we died on the vine, final score 12ish-7?

Highlights:

* Brian pitched a hell of a game!

* Rich, Sean, Loren, that is a line up you face in Hell.

* There were a lot of really hard hit balls, but my defense did a great job of keeping them to singles.

* The knuckle ball was working, especially with Bob, again

* Rojas pitched to someone other than Greg for the first time!

* Rich hit the highest pop fly I have seen in a long time, and Duane made a nice catch, after moving his face out of the way at the last moment.

* I was warned about my pine tar use in non-batting situations, however, I still maintain plausible deniability.

* Tim was a no show, but hope that he knows that all is well and he is welcome to play

* We had a crazy double play to end a threatening inning, something like 6-4-3-4-2

* I stole a base Ricky-style, stay low, early jump, mad dog the pitcher the first 10 steps

* Right field proved to be Candyland for batters, as the fielder was completely blinded by about the 4th inning

* Gaspar's special lady friend, Laura came out to root and stayed the whole game!

* Bob got hit twice, once in the foot, one in the leg. You know how you kill a redwood Bob, you go for the roots.

* Duane took his base after getting plunked, with the sound rationale that it "fucking hurt.". He came around to score. That is how the visitors scored our runs....

* Tony played 1st base, which I have never seen, and then proceeded to have about 10 hard hit liners all around him, including one that almost took his head off

* I broke my slump with a pure hit up the middle with a RBI, and a gork to right. I also struck/foul tipped out on the best pitch to hit that I had all day, still not sure how I didn't get all of it. Nice pitch Brian, and even better catch Bob!

* Phelps doesn't think I got it in me to regain the AOY title in 2012. Sounds suspiciously like a challenge.

* Chris had one of the prettiest hits of the day

* News from the Wild West, John Carey loves his new school, and is starting to like his horse, named Delightful. He changed his mind after he had to ride the back up mount for a few days. The back up's name was Moped.

* The kangaroo court will continue to levy warnings and fines for conduct ruled as off base, but I will be paying the fine to Bob personally from my own wallet, and it will be up to the defendant to make it right. If you think its an unfair ruling, we can talk about it and see what can be done, and 99% of the time I am sure that a resolution can be found. If you don't like it, there's plenty of leagues out there.

Same time, same place.

S. Paige

In Lieu of Hits.

2011-10-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

So the Yankees lost, so we can all enjoy that.

The rest of the playoffs are at least proving to be interesting, I am rooting for the Tigers, cuz it's been a while. Or the Rangers, since they were nice enough to lose to us last year. The Brew Crew or D-backs wouldn't be bad either, I love an underdog.

Since I am currently in an 0-9 slump, I thought I would post some footage of proof that I did get a hit at some point. And also a fly out. Thanks to Adam Pfahler for shooting it and sending it to me.

Spiraling out of Control- A Correction

2011-10-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sincere Apologies to Tim Farr, as we got the his side of the story that he did solicit other people to catch and no one jumped (bunch of lazy humps...), so he stayed in.

The take home message- With high attendance games, no one should play every inning, including pitchers and catchers. Sorry, for those that want the CG, but wait until we have 15 and have need for that sort of thing.

As for the strike call, I was over that 2 seconds after it happened, and my protestations were purely for literary fodder. Sorry Tim, if you thought I was really bothered by that. I know I'll have another shot at striking out soon enough.

In closing, we value Tim as a member in good standing with the MBC, and he is here by cleared of all charges relating to the game on Sunday, October 2, 2011.

Thank you.

S. Paige

10/2/11- Moscone Field

2011-10-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

What a great way to come back to the game. Of course, I am surprised as anyone that I actually was allowed to play so soon, but hey, Mrs. Paige is a very special person.

And the icing on the cake was it was a the fabled return of Mr. Peter Van Schaik, who, after a long sojourn in Connecticut, graced us with his presence for the day, and he did everything, field, hit, drop balls, strike out. Unfortunately, this visit was not indicative of things to come, but hey, a path is made by laying a single stone at a time. There's a stoner joke in there somewhere but I can't find it.

For a day that was supposed to rain, we lucked out, and only had a short period of strange light where the clouds looked ominous, then the sun came out again and we were good. We ended up with 14-14, a rather large number, and there were enough representatives to get a old guys versus new guys game together. So we did.

The new guys ran away with it, no other way to put it. We started out strong, Pete scored our first run, and we put up another and we were in the lead 2-1 for at least a while. Johnny started for the homers and Sean was on the hill for the visitors. Well, those two runs must have really scorched Sean's pride, because he settled down into strike out mode and ended up with about 10 K's and a complete game. Ouch. Johnny did his best to hold back the tide, but there were some real strong bats to contend with on the visiting team.

We flailed away, and our defense, while being mature and well rounded, couldn't keep up with the hit parade. By the time I came in to pitch, the visitors were up 4-2, and we kept that for a good long while, but we just couldn't score a run, or really even get a decent rally going. Maybe we were distracted by all the visitors, Dani came out to root for us, as did Pete's kids and wife, and Ed's kids and his wife and a host of others.

We convinced the homers to keep playing, since we could, but it just got worse, and in the last inning, the visitors started to really exploit the weaknesses, and put up at least another 3 runs. I left before we got our final licks, but I am not holding out too much hope for late breaking news of a big comeback.

On a serious note, We got a bit of club business to take care of. Tim is being fined $5 by the kangaroo court for refusing to sit out in a game that was 14-14. He was specifically asked about it and he chose to ignore it, and even continued to play into extra innings. I have been itching to play for the last 3 weeks, and I still sat out for two innings. The team had ample back up catchers. Not acceptable, sorry Tim. You can pay the fine to Bob, who will verify to the court that it's been taken care of. Everyone else, pay attention. The fine and punishments go up exponentially, now that everyone is aware of the rules.

Highlights:

* Pete made a number of great catches in short right field, like he never missed a day

* Duane played a great 1st sack, digging out some balls that would have been hits for us usually.

* Rich, as usual, killed it at SS

* Sean's performance was awesome.

* We got out of a bases loaded jam, to keep the score close, that was satisfying.

* JT made a number of great catches in right field, which we know is not his favorite position

* Rick had a great hit, and then slightly re-injured himself. At least it was a solid hit, get well soon!

* Jay also had a hit and then a flare up of a nagging injury, rehabbing is a slow process, sometimes, as much as it sucks, you have to go for complete rest

* I now have an 0-9 slump going, with 2 strikeouts, and about 6 ground balls that never made it past the grass of the infield

* Richie was foiled in a foot blocking the bag steal attempt. One of our many rally enders

* I threw a fast ball and had my body buckle under me, that could have been a lot worse

* We kept score officially, or as officially as the MBC is going to get

* Tony had a nice rope early on to get our only run production started

* Dennis also had a few hits and continued to put his recently healed ankle in peril

* Thanks to Nick Smith for keeping everybody in line and demanding that people sat out their fair share (for our team anyway...)

* With a few exceptions, most of the runs for the visitors were earned, just solid singles.

* Mitch had a great battle at the plate that ended with a line drive

* I was K'd looking on a pitch that was low. To end the 9th inning. Real low. Tim should be fined another $5 for that, but as a participant in the event and official of the kangaroo court, I think that would cross into malicious use of process. MBC law dogs please verify that this is the proper use of this legal term. And yeah, I probably should be swinging with 2 strikes, if you want to be a dick about it.

* We were helped by a infield fly rule as well. Sad game when that is a highlight for us

* Aiden looked good chasing the soccer ball around and kicking it into the fence, I would love to play soccer if I could run more than 90 feet at a time

* Noah might have had 2 hits and 2 stolen bases!

* We almost had Noah picked off at third, but I couldn't hold on to the ball, and then fell over. I really thought I still had it. My glove needs re-lacing officially, I have noticed that its a lot floppier with the laces all broken.

I may even make it out next week, but it's a crap shoot. Thanks again Pete for the appearance, lets do it again soon, big guy.

S. Paige

9/25/11- Cop Field

2011-09-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

It was another good turnout at the Cop field, not a great day, and thanks to John McG for doing the Recon on the post rain damage. John called me and gave me a verbal recap of the game.

It was a real blowout, the final score was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-5. Greg pitched and had zero defense helping him, John fessed up to at least 10 dropped ground balls, although he managed to turn a line out double play, he still felt like he let down the team. These are the times when it is nice to know that these games don't mean anything. From the sounds of it, everyone had the dropsies. Adam lost a few and at first and quit to play catcher and even Rich had some throwing errors! Oh well, it happens to everyone.

There was a 3 inning exhibition game at the end, and the team that got walloped managed to eke out a one run win, so nice to have some balance. Paul made some amazing plays, Lattig robbed Rich of a sure fire home run, Tim came out looking svelte, Greg, a returning player pitched fire.

Here with some more recap highlights is Brian Phelps, who pitched for the winning team:

* Greg had a good 1st inning and that was about all. He was rocked for 17(?) runs, most unearned.

* I gave up 2 in the 1st and was shaken early. But I composed myself and with Noah behind the dish held the visitors to 4 runs.

* Rich probably recorded the longest out in Mission history, thanks to Lattig playing 430 feet deep.

* Greg hit about everyone in sight. Tried to pick-off Duane at 2nd... hit him in the back. Hit Bob (to make the game official) at 3rd from left field. The other person Greg hit at second was Elvin... and then Tim got hit going into 3rd. I beaned Elvin's friend with a curve after getting him 0-2.

* McGrath let about 10 ground ball get by him

* Dennis had a "Let Timmy Smoke" shirt on. I was going to bean him, but then saw his shirt.

* Noah, after catching 7 innnings, relieved me and had a good outing.

* Greg relieved Greg, the former being Elvin's friend, and pitched really good.

* I was 5 for 6 with 5 runs scored.

* Duane had a great day at the plate. Before his 1st AB, he asked if I wanted to go infront of him, I told him "No", as long as he gets a hit. He roped one and started a rally. He stayed in that mindset all game.

* Elvin, unsuccessfully, bunted with a 14 run lead and promptly got scolded. Karma got him to pop out. In another AB, he ran all the way to 1st base with the bat because he thought he was going to get out.

* Once again, Jay was baffled at my pitching success. Because all I do is throw "skittles".

* Chris dropped a routine fly ball in center, but recovered and threw a runner out at third, saying "don't test me".

And a final note from the man himself, Greg Snyder, recipient of the hard luck day:

That was one of the worst Missionings I've ever gotten. I think I kept my smile on, though. For the record, I only hit base runners, no batters were harmed. The other runner I hit was Elvin early in the game,but he deserved it.

9/18/11- Cop Field

2011-09-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

SinceI am out on the BL, I am throwing the reporting duties to the MBC'rs, en masse. I will list every contributor and their review of the game. Hope you enjoy!

Thefirst contribution is Mike Gaspar, who took the bump to close the game.

AfterGreg pitched six great innings and Lattig pitched two good ones, it was decidedthat I would come in and mop up the 9th. With an 8 run lead, what couldgo wrong?

Ihit the first batter, Mitch, with a 40 mph fastball, no biggie. And thenthe hit and error parade started. A few balls were crushed, some runsscored, a sure fire double play was broken up a bad hop and we didn'tget even one. Duane made an amazing catch to rob Rick of an extra basehit, but had trouble with a ball that bounced off many body parts and fell in. The visitors smelled blood in the water, and eventually took a one runlead. I caught Rick's sky ball in the infield for the final out of theinning, after falling to the ground.

Thehomers tied up the game on a single by Richie and a triple by Carter, off hisbrother. Greg chopped one to Tim, who threw home to kill the rally. On to the 10th, Johnny came in, and gave it ol' 1-2-3, then I lead offthe bottom of the 10th with a single up the middle, 2nd on a wild pitch, and thengame hero Duane, who ripped one up the middle to score the winning run. 14-13!

Bringyour sunglasses, its that time of year.

Nextup is Jay Cellini's recap:

Sunday’s gamewas a classic. The weather was actually baseballweather! Balmy, warm, relaxing. What aday! Unfortunately it seemed that none of my teammates were used tothis weather as everyone seemed sluggish. The game wasrelatively boring until about the 7th when what looked to be rout turned into anail biter.

Jay,naturally, continued his explosive hitting going 2 for 5 with a ripped singleand towering double. Oh yeah, baby. On one at bat, I wascalled out on a close play at first, which I think I beat. It was an excellent fielding play by the1st baseman.

Thegame then settled down into a snore until about the 7th when the visitorscaught fire and took batting practice for approximately 10 runs against somepoor sucker named Mike (sorry Mike). Score 13-12,visitors.

Anywayback to the action. The bottom of the 9th saw a thundering triple bythe Lowell playeroff this brother to tie the game, 13-13, with the winning run onthird. But professional fielding and throwing by the Tim, the thirdbaseman to the catcher ended the threat with a tag at home.

Johnnycame in and pulled a 1-2-3 -- although Jay was very quizzical about the calledthird strike on a pitch as he watched the ball go two inches inside of theplate. WTF?! Jay supposes this made up forGreg’s giving Bob a non-called third strike earlier in the game to which Greglamented about to Johnny as Jay listened while sitting out. Note tothe peanut gallery: Be careful about arbitrarycommentary. Favoritism, Favoritism, can I get me some? Yeah, Iknow, no rest for the wicked.

Somehowthe homers scored in the bottom of the 10th to win the game. Gofigure? Evidence that God still loves knaves and fools?

(Disclaimer: This is what happens after 3 Bud's on a Monday night.)

Jay Cellini Pictures from West Sunset

2011-09-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here's some great pics from the game two weeks ago. Thanks to Jay for the snaps!

SQ Pics- No Write up just Photogs

2011-09-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the final SQ game of 2011. Still haven't gotten a write up, but we all know that folks like the long ball, and that's all the info we need....

Congrats AOY 2011 and all the MBC'rs who played!

S. Paige

9/11/11- West Sunset

2011-09-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Probably the best weather day at West Sunset that has ever occurred. Warm. A little humid, the light breeze from the ocean. A great way to celebrate America and freedom on the 10th anniversary of a tragic day in our country's history. And what's more American than pick-up baseball?

I as lucky to be out there, as I have been for the last three weeks, but I swear this is the last time for a while, although its a fool who speaks in absolutes. Mrs. Paige came out and watched the action, she pledged to walk some steps to shake the critter loose, but she ended up just sitting in her chair and enjoying the sun and the game. Mr. Garcia, scourge of the SoCal little league and Richie's dad, also came out. He seemed a lot more interested in his book, which looked like a good one (http://www.amazon.com/Satch-Dizzy-Rapid-Robert-Interracial/dp/1416547983).

We were 10-10, which became 12-11 by the end of the game. Current AOY Brian Phelps started for the homers and had a great outing, his stuff was working, and everyone was mixed up by facing a lefty that wasn't Sean. Dustin started for the visitors and had a good outing, but his lack of inebriation ultimately hindered his pitching. The homers were graced with a very good defense that helped us to close out some quick innings. Satch once again as in right field, which I like at West Sunset, 'cuz its basically like playing a deep first or second base.

The homers scored first and the visitors came back soon after and we had a game on our hands. Brian cut to the bone on the visitors and didn't allow anything beyond the first run, Dustin was not so lucky. We mounted a couple of rallies and by the time that Brian handed over the ball in the 6th, it was 9-1. No one likes a blow out, however, and while I would like to say that I was trying to even the score up a bit, its just not true. Basically, the visitors smelled the fresh blood in the water and jumped all over me. Sean took over for the visitors and pitched a few innings and then Noah came in a mopped it up. Both of them did a great job of shutting down our offense, with a few exceptions.

Brian had to come out to the mound at one point and talk me down, which helped and we got out of the inning. I never recorded a K in 6 innings of work, but I got the outs. You matha-magicians might notice that adds up to 12 innings, well, it does. It was so nice that none of us wanted to leave, and we vowed to keep playing until the sun went down, the baby was born, or we all collapsed.

So play on we did, and while the visitors never did take the lead, they kept pounding away and the final score was somewhere in the region of 13-7.

Highlights:

* Richie put on a clinic at SS, and had at least 12 put outs

* Elvin and Tyler both covered the outfield with skill and had a couple of hits as well

* Thanks to Ed, Bob, Greg, Noah for catching, which was probably a little sweatier than usual

* Chris hit the hell out of a ball, and ended up with a home run the hard way

* The homers got out of a bases loaded jam at one point

* Sean was stymied all day by Brian, and I managed to escape his wrath, no home run for you!

* Jay and Paul on the other hand, hit the ball well all day. I complimented Jay on his improved hitting. He said it was all due to getting fat pitches to hit. So that didn't go over like I planned it, basically, its not that he's any better at hitting, its that Brian and I suck at pitching. I'll remember that.

* Dustin had a nice drive down the line, and then wore himself out having to score from second, maybe he was drunk after all....

* Duane also had a nice hit, and had a self-realized "Grouchy" moment (we all know who that is) when he couldn't let a strike out go

* Phelps put one to the wall in right center

* We made Elvin run all day, taking the extra base, you gots to use those fresh legs while you got them!

* Brian had pinpoint accuracy, except when Dustin and Noah were up, and then he tried to hit them about 4 times

* I was 0-5, with three ground outs to Richie, in which he never had to move, one strikeout and a 4-6-3 double play. I was DFA'd after the game

* Greg tried the subterfuge first and third throw back to the pitcher. Didn't work, but nice to know it exists

* A lot of hidden ball play attempts

* Ed made a nice grab on a short right field gork to end an inning

* Adam made a couple of really nice plays at 1st including one that he threw dirt in his own face but still made the play, and wants everyone to know he hasn't been around the last few weeks because he was in LA, being filmed for a documentary (and yes, he is bragging).

* Bob survived his high highfalutin' polo match in Atherton and came and played ball to get back to his working class roots.

* Johnny had a couple of great classic line drives

* Rick came out with a rehabbed leg, and was looking downright sprightly, complete with a moonshot to left

* Q? came out late and hit the hell out of the ball

* Thanks for all the well wishes and advice on the impending fatherhood, I hope everyone understands that when the baby comes out with me, we all take turns monitoring and/or protecting it during the game....

S. Paige

9/3/11- West Sunset

2011-09-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

Another week, I couldn't believe it! But I'll take it! It was a real nice day, except in the West Sunset, of course. Since it was a bonus day for me anyway, I decided not to start on the bump and give someone else a chance to eat some innings. And I got to be on the same team as Sean, which rarely happens. And lucky for me I did. But more on that later.

Sean started for the home team, and was his usual dominating self, Johnny started for the visitors and had his slurvy action working. We again were overstaffed and had 12-12. The homers started with an infield that was less than stellar, and the visitors jumped out to an early lead. In the future, usually we shouldn't have the new guys jump right in to the high pressure positions. In any case, the homers were able to score back a few runs, and we settled into a game.

We battled back and forth for an inning or two, and then Sean broke out for his first of two home runs. Yes, that's right, Sean, jealous of the press that Rich got last week, did some sky balling of his own. His first homer was a strong liner that cleared the fence but not the trees, and fell back in. His second was commanding, majestic, deep, proud, and all together amazing. By that time Noah had come into the game, in fact it was the first batter that Noah faced, but he probably didn't want anyone to know that....

We tried to switch out enough to make sure that every one got equal playing time, and that included the pitchers, Sean bowed out and gave me the sphere and Noah took over for Johnny. I was feeling good and the fog had lifted a bit, or maybe just a little warm had crept in. The score by that time had gotten a little out of hand, and we homers had taken a commanding lead. I finished the 7th in five pitches and I struck out the side in the 8th. Felt real good.

We coerced the visitors into playing an extra inning and then immediately felt bad, as we had a huge inning. I didn't think I was going to get up, but by the time I did, we had already score 4 runs. I asked if I should fall on my sword, but no one seemed to think that was worth it, so I hammered one up the middle instead, almost taking off Noah's leg. Sorry about that.So, when the visitors took their 10th inning at bats, I made sure they got their hacks and the runs started to pile up. Everyone on the visiting team who stuck around got another at bat, and the final score was 17-15. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Highlights

* Thanks to everyone who came out!

* The game seemed like it went on forever, we didn't finish until almost 7

* Greg wanted to send a special apology out to anyone that he offended at the game, for one reason or another. Please know that he had no intention of pissing anyone off, he and I were having our own conversation

* Elvin's buddy came out again, and while his throwing arm was a little wild, his bat was lethal

* My first hit was a double that I tried to stretch to a triple, and was thrown out by a perfect throw from Brian Cagle, and as my teammates pointed out, if I hadn't taken the time to take off my helmet while running to first, I might have beaten the throw. At least I am trying to wear the helmet

* There were about 6 overthrows at first that went out of play

* First time in MBC history that I got to start in right field. Didn't matter, I didn't make a non-pitching play the whole game.

* Bob was frozen by a knuckleball for a third strike, which he hated. He got me back by hitting the knuckle the next time

* Thanks to Ed, Greg, Gaspar and Noah for catching

* We almost had a great play at home, almost....

* Greg did the right thing and didn't swing when I stole 3rd. Thank you! I don't have many of those in me

* JT played the whole game despite 3 injuries in the first inning

* Liam had some great hits

* We lost a number of balls in the street and in the backstop

* There were some great catches made by new guys, defense is always welcome

* Dennis had some trouble on a play at second, where he fell down while holding the ball, while a runner scored, he said he was his ankle and he was "in agonizing pain" and that's why he couldn't make the play. If that was the case, we wondered why he would play and put himself in that position?

* Nick Smith played the grumpy old man part real well. He didn't have fun at all.

* Stoner came out and had a good game in the outfield and a frustrating game at the plate. I felt bad when he struck out, after being distracted by all the jokes and chatter that we were throwing at him

* Well, I hope to see everyone soon. Keep it fun.

S. Paige

Olde Tyme Baseball as seen by Conan O'Brian

2011-09-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Our AOY Brian Phelps shared this with us last week, it's pretty much the best thing I have ever seen, so I wanted to always have it available.Thanks Brian...and Conan.S. Paige

8/28/11- West Sunset

2011-08-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well my departure last week was premature as it turned out, the wife was kind enough to let me have one more day in the sun. And it was a great time, except there wasn't any sun. Plenty of fog and mugginess though. We had another big turnout, it was 11-11 this time instead of 17-17 though, so thank god for small miracles. Satch started for the homers in what may be the last go around for this show pony, well, for a little while anyway. And to switch things up, I got to face Johnny Bartlett, fresh off of a great game last week, which was erroneously reported. Apparently, he threw damn near a shut out last week.

The game see-sawed continuously, each team losing the lead, then reclaiming it, sometimes with authority. By the middle innings, the visitors put up what looked like an insurmountable lead, but somehow, we clawed our way our of a seven run deficit to tie the game.

I felt good, and everything seemed to working well, but I lost so many 2 strike counts that it started to feel like providence. I would get the first two strikes no problem, and I would throw exactly the pitch I wanted for the third one, and somehow it was get hit, well or dinked enough to fall in. And dink we did. Between the two teams there might have been a record number of dying quails.

Not all the hitting was so wussy though, as Rich showed us once again why it was that he played 7 years of professional baseball, while the rest of us were partying. Two home runs! That's right I said it. Off two pitchers. Amazing. He also had at least two doubles, so you might say that Rich was a big reason that we kept coming back.

I think we all enjoyed the action of never being comfortable with the lead we had. I bowed out after 7, and Johnny did the same, leaving Greg for the homers and Dustin and Brian Phelps for the visitors to mop up the game. We continued to outscore each other, and we played an extra inning to make up for the excess of players that we had. In the end, somehow, the homers won the game, which was most surprising to us, seeing how we had been in such a deep hole for a good part of the game. Final Score: 18-14.

Highlights:

* It was a real honest game, people who were picked off didn't argue about it, when a play was close at first, the defense didn't argue on a safe call.

* There were more triples hit than I care to remember, but I know Duane had at least one, as did both new guys

* Bob was hit twice, once on a fastball, which I felt bad about. Sorry Bob.

* Paul had the game of his life, he was at least 5-5 and made a spectacular diving catch in the short porch in right

* I am pretty sure that everyone on the other team got a hit off of me.

* Mitch had some great catches, but even more close ones that he safely veered away from as the other outfielder came crashing in. The new guys don't know that its better to just let him handle it.

* Jay came out again and hit the ball with authority all day, and made a lifesaver catch to end my day on the bump.

* Noah and Dustin played well considering the hangovers they were most likely suffering from

* Bob also hit the longest ball we have ever seen him hit. It probably helped that he knew I was going to float one in after hitting him

* The third inning lasted approximately 3 hours. I was soaked by the time I walked off the mound

* Noah was framing pitches that were a foot out of the strike zone, and even called one a strike. I guess if you frame it then look at it, of course its a strike.

* Sean was kind enough not to catch my opposite field hit

* Rich and Mike Lattig were the 4th and 5th outfielders for most of the game rather than SS and 2nd.

* There were a number of solid left field line hits as well, and as we know it is treacherous out there on the left line, gets real bumpy and rocky

* Phelps almost had me on the center fielder pick off maneuver. Luckily I was high enough (also thanks to Brian) to be one with the game and sniff out the complex ruse

* We had our first complainant on a foul ball, who apparently pointed out some minuscule dent on his truck. Never saw the owner of the car who's roof we sky balled, setting off the alarm.

* The only person who didn't hit me well was Sean who is usually the guy that hits me all day. Go figure. Maybe he has to pitch to hit. I was so tired after the game, I think I told him that he pitched a great game, even though he never did throw.

* Let's go Stories!....I almost fell off the mound.

* We had a lot of stolen bases from people who shouldn't be stealing bases. They were all safe too, which is only going to encourage them.

Alright, you are all on reporter detail until I get back out there, so pay attention and send me regular updates.

S. Paige

8/21/11- Cop Field and Camp Swampy

2011-08-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well it was a first for me, and I have been coming out for going on 8 years. We ended up with almost 30 players, a real conundrum. We weighed the idea of a 12 inning game, and let the wheat separate from the chaff as the game wore on, but that didn't seem like fun. There was a lone duo using Camp Swampy, so we figured, why not just split the squads and play two games? Why not indeed. With a few notable exceptions, the games were split along years of service to the MBC, old guys at the Swamp, new guys got the Cop Field. So we did. We offered a spot for the two guys who's field we took over, and one of them played the whole game (Vince, nice kid, got a hit) and his dad just left him to play with a bunch of strangers!

I will need to get a proper review from someone at the other game, but I know that Johnny Bartlett and Noah started for the teams, and they seemed to play a much faster game than we old fellers. They were done and asking about playoffs while we were trying to get out of the 6th inning.

As for our game, it was classic match up with Sean and Satch squaring off, and we battled as usual. Well, at least on the mound, when it came to hitting, Sean left me in the dust, as he continued to connect with everything I could throw. At the plate, I contented myself with bloops and opposite field hits and one very ugly strike out.

Luckily, his team was slightly less powerful than he, so I could at least get some outs. The wind was blowing the ball right back at me, and I figured the fastball wasn't going to be very overpowering, so I relied on the knuckle and change up for most of the game.

We scored 1 run apiece to begin with, and then we visitors got a few runs to take the lead. It didn't last long though, as the the homers took the bait and bashed us for a few innings, tallying up four runs on some big hits and charitable defense. We can't really even say that the inning came to a real close, as Nick Smith was called out at home on a play that had definite reasonable doubt. Sorry Nick. And you had to slide too. I was waiting for someone other than me or Nick to make the call, but didn't get any help.

We lingered in the hole for a while, but kept it close until suddenly we figured out Sean and got in the scoring business, put up some serious runs and ultimately holding on to win. John Carey came into pitch the last frame, with his dad as his battery mate ( a better showing than the last Patri/Fili duo we saw) and I handed the ball off to Rojas to close it down. The homers took their walks in the 9th, as they should, but could not come up with the big one. Final score, 9-5.

Highlights:

* 30 Fucking people! Ok, officially stop bringing new guys until this gets under control.

* We had a rare infield showing one inning of Tony, Greg, Brian Cagle and Adam, also known as the Final Four Horsemen of the original MBC (who still play, I hear you barking Simonelli...)

* The infield at Swampy is not any better than Cop Field, maybe even slower

* Daniel came a little late but made a number of great catches in the outfield

* Mitch saved me from the humiliation of giving up yet another home run to Sean, with the best running catch I have seen in a long time. Of course, Sean also hit a triple off me.

* Bob had some great hits, as did John.

* I struck out the poor kid who came out with Bob, like three times. Hopefully he can come out again so he doesn't get bitter towards the game

* We almost had a perfect suicide squeeze play

* JT hit a rocket back to the mound that I barely held on to

* A lot of collisions and near collisions at 1st for some reason

* Aiden gets the Free Range award for most distance covered in the day. We all got to catch up on our parenting skills, keeping an eye on him

* We got Lattig to foul out in a 2nd and 3rd, no out situation. You remember those, cuz they don't happen too often.

* Adam hit the ball hard, ran hard, blocked a lot of badly thrown balls at 1st

* We had a lot of extra base hits it seemed.

* We had 5 HBP, three of which were Bob and the other two were Nick. They were all hit by me. The only one that I was concerned about was the one where I tried an inside corner pitch and hit Nick in the leg. None of the one's I hit Bob with would have a dented a custard pie.

* Greg came though on a bases loaded, two outs, Tony at 3rd situation, the very same one that he flubbed at Swampy three weeks ago. Way to go Greg!

* Greg also was proudly displaying the wound he received at SQ, result of a over eager tag in the face

* I messed up a play covering third for the other team. I froze up, not knowing if I should try for the ball, then didn't cover third, as Lattig chose to go to me for the out. Sorry. I think it all worked out.

* Glad we all had fun, and made the most of a strange situation.

The Cop Field Game by John McGrath, Esq.

"Game 2" featured a large contingent of first timers on the vistor's squad and a fair number of MBC regs on the homer squad. Johnny pitched the whole game for the homers and Ed caught. Johnny pitched great and even struck out the side in the early going.

Noah pitched for vistors and did a great job with Tim and Nero sharing the catching, but unfortunately for him Rich hit him hard, getting at least 2 triples and there was some generous D behind him. Chirs Powell also had a timely hit and so did Johnny and Duane.

Loren-the-birthday-boy, (yes, it was his actual birthday) took over for him in about the 6th and was impressive. He had about 4 pitches going (fastball, curve, slide and knuckle) and slowed down the homers scoring big time. He even struck Rich out after a 8 to 10 pitch at bat.

Johnny kept the homers off the bases for most of the game and along with some pretty good D (there may have been only a 2 or 3 Es by the homers the whole game), pretty much cruised to a win with the homes in front the whole way. This author does not recall the exact score, but thinks it was something like 7 to 4, or maybe 10 to 6.

As far as new guys (first timers) it seemed like there was as least 4 to 5. One of them, Will, played with Sean at Evergreen. They all seemed like real nice guys and were solid players and it was a fun game.

Highlights:

* Liam got a legit single, whacking a knuckler from Loren the opposite way down the 3rd base line well past the 3rd baseman. (He also hit one over his old man's head, who apparently wasn't giving that 8 year old the respect he deserves. The little upstart nearly got it to the outfield grass on the fly!)

* Rich's hitting and D 3rd.

* A 4-3 double play, doubling Loren off of first

* A few solid/ and very nearly completed attempts at some double plays by the homers (a 5-4-3 and a 6-4-3)

* Good outfield play by new guy Carter in center (making one run like crazy off the crack of the bat B line to snag a rope)

* Solid outfield play by Paul in right

* Loren's stop-the-scoring (for the most part) pitching

* Duane played a great 1st sack

* Loren's hitting, at least 3 ropes to the outfield

* Just in: Liam says that the new guy on 1st for the visitors was Loren's dad, who is 70. Could have fooled me. I would have put him at 60 at the most. He whacked a few pitches pretty hard (now we know were Loren gets it) and played a solid first with catcher's mitt!

I apologize if I left any other highlights out, but I don't have the same game recall as old Satch.

No apologies necessary, half the time I write out what I think happened, not what I know happened.

Just don't bring any new guys.

S. Paige

Dig this- The Ogres play baseball and music

2011-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Johnny Bartlett and Rick Kvoriak are in the grooviest band this side of Dracula's Castle. Catch them at Blondies next week.

In case you needed more convincing, here is them rocking the Theme from Unknown!

8/14/11- Cop Field

2011-08-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

It was a nice sunny day, a bit on the windy side, but nice. We had 20 people, the field was in alright shape, except for the infield, but we will get to that in a second. Sean started for the homers, and pitched a gem, really taking it to us with every pitch. Satch started for the visitors, and tried my best, but in the end, my best wasn't anywhere near good enough. We each scored one run in the first inning, and it seemed like maybe it wouldn't be as lopsided as we thought it was going to be.

The second inning was my crucible, we had a rough one, a lot of players out of there natural positions, some hurt, and the rest was the up to the bashers that made up the home squad. 5 runs later, we finally got the 3rd out, and limped off. From there, we shut down the homers for four innings, with a couple of 6-pitch innings, which was awesome. We couldn't score a run or even get a base runner to save our lives though. Sean just kept out team off balance, and had a number of strike outs. I don't usually try to point out my own exploits too much, but I think the whole game, the visitors had about 7 hits, and I had three of them....

Jason came in to pitch after Sean had to leave to take a friend home, and we thought we might have a chance. But Jason was too wild and in danger of hurting his arm so he gave the ball up after an inning and handed off to Tony, who took it the rest of the way home. I kept threw the CG, and had one other inning where the homers jumped on me for 4 runs. Sean came back and promptly made a long running catch in left to fuck us over some more.

The biggest excitement and scariest moment came when Tony hit a knuckle ball for a dipsy grounder to third. Mike Gaspar tried to play the hop, it jigged then jagged on him and then hit him square between the eyes. It sounded terrible, but the main shock was absorbed by his glasses frame. The damage was minimal, a few skinny cuts and some blood and Mike taped it up with Bob's help, and ended up covering defense for both teams. Instant Hall of Fame, Mike! Glad you are alright!

We lost three players in the course of the game, so by the end, I went from batting 6th to 3rd. We went down with nary a whimper in the 9th, the final score 10-3.

Highlights:

* Glad Gaspar is living to fight another day, we should stock up on a real first aid kit, and maybe start bringing a small ice chest just in case.

* Sean pitched a great game and hit the piss out of two change ups

* Paul made a great catch to snuff out a rally

* The homers made the most of our mistakes, and got some timely hits

* Bob got hit by Jason, who we didn't even tell about the tradition. We got him back....

* Bob also had a great hit to start the game.

* Earlier, Gaspar had a 13 pitch at bat that ended with him on second!

* Nick, the ex-Dirtbag, had two real nice plays at 3rd

* Lets all remember to get the ball in quickly, it doesn't help anyone to hold on to it in the outfield

* Mitch robbed a couple of batters, doing what he does best, and had a nice wristed hit

* A lot of pop ups, which is good for a pitcher, unfortunately, not all caught, which is bad for a pitcher

* Adam had a long hit, as did Sean, Greg, Duane, Paul, Tony....

* The knuckleball got me some much needed outs, and I could have thrown it for 7 more innings

* There was another new guy who seemed to know what he was doing, but he left before the end, hopefully he will be back when he can stay longer

* Dennis' ankle flared up, hopefully a small issue, take it slow and steady on the rehab!

* I had two singles, and both times, I was put out at second on ground balls immediately afterwards. I guess I should start stealing more

* Elvin got thrown out at second, did the splits, and kept his foot on the bag. We'll keep working on that one.

* Thanks to everyone that showed after a SQ game, glad that we were not short handed for once.

Don't look back.

S. Paige

8/13/11- MBC vs. SQ A's

2011-08-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

I wasn't there, and I don't know much other than Brian Phelps hit two home runs! A solo shot in the first and a three run blast in the fifth. He was left in the batters circle with the bases loaded in the 9th.

Finally a lefty uses the SQ field to his advantage!

MBC lost, which we don't really take to heart anymore, but I also hear that Red and Johnny Bad Ass made their debuts with the A's.

S. Paige

8/7/11- Camp Swampy

2011-08-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

I was late making it out, and by the time I got there,, the game was already in full swing. Johnny was pitching for the homers, and they were making him regret that decision. Or that is what it looked like from my perspective. The homers were populated with some old timers, including Tony Rojas, who made it back after a long stint on the DL. Good to see him!

Sean, the southpaw samurai was dealing for the visitors, and though he lacked the top end of the mph on his fast ball, he was getting the outs he needed to. In deference to my lateness and for the love of the game (worst baseball movie ever) I stepped up to the plate, both figuratively and literally, knocked a grounder up the middle, took second on a pass ball, took third, and scored on Richie Garcia's ball to the right side of the infield. That's how you scrap a run, and win the trust of your teammates.

We went back and forth for a few innings, Sean bowed out to Brian Phelps, who looked good, but was suffering from some residual knee pain. Mike Lattig then took over to throw the late innings. Satch took the bump from the capable hands of Johnny in the 6th or so, and threw the rest of the game. A few bad hops and then some long drives, and the visitors were riding us like a carousel, but we persevered, and at least tried to keep it close.

The score by that point was some where in the neighborhood of 14-8, which is insurmountable to anyone except a MBC'r. As fate would have it, this game was also Jacob Brisken's last before he returned to Boston for school and Dennis had pleaded with us to let him pitch and Jacob catch. It's tough to watch an old man beg, so we agreed and out Dennis went, after confirming that Jacob was wearing a cup this time (he took one in the beans a few weeks ago. Apparently they don't teach that lesson in college these days).

Satch was the first person up to face Dennis, and what does he do, hits me in the arm! What the hell? And then he tells me he was going to put it in my ear! Of all the nerve! Big man when he's got his hulk of a kid behind me.

So then I got a hit, and then the next guy got a hit, and Dennis is bitching to his kid about how he isn't calling strikes, and we are all trying to tell Dennis that you have to throw strikes for them to be called. All this time, there was one person who was not happy with the decision, Mitch, who stood out in left field watching victory be bled away from him. Amazingly, we tie up the game, and with the bases loaded, Tony on 3rd, and the win in our hands....Greg hits a short fly to left, and Mitch does what he does best, which is catch the ball. Extra innings. Legit.

Duane bunts the first pitch he sees, and takes second, and then Mitch steps up, fouls off a few, and then lunges for a knuckleball, drives it to center. Of course it rolls past the center fielder, and Mitch moonwalks home for a 2 run homerun. Fitting. All the wind goes out of our sails, and we lose 16-14.

Highlights:

* Not the weather, it was foggy and gross

* The outfield got mowed, did Adam make a call?

* I respect Duane's bunt. That's baseball.

* Knuckleball was working!

* Sean brought blueberries, which were exquisite.

* Did anyone get Jacob a going away present? Shit.

* Paul had some nice catches in right

* Bad hops in the infield

* The dirtbag, Nick and his brother Jay came out again, had some frustration at the plate

* Someone hit one real far, maybe even two someone's

* Liam and Aiden each had some good knocks

* John Mcg was the unfortunate recipient of the best curveball I have thrown in 2011

* I liked Dennis' admonition of Jacob on a pitch that was two feet outside, " Jacob, you gotta call that!" Jacob's response, " I thought I did."

* There were two double plays turned by the visitors!

Cop Field, 3pm.

S. Paige

Late Report- 7/24/11- West Sunset

2011-08-08T16:20:00.002-07:00

Satch was working a freelance gig on Sunday, at a vegan non-alcoholic wedding. Don't ask. Mike Gaspar made it to the game and he filed this report.

IT was a nice day at the corner of 41st and Quintara. The field was being used by what looked like another pick up game as we assembled. Johnny took the hill for the homers, while Dustin started for the visiting squad. The visiting team had a bit more punch on this particular day. By the fourth inning it was 5-1. The homers rallied and in the 5th, had a bases loaded no out situation. Dustin got out of it unscathed thanks in large part to the defense of Greg and Richie who were "borrowed" right fielders. Richie made a great catch which turned into a double play when Johnny was tagged out at the plate trying to tag up.

Having snuffed out the rally, the visitors added on more runs. By the 7th it was 9-2, I came into relieve Dustin and give the other team a chance to smack some balls around. And then did, in particular, Dennis, Nick and John Mcg. Two runs were scored.

Greg came into relieve Johnny and gave up a few runs of his own. Finally Mike Lattig came into pitch the bottom of the 9th. The homers did not go without a fight and managed to tack on a few more runs. Final score: 13-6 (more or less).

Highlights:

* Richie made a great stab in the 3rd, robbing Duane of a double.

* Dustin pitched a strong 6 and had everything working

* Jacob had a good day at the plate including a double over his old man's head

Injury: Rick went out on the D.L in the first 10 minutes of the game with a bad hammy (get better big fella!)

7/17/11- West Sunset?

2011-07-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

Satch was out of town, up in the mountains trying to catch fish and avoid hangovers. I failed at both. Here with his first blog entry for the Mission Baseball Club, is John McGrath, Esq.

Only about a dozen MBC guys showed, but another group of skater/surfer/punk type were finishing up their informal game. greg commented that they were the MBC 10 years ago. they joined in and we 9 v. 9. greg pitched the whole game for the visitors and johnny pitched the first 6 or 7 for the homers, then sean relieved him.

The initial feeling was that the visitors would crush the homers since we had rich and mitch and more MBC regs than the other side, so mitch was traded. however, the game was really, really close and the homers lead most of the way, until about the 7th or 8th when the visitors broke it open. final score 11 to 7 or so.

Highlights:

rich played a great center field (catching balls in right once they were lost in the sun by the rightfielder). he also made some great plays at SS and, as SS took a cutoff from the left fielder to nail a guy going to third.

ker played solidly on the right side of the infield both at SS and 3rd.

jacob hit well and caught an inning or two (w/o a cup!)

johnny pitched well

rich hit a homer with the bases loaded and liam, age 8, was a pinch runner at 3rd, so probably the youngest person to officially score in an MBC game

mitch made some awesome catches in center, a sliding grab on a short one and running stab on a gapper, in addition to catching everything else that came his way

if, i don't say so myself, JohnMcG hit the ball hard and well, 3 for 5, w/ 3 being hard liners to the outfield, 2bls and single

ker and jacob both hit a bomb

the other dudes hit a lot of solid singles and were not easy outs

ed caught for the visitors

the other team dudes were awesome to play with, totally displaying the same type of spirit and attitude treasured by the MBC

sean hit well too (at least one long gapper), and hit one to left w/ the shift on

greg beared down in the later innings the hitting by the other side turned into a trickle, he also was hurt by "generous" D in the early going

i am sure there are some more good things to mention, but my memory, w/ 3 kids ain't what it was

Same game, same place, same time

S. Paige

Swampy Footage

2011-07-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here was how the game ended in the sloppiest game ever, fittingly.

7/14/11- MBC vs. San Quentin Giants

2011-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

Once more through the gates of doom, to the field of battle.

Well, maybe that its being a bit melodramatic, but what the hell, you only go to SQ so many times, right? We gathered again in the parking lot on Thursday night to see what we could do against the Giants. Our wait was short, the guard was different, and they had a whole new procedure for ID's, again....

In any case, we got in and warmed up, the right field was extra sloppy, and the grounds crew was just starting to rake nad prepare the field. We knew we weren't getting 9. Greg pitched in to help chalk the lines, we spoke with Junkyard who was once again behind the dish, got the low down and then it was game time.

They had the same big righty pitching and he had the same stuff. Decent fastball, enough of a curve to screw us up, and a really hard and heavy knuckleball. He was also helped by the wide and low stroke zone of the Junkyard.

In a bit of sad news, we were disappointed that both Red and Johnny Badass quit the team earlier that week, after a drubbing by some junior college team. It sounded like there was a lot more to the story, but in any case, they will be missed, as they were the guys that we had gotten to know the most. I am glad that Red got to hit my changeup well before he left the squad.

Sean went 4 innings for us, and did well, despite an awful 1st inning that saw 6 runs come across on about 3 hits. I think everyone contributed to making it the most error filled inning in quite a while. Sean composed himself as a gamer, and pitched through it. We all settled down and the errors dried up to the usual assortment. Satch came in for one inning of relief, and never quite settled down.

We had one hit after three innings, which was pretty embarrassing, but we finally got into the mood, and Brian Phelps once again provided the scoring, complete with his usual SQ base running ugliness. Luckily this time, he did score, it just took a while for it to happen. Jimmy and Stoner and Gaspar are officially retired as 3rd base coaches, and the rest of us are on notice.

Once we had one run on the board, we all relaxed and enjoyed the game. They pulled their starter and brought in a some guy who had a real spaghetti arm delivery. We took advantage of that, as well the errors that the Giants started to make, and suddenly we had the makings of a good rally in the 6th. With two outs, Chris popped up to the infield, but it dropped out of the pitcher's glove, who was stumbling backwards, and Satch came up with 2 men on. I barely got a foul ball out of play, to stay alive, and then hit a long foul ball that would have been a homerun, if it had stayed fair. I figured I wasn't going to get that pitch again, so I hit the next one up the middle and over the glove of Mario at SS. Somehow, it picked up speed and went into the gap. I was rounding second around and they still had not reached the ball, so I figured I would try for third. Immediately afterwards, I thought to myself, What the fuck am I doing. But I was committed, so I slid as wide and big as could to block the incoming ball, and had myself a triple. Phew.

I ended up stranded at 3rd, and we lost the game 9-4. Handshakes and hugs all around. Off to the Marin Brewing Company for burgers and lots of pitchers.

Highlights:

* Sean deserved a better game and also was being squeezed by Junk all day

* Gaspar hit a double down the third base line, too bad for them that they don't know about the shift.

* Chris had a play at home that featured five people around home plate, Sean, Greg, Junk, the first runner and the second runner. He fired it into the crowd and Greg took it off the wrist.

* For some reason we were delayed for several minutes cuz Junk scratched his arm

* Nick had a great dig at first to save a run

* Cagle saved my ass at second, when I got a hot grounder then fired the ball into the dirt

* Greg had a guy nailed on a pitchout to second. The umpire didn't think so. We did.

* The field umpire was really walking the vague line, he would point, but then make no gesture of safe or out.

* I think Jimmy got hit on a 3-1 count. That's the SQ way....

* Ed continued his SQ streak of RBI's

* For every line drive we hit, there was a man positioned in just the right spot. For every weak pop they had, we were no where to be seen. Sean thinks they got a book on us.

* I overheard from the SQ Giants dugout that they "love playing us, we are all great guys and good fun." It helps that we allow them to pummel us everytime.

* Whoever took the pictures, please forward to me, so I can post.

Next game is August, unless we can squeeze one in.

S. Paige

7/10/11- Camp Swampy

2011-07-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

What a terrible game. It was windy, not enough people, and a sloppy, sloppy game.

The final score was 14-7 or 19-6 depending on who you asked.

Highlights:

* Mitch pitched for the first time in a while, and looked good, too bad he didn't get any help

* Greg pitched the whole game for the other team, and did a great job

* Daniel had a couple of good cracks, had some trouble in center field and entertained everyone with his Canadian quirkiness

* Liam had another good day at the plate and it the knuckleball

* Adam showed up after an appendectomy and took lots of footage, get well soon!

* Jake had a homerun, missed a pop up he was camped out under, then moved to SS for some reason and then left early without telling anyone, hmmmm.

* Nick changed teams to balance us out, thanks Nick!

* Jimmy came back and brought a friend who had some trouble at the plate (as we all did at first) but looked like he knew what he was doing

* Paul did a lot of running in left field for an inning

* Mitch was hung over, fiery, and hating the game by the end.

* Bob HBP +1, he also swung so hard that he fell over

* I think we shorted ourselves by an inning, and no one cared.

Into SQ tomorrow for another square-off with the Giants.

S. Paige

7/3/11- West Sunset- 4th of July

2011-07-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!

Our BBQ and double header went off without a hitch, we had countless people playing, I think the player count high was 15-15 in the first game. Bob and John were out raking and watering the field when I got there, and we dropped some extra clay in the mound. By the time we started the game, the trickle of players had become a flood. It is a funny thing to hear every inning that the only people who didn't sit were the pitcher and catcher.

Johnny started for the homers and pitched well, Satch went for the visitors and did about the same. The warm sun was nice on the shoulders and the mph of the fastball was a little higher than usual.

The visitors took the lead and held it, keeping the homers from scoring for several innings. All shut outs must and do come to and end, and this was no exception. After five innings, it wasn't fair to stay in the game while others weren't able to, so I bowed out and let Dustin take over to get the rest of the game, before he got too heated on booze and sun.

The play of the game was made by John Nero who was playing shortstop, not his natural position (but one of 8 that he played for the day) who went to his left to get a ground ball, extended out and grabbed it, and then as he passed second, pulled off the perfect flip to the bag to get the 3rd out. Amazing. The game never got close, but the homers fought a good fight, just like our ancestors at Lexington and Concord.

BBQ:

Grass Fed Beef from Bob. A great bunch of Tri-Tip from Jake. Boudine Sausages from Johnny, Spicy veggie bean burgers from Cagle, and assorted goodies and sides from the rest of the players, and we were all in BBQ heaven. Thanks to those who brought grills and charcoal, and to Nero who brought the beans I had requested, and I ate my share!

Game 2:

The teams switched up a bit, and Sean showed up and was warm by the time the game was ready, and headed in to throw. He pitched well, and was looking sharp, but our bats were just too potent and our luck was there too. Greg started the second game for us, and looked real sharp. Both lasted through the first five, and then I took the bump again for the visitors and John Carey came on to pitch for the homers.

We had extra special guest umpire of Brian Phelps for the second game, which made it all the more exciting, especially with his official clothes and demeanor. He called a great game, and helped us all to stay on track, as the beer and the heat took over. Tim, who I guess was on the DL, also umpired, doing the field, and at one point arguing with Loren about the chair he had set up past the bag.

We had some people leave and we had a few others show up, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

The final of the second game was 12-3, visitors.

Highlights:

* Special thanks to all those who helped get the field ready, especially Paul, who came out on Saturday to start the work.

* John Nero, 8 positions, 1 man.

* Bob Carey threw out his own son on a steal attempt. I thought he might have been safe, but he slid past the bag to avoid the tag, and was off the backside of the base. Either way.

* Speaking of John Carey, he pitched great. He also rang me up on a questionable third strike in the first game.

* Lattig came out, after battling a fever, and played as well. Then enjoyed some sun in right field.

* Jon McG, Liam and Aiden all had good days at the plate

* Brian Phelps was the winner of the A.O.Y Bad Sportsman award. We are all proud of him, and hope that he takes it with same class and stature that he handles himself with in every game, playing hurt, umpiring, safety meeting coordinating, the list just goes on!

* Dennis made his first appearance in the field since the broken ankle and didn't re-injure himself,which we were all happy to see

* I pitched around Loren for three straight counts, and he finally got a ripping single off the wall

* Tony came out in his civvies, and then, of course, decided he wanted to bat, and hit a double.

* Some hard come backers were all gobbled up by the pitchers

* Rich and Mitch were on the same team for the first game, and batted one after another. That probably wasn't fair

* Mitch was an asset offensive and defensively all day, including a Rickey run, where he stole two bases and came home on a passed ball

* Greg and didn't quite work out the 1st and 3rd situation, resulting in a thrown ball that at least didn't hit me

* My buddy George, who had not been involved in anything baseball related since he was 9, played both games, made some good plays in the outfield and got on base by the end of the day, thanks for the fun, George!

* Bob took one off the shoe in the first game, to make it official

* Noah helped me in the second game, giving me some good advice from third base, and we were all happy that he walked the line this year, more so than last year.... :)

* Ben showed up again, and oversaw all of the field work, including the hose team

* JT and his younger daughter were both out and having fun. The swing is right on, just needs to make contact!

* Jay brought out some pictures, his arm was hurting him so he just hung out and enjoyed the vibe, thanks for the pics and the support

* I have probably forgotten a lot of things, so let me know what should be added, Thanks to all who showed, hope it was a great time, I know I had fun

S. Paige

6/24/11- San Quentin Giants vs. MBC

2011-06-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

The 3rd game grudge match.

We were losing 3-0 most of the game it felt like.

We battled our way back to 3-3. Fucking A!

Then we lost it again, and the final was 6-3.

We had talked about playing the last 2 innings of the game we had a few weeks back. They were stoked that we remembered.

We did it. We lost another game, in less than proud style.

We shook hands and walked out.

Beers and burgers for most, and back into Saturday afternoon.

Highlights:

* Johnny Badass had an unscheduled visitor and couldn't play. And was apparently kinda pissed about having to the miss the game. We missed him.

* Red finally caught up with the change up and I thought had one gonzo, but it fell just short.

* They bunted for hits about 5 times.

* We were bummed to have Elvin and Tim turned away. Hopefully you guys can get in later this summer, I am happy to give you my spot for a game....Elvin, we passed your name, stats and contact information around the yard, so you can have some legal side work to keep you sharp....

* Another guy who I have owned in the past with the changeup, came up big at the plate in an RBI situation

* Kent's fucking number/sign thing is way old already

* It was great to come back and tie up a game.

* The wind blew a pop up about 15 feet off course

* Johnny Bartlett had a stellar game at SS, with at least 6 or 7 plays

* Loren continued the string of lefty sluggers we have, that can't hit the ball 260 feet once they are inside the Q.

* Phelps went from injured assistant coach to being involved in about every play, he had a great double (erp.....) and made a daring attempt to score. Some good plays in the outfield, which was appreciated. Hope the knee heals.

* Nate came in after probably not picking up a bat for a couple of years, he and the old man batted back to back. That's the Coors Light heartwarming moment of the game.

* The umpire was the old guy who rang us up on the field a bit too many times last game. But he warned us that his strike zone was 2 inches off in each direction. He called a lot of shoestring outside pitches. I think he had trouble with his left eye, 'cuz he didn't call that side of the plate the entire game, regardless of who was up. Didn't catch the foul off the leg either. Or didn't care.

* The A's seem to be the team that everyone wants to play on now.

In any case, it was a good time, some good baseball was played, some bad baseball was played, and we all came out in the same condition that we came in.

S. Paige

5/22/11- Camp Swampy late inning write-up

2011-06-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Ed asked that this be included, so as to be saved in posterity. Thanks Ed!- SP

I wanted to drop a line about the 5/22/11 Camp swampy game before its gets
lost to the ages. Mostly I want to give a shout out to Mike Gaspar and Duane for
being super great guys that day.

Its been longer than I can reasonably be expected to remember, but with a very
thin crew we got 9 innings in.

It became apparent early that there was only two people there that regularly
pitch, Greg and Tony. We spent a great deal of time deciding how to play, when
Mike Gaspar and Duane volunteered. I think Mitch did too, but was not needed.

Mike Gaspar went 5 innings I think (plus or minus) and kept the opposition
guessing. he threw tons of strikes and got a few swings and misses. As I
recall there was one bad inning but the rest were great.

He gave way to duane who went for a couple of innings, mostly uneventful which
is good for a pitcher. Just as with Mike, he threw hard and threw strikes.

Johnny came after leaving the bay bridge game when the A's blew the lead. He
finished the game.

ed

6/26/11 West Sunset

2011-06-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day, another great game, another great turnout.

Satch and Noah faced off in a classic match, however, having thrown five in SQ the day before, I was not looking for a marathon. Noah, on the other hand, having to live up to the profile, again went the distance for the homers, and he caught seven in SQ the day before by the way....

Mr. Brian Phelps umpired the game, and did a great job, took a few off the body, thanks to Noah for the clicker. Phelps was fresh off a rehabbed knee that he reinjured in SQ when he took the extra base twice (2nd and Home!) and got tagged both times.....You are a true competitor, Phelpsie. Then he stayed after and threw batting practice to Liam ( who is about a year and change away from taking John Carey's mantle of Youngest MBC player) and Aiden (a great little ballplayer) and off course hit Aiden, who's just a lil' guy...what a jerk...(Editors Note: ha ha). It was worth it when we got Aiden to stop crying by telling him to rub dirt on it, he was all about that!

Anyway, a tip of the cap to you sir.

We had 20, good mixture, Rich and Mitch mirrored each other on defense for each team, and the rest of us just tried not to hit to either of them. The homers were out for blood, having a lot of new guys on their squad. The visitors had a strong old guy presence, and in true fashion we lost with honor. Greg took over for us, and pitched great, I re-entered the game to throw an inning to work on something, and turned a 10-9 game into a joke. Noah, really hammering me as of late, got a bases loaded jack that cleared them all. Well, I at least worked out the arm thing I was trying to do.

We played 11, giving the home team their last ups, even though the score was 14-10 ( or worse) in their favor. Too bad for you guys that didn't make it. But that's your thing (Not you Tony, we are all hoping the knee is healing, and you can make it out soon, you are missed.)

Highlights:

* Noah, doing it all. Cap tip.

* Bob, who was also injured, played, re-injured, kept playing. Love ya Bob.

* The new guy who Bob brought out hit a home run, sorry for blanking on the name, but it was a hell of a hit.

* Rich, in addition to the screaming line drives and impeccable defense at SS, hit the furthest ball yet, it was foul, but still.

* Duane hit another triple!!!!

* Richie made it back, and had a good one

* Jay had two or three hits to the right of SS, and the entire time was cursing his terrible luck as he ran up the base paths

* Paul made a nice running catch and came up big when needed

* Ed once again proved to be an RBI machine, and as Greg said, really didn't try if there wasn't anyone on...

* Johnny was missing, and presumed hungover. Great show Johnny and Rick Ogre!

* Jon McG had a tough game on defense, but had some very well struck balls and the inside track call-wise with Liam umpiring first base.

* Thanks to Ed, Greg, Adam, Gaspar for catching

* Gaspar broke the shift up with a line drive up the middle

* Let's all remember, When hitting, the proper method for getting out of the way of a ball is to turn your body away from the ball. Don't try to catch it.

* We got out of a couple of dark looking innings in classy fashion.

* Editors note: Last week my father-in-law (who is a Yorkshireman) asked if it was baseball tradition for the old fellows to be in the outfield? Ha ha. If you play for the MBC, it is.

This week. Double header and BBQ. You know where.

S. Paige

Player Profile #17- Noah Bowling

2011-06-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

Since he has made the blog exploits several times in the last few months, I wanted to make sure he was well represented in the MBC lore. Noah is a true workhorse, he can pitch 12, he can catch 12, he can hit, he can run (kinda...it depends on how much of the rest of the stuff he has been doing), and he has come in with us to San Quentin several times, which means he has a strong constitution.

Noah's specialty is to wear down a team with a heavy ball that he throws to off set his breaking stuff. He usually isn't challenging any air speed records, but that makes him harder to hit. Its like 9 different kinds of change ups, some of which break, some of which don't, some of which knuckle, some of which come at your head. You never know, and after 9 innings, you can come up to the plate against him and see three pitches that you haven't seen the whole game. I respect that.

Catching-wise, Noah is solid. I think he and Greg are the two that really prefer to be behind the dish, they just seem at home there (nyuck nyuck). Noah has the greatest framing ability I have seen yet, even on pitches wildly out of the strike zone. He calls a good game, he has his own gear, and he will take one in the throat if he needs to.

As a Rhode Island native, Noah is all about the Boston Red Sox, but we try not to hold that against him. Rumor has it he was voted the best ballplayer in Rhode Island in the early 90's, but you would have to ask him about that.

Noah has style, he drives a cool car (to replace the other cool car that we don't want to talk about...), has all the baseball gear you could ever want and has the natural balance of a ball player. He also coaches the Urban Blues, along with his Jameson battery mate Dustin Skiles, and if you ever get a chance to go to a game, its a lot of fun to watch young ballplayers learning the game.

He is an avid follower of the blog, and has been since the beginning. For a while, he was the only person brave enough to say he was following it. We are now at 12 people! Mostly, Noah is just a good fucking person, and that is what we look for in a MBC regular.

Noah, its always a pleasure. Except when you are lighting me up, as you have been in the last few months....well, even then, its still pretty cool.

S. Paige

6/19/11 West Sunset

2011-06-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Nice, huh?

We had 20, we had fans, we had Fathers with iron clad excuses to play ball, we had perfect to almost really hot weather, and we had baseball.

Satch and Johnny squared off in a duel to begin, and the warm weather was working. As was the change up. Had a few K's. Johnny had a few K's.

The game got into the scoring business early, and the visitors took a strong lead into the middle of the game, somewhere in the 7-2 range. Then we tacked on a few more, and then it was 10-4, and the heat was growing. Johnny stayed a real trooper on the mound, and threw 9 strong.

Greg came in the 7th and threw the rest for the visitors, in a fashion behooving the deadly mop up man that he is, Noah, the workhorse, came in a did 2 for the homers, and had a couple of K's himself.

We dinked, they blooped, we booted, they scooted. I know I kicked a ground ball, and I wasn't the only one. By the end of the regular game, it was 14-19, and we played two more innings. So by the end of the whole thing, it was either 15-10, or 1-1, depending on if we had wiped it clean.

But the real MVP of the game was the weather, which especially for the West Sunset, was phenomenal.

Highlights:

* Happy Fathers Day! I had Mrs. Paige and the in-laws in from that far off destination Walnut Creek, have you heard of it? I heard they have some good travel packages if you ever want to jet away for a weekend....

* Johnny deserved a better game, but no one does it finer!

* Weird ground balls and skips all day

* Adam managed to psyche Lattig into hitting several opposite field hits, if that was his intention

* Elvin had an amazing barehanded play at third, web gem shit, seriously.

* Duane was denied a triple for the first time since April.

* Noah continued to hit the ball hard

* Jakob came out again, and made a great snatch in left, and had a couple of hits

* Bob showed, nursing an injured side, get well soon! You see what happens when you try to help the youth of today!

* I took one in the side, since Bob was out. Tip my cap to you, Sir.

* Stoner got another 6 hour pass, and was frustrated at the plate most of the day, except for one wallop, however made a couple of great catches in the outfield. You can't always have it all, but its nice to have a little of everything!

* Nice to see Richie out again, who did what Richie does best on the basepaths

* Jason making it two in a row as well, and looking good at all positions and had himself a roundtripper, the hard way

* JT had the unfortunate luck of being the bloop guy in left, but he also made a couple of much needed catches

* Rick was nursing some sort of injury, but played most of the game.

* All my hard hit balls were caught and all my high pop flies were hits, you tell me how to feel about that

* We almost doubled off a runner, but I forgot how many outs there were, and admired that I hadn't been killed by the ball. Noah, much more of a professional, got his double play.

* I have crowned Ed officially an RBI man. He is the guy you want hitting in a tight spot with runners on. Adam has crowned him Eddie Spaghetti

* Fourth of July is coming up.

* John Mcg had a strong hit(s)

* Greg continued his headhunting ways, hitting Adam in the noggin, and coming close with three others. Who knew Greg was such a jerk?

* Thanks to Gaspar, Greg, Ed, Adam, Noah for catching

Don't know where.

S. Paige

June 2 San Quentin Pics

2011-06-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here through the magic of photo shop is our team that tied the SQ Giants. Thanks to Johnny for the pics, the artistry of digital manipulation, and being the bon vivant that he is.

6/12/11 West Sunset

2011-06-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late posting, I was back home this week, cleaning out the storage shed and enjoying the 95 degree weather.

A classic match up on Sunday, with Satch and Sean Paul Presley back in form and dealing. But unlike the usual Sean pitching time, we didn't have 14 K's and no runs. It was a lively game, sparked by the occasional big hit, but for the most part, it was infield hits and timely errors that made the difference.

We also had a glut of new faces, almost to the point that we needed to say something about not advertising this game to every person you know who knows what a baseball is (Brisken, we are looking in your direction.) But Tim, the other new Dennis guy looked like he knew what he was doing, and he and Sean combined for a double and home run in the first inning, which was interesting. Tim then took over pitching duties in the 8th and shut down the home team for the rest of the game (we played 12).

Satch bowed out the same time that Sean did, given the 12-13 man rosters, so that we could take our turn at the bench, and Greg came into mop up. Amazingly, at the time, the score was tied 6-6, and some might say it had been a pitchers duel, if you can have high scoring pitchers duels?

In any case, it didn't stay tied forever, and the visitors started to move slow and steadily away and into the winners column. By the end, it might have been 12-7? But maybe it just felt that way after a good long sunny day of hard ball.

Highlights:

* A lot of new faces, and all the new guys were very polite, to the point that we had to start asking them to play defense, since they didn't want to take a position that someone else had designs on...

* Please, if you are going to play a position, know that you have enough basic skills to do so, we have had a lot of SS and 1st basemen recently who are missing easy plays, a good test, if you are only catching 50% of the balls at 1st base, don't play there. Its a dangerous position for you and the runner, because if you don't know what you are doing, and you step in the way of the runner, its your fault and there is going to be an ugly collision. Which doesn't help anyone.

* Sean hit another home run off me, a no doubter, and then followed with a double off the wall. One of these days...

* Richie made it back out, and then had the unfortunate task of being in right field for a entire line up's worth of hits in the sun, and all over the place drops.

* Rob came out again finally, and had 3 infield hits, which is his specialty. Also played a good center field, including a last second leap to catch a long line drive

* Outfielders lets all remember that your first steps on a ball are back not forward

* I was Mitched again, he caught a ball right before the wall at the 356 mark. Mitch!

* JT won a great battle in a RBI situation, with a nice crack up the middle. Nice Work JT!

* It was a pretty good defensive game, again

* Bob got hit twice in the same at bat, although the first one was a real sissy slap of a HBP.

* Duane hit another triple! Someone call Guinness!

* Doc showed up, limping from a recent motorcycle accident. We all recommended that he give up the iron horse, as we all did years ago. Get well soon Doc!

* Thanks to Bob, Greg, Gaspar, Adam and Ed for catching.

* Gaspar threaded the needle again though the Gaspar shift for a hit, it's like watching the ballet

* Jacob is indeed Dennis' clone, as he states, mostly because they both have the curious talent for not enough sock and not enough pants to join up, leaving that strip of skin around the lower knee.

* Special thanks to Johnny for starting the day in Chicago, and making it to the game. That is what we refer to as "heart."

Same place, same time.

S. Paige

Update: I guess I am the Asshole.

2011-06-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

This just in from Elvin, who is vouching for the purity of Sean's home run.

"the homerun ball was pre maturely stuck in the tree. it was prevented from clearing the fence. It was a homerun. (Ed. Note: emphasis added)

We were able to get the ball down with another ball.

So I guess I am the guy with the problem now, I mean, other than the fact that I gave up a righteous donger in a close game.....well it made for good copy anyway.

See you Sunday, hopefully we will know where at some point.

S. Paige

6/5/11- West Sunset

2011-06-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

The games after a SQ visit are often strange....and the weather proved to fit well into that equation. Muggy. Damp. Sweaty. Cold? Windy. All of these factored into a great pair of games, one regular, one exhibition.

Most of us thought there would be no game on Sunday, due to the tropical storms that moved through on Saturday, but the message came through from Greg that the field was in fine shape, and it was! It was as if someone had just watered real well a few hours earlier.

The teams broke off, and it looked as though the homers might have the edge, but it was a day of irregulars, and nothing was certain. Noah took the bump for the visitors, and pitched the entire day. Note I did not say game, match or situation. I said day. 12 innings for the big workhorse, and his last five pitches might have been harder than his first five. It's just how he do. And not only did he work his soup bone like a champ, he earned himself two victories....ooops, did I just give away the whole thing? Am I talking to myself here? Hello?

Well, fuck it, Noah deserves it.

The game itself was the usual back and forth affair. Satch started for the homers and threw a decent 10 innings, and I think managed to garner both losses, although Johnny says that we tied it up in the 2nd game, when he was pitching. Real gentleman to throw himself on that grenade, but we'll just leave it at, I got beat. I felt good, threw lots of junk, got the pitches I needed to, but there were a lot of balls that the other squad jumped all over. Sometimes its like that.

Round about the fourth inning, we had scratched our way back to a close game, and Sean decides to haul off and whale one into McCovey trees, in right. That was the first home run I wasn't trying to give up, in a while. I found out later that the ball had actually become lodged in the trees in front of the fence. That smells like a dead ball, ground rule double to me?

Greg said something about rafters, but, I ask you, can you really justify citing rules that are based upon covered stadium/Dome instances? That's like saying you figured out the key to perpetual motion is to just build a machine that runs forever. All filler-no fact, in other words.

It was a hell of knock.

Noah, proving that he was in fact George Herman Ruth for the day, also added a couple of really hard hit balls, one I believe for a triple, which I at least got to enjoy watching him wear out his legs running.

The visitors employed the bloop scenario and then capitalized on those which extra base hits and the old fashioned shitty fielding option. The homers tried to hit the ball too hard, and usually it was right at someone.

So the first game ended in a score settled by one run, I believe 6-5 was the final.

We took the field for the second game, wiped the slate clean, and then the visitors picked right up where they had left off and scored a bunch of runs. I bowed out, Bartlett came in to stop the bleeding as best he could, and we lost the second game by a margin more like 7-3.

Highlights:

* Noah deserves the game ball(s) and a shot of Jameson.

* Duane hit another triple, its getting to be a thing with him.

* The defense on both sides was pretty good, some bad hops and bounces, but for the most part, people made the plays

* I made a bonehead running play, not going home on a 1 out ground ball. I am nervous about full steam home plate collisions. By collisions, I mean of course, tripping over the plate and hitting my face on the back stop. The catcher should know better than to be anywhere close by as that happens.

* Ed and Greg caught the entire game for the teams!

* I got to run the first and third play that I love, the runner on first takes off, hopefully inducing a balk (which we don't count, but which did happen, for the record, Noah :)) So then you get in a pickle and hope that the guy on third gets a good enough lead to make a dash for home. Well, Noah knows what to do, and they let me go once Adam got too far off. But I got to steal second, and run the ol' ruse.

* Dennis and his kid Jacob came out, glad to see the ankle is rehabbing well, we all wish him luck with that. Jacob seems like a good kid, and has the ability to hit the ball hard and make a catch when it counts. Dennis, if you are out there, I would advise not talking to him or trying to give him pointers while he is at bat. The at-bat you were somewhere else, he hit a nasty pitch for a double....just saying, let the natural talents to come about.

* Chris and I were talking about his knack for catching over the shoulder plays from SS. He and Phelps used to practice it when they were kids. In any case, of course, the first one of the day he lets get away from him. Damn, I should have kept my mouth shut. Well, he got another opportunity later and made it. Whew!

* Rich proved to be mortal at the plate for once. Played a great center field though

* Paul made a really nice grab out in left field too and waxed poetic about the Yankee front office in the 50's and 60's (His mom worked there!)

* Adam attempted to throw everyone off their game by saying their name really loud after they hit the ball (...now I don't want to say the neighborhood has changed but....)

* Sean made a great stretch at 1st, and looked good for a man that went five hard at the Q. Why can't you get that kind of hit in there!

* Lattig was fresh off a plane from Paris, and made the plays but wasn't quite the 5 tool player he usually is. Who is after two weeks in the City of Lights? Come, let us sit and smoke, stroke our thin mustaches, drink too much wine and talk of things that make us sad and joyful, like a broken-legged child at the beach.

* We had a strange scenario where we went home for a play with two outs. I think it worked, but strange

* Lets all remember to hit our cutoffs, not only is it the right thing to do but it saves your arms too! Rich, you are excused.

* Lets all remember to keep Bob flush in money, and we need to start planning the 4th of July double header, who's going to get the Bad Sportsmanship trophy? Start casting your ballots now.

Not sure where we are this week, but I know its potential for awesome is high.

S. Paige

6/2/11- MBC vs. SQ Giants

2011-06-05T03:12:00.000-07:00

First off, let me say that I am writing this review at 3 am, after going to see Peaches Christ at The Bridge, which brought us "Sleepaway Camp" tonight! Best movie ever, if you haven't seen it. ..

So, we lined up outside the gate and we waited....and waited. It ended up being one of those times when the guard was kind of a dick, and there was something obviously messed up with the count, and yet, there we sat, waiting.....

We got in by about 5:15, and quickly warmed up, and once again declined the infield and outfield in order to get the game started. And get it started we did, coming head to head with our favorite rivals the Giants. Yet, this time, it wasn't 18-0, after the second inning.

Sean Presley, rested and looking sharp despite the scruffy beard, was dominating on the hill. His shoulder may have been sore, but his heart and spirit were firmly in play when he took to the bump.

For once, we actually scored the first run, going ahead on Ed's clean ground ball up the middle. Way to go Ed, thanks for not flailing away as so many first timers will do. Doing the pitching for the Giants was Mario, who we have faced before, but never with this much riding on the stake of the game. His short arming days seem to be behind him, as he had a deceiving fastball and a wicked curve, when it was working.

Jimmy was given the mantle of lead off man, based on his last showing at the Q, but this time it wasn't his turn. The game was decided by the patient bats and the topsy turvy calls of the man behind the dish, Junkyard. Yes, the closer for the A's, was the man calling the balls and strikes. Or should we say strikes as he saw them...

The true heroes proved to be Stoner, Greg and others who took walks when they needed to, or made important sacrifices when the time was right. Of course, that is only part of the story. Chris Powell took at least 4 balls off the chest and stomach, and turned them into outs, which helped immensely.

In the end, we played 7, Satch came in and threw 6 pitches in relief for the 6th and then got cocky and gave up the tying run in the 7th. In the win column, at least I didn't give up a hit to Red or Johnny Badass. We were cut short by last bell, and not a man among us will disagree that we need to bring up the last 2 innings before we start anything new with the Giants. It's the principality of the thing....

The Marin Brewing company provided high quality after game service, as usual. But then again, I am the nice guy.

Highlights:

* Ed had his first SQ RBI and had the guy at third, if only we had appealed the call

* Solid defense for the whole game, most of the hits were legit

* The patience was great, when we got a nice string of walks for the go ahead

* Mario still had at least 6 strikeouts, including me, and with many a thanks to Junkyard who's strike zone was as expansive as his sentence

* We certainly took advantage of the right side, and no one got thrown out for not legging out the single to right field

* Two out rally baby!

* John McG and Ed played a great 2nd and got some key outs!

* Johnny Badass is so badass that he doesn't care about catchers interference, he'll take a bat on the arm for the team

* Stoner and Phelps are the lucky third base coaches, you want a run, get these guys coaching.

* Got a single with the War Hammer

* We had a couple of close plays at the plate, one where Johnny Bad ass was crashing hard and slid head first, was tagged out, then slapped the ball out of Greg's mitt just for fun, and one where Johnny Bartlett was out by a mile, and got a little high face action to cement the play.

* We picked a guy off at second to preserve the tie

* Jimmy ran so far to collect a ground rule double, we were worried he might come back with scars and a cellie.

* Small pine tar bottles are illegal. Large water bottles are fine. If you can provide a good explanation why, you might be able to run a CA prison.

* We met the first woman warden. She seemed very smart, sure and capable. The asst. coach introduced her as "pretty". Keep reaching for the glass ceiling, Ex-Warden Jeanne Woodford.

* All in all, a great game, and I think we were all a little relieved that it ended up a tie.

See you on Sunday, rain or shine!

S. Paige

5/29/11- West Sunset

2011-06-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

It was a great Memorial day, we were a little worried about the show up due to the long weekend, but we were treated to 19 stout fellows. The breeze was blowing all day, and was pushing pretty strong, straight out to right field. Remember that fact, 'cuz it came into play later.

Johnny started and ended for the homers, pitching 10 strong. Satch and Tony combined for the visitors, the game was a real high scoring affair. Sean, nursing a tender shoulder, got to be on the same team as me, which never happens. The really amazing thing is that by the end of the 3rd inning, I hadn't thrown 20 pitches yet. The wind being as strong as it was, was not going to let the fastball be of any use, so I kept to the knuckle balls and changeups. It worked well.

The same could not be said for Johnny, my own personal opinion was that the wind was flattening out Johnny's natural movement, and that combined with the visitors strong lineup, made for some long balls. But no one can deny that he gave it his all, and anyone that can throw 10 innings is a champ in my book.

The visitors took an early lead, and before we knew what was happening, the score started to get out of control. Something in the neighborhood of 7-0? No one likes a lop sided affair, so I took it upon myself to fall on the sword and end the bleeding so as to restart everyone's clocks. Sure enough, as soon as we started to talk about switching up the teams, the homers got into the scoring business and put 4 runs on the board. From there, the game stayed close until another explosion of runs carried the visitors into the double digits.

The first home run of the game came from Sean, who first hit a foul ball that ricocheted off the right field fence, and then on the next swing, tattooed one into the trees. The second home run came from the personally designated DH hitter, Loren, who gave the homers a light up in the last part of the game. With the score in the region of 14-9, Loren sent one high and deep, almost to the exact same place that Sean had hit his.

And I cannot in good faith, leave my own personal blast off the record, even though it was to left field, where there is no fence. I challenge anyone to say that ball would not have been out of any MLB park. I think the secret with my hit was I got it above the gusting wind, allowing it to not get hung up in the air or blow into center field where Mitch would have caught it. I really wanted to trot around the bases, but I settled for a languorous triple.

And speaking of triples, the other big hitting news of the day was Duane, who appears to have cured his back problems to the tune of three triples! Never seen that before....

Tony took over for the visitors in the 8th, and threw the 9th and bonus 10th, with only a few hiccups. The homers made a valiant effort in the final gasps of the game, but the divide was too much, and the visitors were victorious, in a 14-11 win.

Highlights:

* Mike Gaspar made an amazing foul ball catch, after the wind blew a pop up from the stadium seats, all the way back to the third base line

* The entire squad had a case of the dropsies, we saw more balls in gloves and then out of gloves than ever.

* Bob and I both narrowly missed getting clocked in the face by hard hit balls.

* Mitch made his usual array of dynamic catches

* Elvin had some strong hits on balls in the strike zone and played a good second base

* Stoner made his monthly appearance and made two outs in one inning, one regular, one slide style

* Tim and Loren crawled in a bag with Jeremiah Weed Hard Lemonade somewhere in the 3rd.

* I managed to hit a line drive that tumbled perfectly as it went through Gaspar's legs, hit the back of his shoe and into left field

* A hearty thanks to the homers for being reasonable enough not to insist that we enforce Tony's balk, a tough thing to do with men in scoring position and needing the runs

* The wind seemed to be more of a problem for the infield than the outfield

* Loren did make a nice grab at second base....the inning that he played there.

* John McG had a triple of his own

* Bob was our lead off batter and used the cheater stick again to no avail

* Gaspar beat the Gaspar shift, only because we felt foolish playing the 2nd baseman in the SS position, we now know better

* I think Ed caught the whole game for the homers, and had at least one extra base hit

* The new guy who came out looked like he knew what he was doing

* We successfully got a man out at home on a corners-in play!

* But then we tried to get the double play, and ended up throwing a triple to the batter.

* After my sacrificial bunt to end our mega-rally, I later tried to bunt for a base hit and pretty much bunted it back to the same place.

* With a full day of hitting for both sides, the flip side of the coin was Greg, who really stunk up the joint by going 0-6 or something, and never got the ball out of the infield

Alright, keep your fingers crossed for dry skies this weekend, if it keeps up like this maybe it will only rain in the morning and dry by the afternoon.

S. Paige

Dear Kyle, Girgus, Dave J,. Richard B., Pete (2), Richie, Dan, William, Jason, Phil, Eli (actually fuck you Eli),

2011-05-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

I hope you can hear this. We need you. Both as a player and as a presence.

Keep in Touch,

S. Paige

Drunk

2011-05-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Duane has a blog too, and its about baseball.

http://90feetofperfection.com/

You should all check it out. Expand your mind. Learn what a slider is.

Know what the rule is when it comes to pop fly in the infield, with less than two outs.

Or maybe just have a good time.

S. Paige

5/15/11 Cop Field

2011-05-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a note from one of our legal representatives, Ed Sidawi, on the Sunday game last week. Sorry I had to miss it, but Satch's wife don't like it when baseball takes up the whole weekend. I am not sure why.

A light showing on a beautiful day following a SQ game. A little after 3pm, Mitch
showed up to make 14. After the rejoicing, Johnny took the mound for the Home
team. Sean, after raking the mound pre-game, demanded the ball for the visitors.

The game see-sawed back and forth, with each team leading for a time, and tied
for a time. 3 runs for the visitors in the, in the, well lets call it the 7th
was the last scoring. 11-8 was the final. I think.

We played 8 to 10 innings there was much debate, but as with all seven on seven
games, there is a lot of moving around.

Highlights:

*Johnny pitched his usually complete game, Roy Halladay is the active Career
leader with 62. Johnny should pass him by November.

*Tony pitched 2 innings and I think he didn’t give up a baserunner.

*McJohn’s Cousins or nephew or some kind of relations Josh and Dan came out.
Josh hit the ball very hard, but the advance scouts had the defense played
perfectly. We will miss him this summer as he is playing on a traveling team.

*Sean gutted out 7 or 8 innings.

*I am pretty sure no one got hit (Editors note: Was Bob not there, or just lucky?)

5/14/11- MBC versus SQ A's

2011-05-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

We collected outside the gate, in the afternoon, that threatened to rain, but never did. We were entertained by a ornery old gate guard, who had decided he would list out and apply every rule and myth that he could, mostly because the count hadn't finished and he thought we were in need of "learning." Probably good that he reminded people that the tower guards shoot people with blue jackets on in case of trouble. Mental note 1: Don't wear a blue jacket to the game.

He searched each and every bag, made sure that we all memorized the rules about cell phones, food, drinks, and sunflower seeds. The curious thing is that while he listed all of the things that we were not supposed to have, he didn't really stop us from bringing them in, he mostly just wanted to cover his own ass so we could testify to the fact that he had warned us.

Unfortunately something got fucked up, and Dustin was not able to join us inside. He made up for it hanging at the bar in Larkspur, keeping our rep legit. Hopefully we can iron it out so D-Sky can make it inside next time.

In any case, the all clear bell sounded, we made our way in, and got the field just as the inmates were getting the gear and uniforms out of the locked shed. As time was a factor, and we had never gotten a complete game in the afternoon slot, we told the A's we were ready to start, no infield/outfield required.

Ke'Lam started for the A's, back from shoulder surgery, and apparently a pitcher now. He seemed to have taken on the Stretch role of team representative. There were a few other guys that we recognized from Giants game past, and there was no real difference in the play, so I would say that there are two equal teams at SQ now, rather than an A squad and B squad. As the Giants rep, Johnny "Bad Ass" was behind the fence for the beginning of the game, giving a mixture of shit talking and encouragement to the batters. Then he moved out to right field, and kept his thing going from there.

As usual, they jumped to an early lead, and we failed to get a hit for a while. We do think that Jimmy (his first trip inside) got a hit, but the Con-gress (haha) ruled it was an error. Our first couple of innings were not as tragic as past games, where every one catches their own feet and pop flys drop in the middle of seven guys (that came later.) They had some legit hits, and before we got our first hit, the score was 4-0.

One thing that always seems to be an issue for us is base coaching. It is one of those things that we don't practice very often in our games, and usually by the time that we realize we need a coach at third, its too late. My own issue with base coaching in the SQ game came when I was barreling towards third, and realized that Phelps was a little too close inside my trajectory line if I rounded the bag. In my attempt to slow down or in any way not kill Brian, I tripped over the bag, went face first in to the dirt, cut up my hand, sprained my ankle, but managed to cradle the loose bag in a effort to not be called out. It worked. Helpful hint to all, it is in everybody's best interest to stay out of that zone, now referred to as Big Train Alley.

The other issue of the day was the umpires. Now we all know that there is a lean towards the convicts side, and we accept that. The home plate umpire had a big zone, but it seemed to work most of the time both ways. There were a few times when Greg and I had to share a look of disbelief that a ball was not called a strike, and once he had the LATEST strike call I have ever experienced, but luckily we all froze and waited, and waited, and waited, and eventually he did make the call. The field umpire was another story. He must owe some people on the team or just be really stoked for the A's to win. He was missing calls all over the place, called an out at the tail end of a double play that was just wrong, and completely missed a pick off attempt. I think he was overexcited about being able to ring people up, well, more specifically, us.

We finally got in the scoring mood, and once we had that first run, our confidence came back to us, and for a change the other team started making mistakes. We had to beg and plead to get the scoreboard guys to put our runs up though. We kept up the scoring, and made some great defensive plays to keep the game close. They brought in Junkyard to close the game, and we all thought that this was our opportunity. He was no cupcake though, and even though it was a one run game, he looked calm. The frantic final bell time keeping, I think, psyched us out a little though, and we went down 1, 2, 3 in our final at bat, and accepted a 7-6 loss.

Handshakes and thanks all around, and out we went to the world again. The Marin Brewing Company welcomed us with cold beers, a drunk Dustin, and good burgers.

Highlights:

* Lineup for the SQ A's

1. Ke'lam

2. Rahim

3. Jeff

4. Chris

5. Dalton

6. Paul

7. Manning (DH)

8. T Burton

9. Junkyard

10. Donnie

* I managed to hit four guys, all with exceptionally slow changeups or knuckleballs. And most of them on 1-2 counts. Adam said they all reported that they were happy to get hit, so they could get on base.

* We turned a double play of our own to get our of a tight jam!

* No one hit a cheapy to right, but I got within a foot of it.

* Jimmy hit the ball hard all day, and didn't ever look scared.

* I haven't been able to check in with him to see if he is alright, but I hit Greg in the throat with a bouncing knuckleball. Sorry!

* The outfielders were duped a couple of times by the fast outfield, I think we are all used to the slow grass, but SQ is a quick one.

* Chris and Jimmy scored on a double to left center, they had to wait to see if it fell, and by the time they scored, they were almost piggybacking

* Brian Phelps got sent home by an overeager third base coach, and had to do the worm to get around the catcher. Maybe we can pop lock for a run next time.

* Best Pre-game moment: Noah explaining the five gloves in his bag to the old guard why he needed them and how they were different.

* Chris made a great stop at SS, we didn't get the out, but it saved a run.

* We brushed the metal plate on the first base line, so we would know where it was. One of the A's rounded it the next inning, thinking it was the base. They covered it back up.

* The wind made for an interesting game, we had guys running all over the place. The best was a pop fly that looked like it was 2nd base all the way, then, it was 1st, then it was pitcher, then it fell in the middle of all of us, and thankfully rolled foul. Nice play everybody.

* We also had a team wide run down, we should have just surrounded the guy, since 8 of us were running that direction.

* Successfully picked a guy off first, which really sucked 'cuz he was so happy he had gotten a hit. He was scary mad for a little while.

* Their DH laid down a picture perfect bunt for a safety squeeze play. We need to learn that play.

Thanks to all that came out, email me if there are things that I missed that you feel should be included. Also, those who took pictures, send them to me, so I can add them.

Next game is June 2nd, and then June 25.

S. Paige

See you inside.

2011-05-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

San Quentin A's versus the Mission Baseball club. 5:05 pm game.

Looks like rain late in the innings, and who knows what new policy is there to bedevil us.

Hope we make a good showing on the Field of Dreams. I also hope we all make it to the parking lot afterwards.

And we are still looking for the ending from the umpire guy who told the story about stealing the monkey out of San Francisco Zoo.

S. Paige

5/8/11- Cop Field

2011-05-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to you all, especially since some of you are the biggest mothers I know....ahahha (Elks lodge joke).

We were a little worried when 3 pm came and went and we were still stranded at 11 guys. But the late shift was fruitful, and by the time we started, it was 8-8, perfect for that extra at bat game. We were greeted by a sunny day, but the wind howled through the entire game, and made for some interesting play.

Sean started after a long absence, and pitched well, but was not his usual dominating self. It was nice for us, because the game actually had some runs scored, and went back and forth, rather than a long drawn out pitchers duel. But he did manage to strike out a few, myself included, and he went 7, so I can't say it was not a a stellar performance ( This is probably the kind of thing Sandy Koufax got tired of, when he got flak for pitching a great game, rather than a no hitter). I think the wind, blowing as it was, was slowing down the fast ball. I figured out early on that I better use the wind to my advantage on the bump, so I took the slow ball approach, and let the wind do my pitching for me. I feel great today, even though I threw 9, but I think it was because I rarely got above batting practice speed with anything. Guile can be a useful tool.

Left field and pop ups in general, ended up being the Waterloo of the whole game, between the sun and wind, it was a real Thunderdome out there. And of course, that is where we had the other team's replacement playing, which probably didn't help things.

The score built slow and steady, 1-0, 1-1. then the homers exploded for four runs, employing the dink tactic that worked so well last week. We got 8 straight dying quails off of Sean, with maybe a muff in there somewhere, but it was mostly wristed flares. But it worked.

The visitors thundered back however, and scored their own brace of runs, bringing the game back to a one run contest. Sean and I held the ground for a while, blanking each others hitters, getting out of tough situations, and praying for strong defense. The homers finally went up for the final time, and the game ended in 8-6 win for the home squad.

Brian Phelps, who had pitched the last inning for the visitors, offered us a final at bat, which none of us refused, but should have, as we went down one two three. And then everyone wanted to go home? The visitors didn't want their chance? I have never seen that before, but as long as no one felt cheated, works for me!

Highlights:

* Thanks to everyone who made it out, and assured that we would have a game. It was a little dicey for a second.

* Thanks to Noah and Greg, who caught the entire game

* A pretty good defensive game, with a few exceptions.

* Chris proved he can steal at will, but he didn't steal home, and that's the one that counts.

* Tony, with his little black dog in tow (Beetie? Dee Dee?) looked great in full Willie Mays gear, celebrating the Say Hey Kid's 80th. True to form, Tony's dog sat in the batters box and watched him until he put a leash on her.

* Jay looked much more solid at second base, and caught a number of hard hit ground balls, nice work.

* Jimmy and Duane came back, and I think they each had some solid hits, thanks for making it guys!

* Elvin, resplendent in his Giants orange, had a well timed couple of RBI's! Way to go, we were disappointed that he fooled us into thinking that he had actually worn the same colored socks.

* Nero and Gaspar are officially on notice, since there was no pre-stated reason for missing the game and we know their mom's don't live around here.

* Adam made some nice plays at 1st, everyone of them was close enough that I had to run towards the bag, but in the end better for him to make the play on his own. But you gots to cover anyway ( Jonathan Sanchez, I am looking in your direction)

* Noah did an awesome tumble over his mask in trying to track a foul ball, which is why they tell you to throw the mask away

* Noah also overcame last week's aversion to hitting and had a hard hit double and dug a knuckleball out of the dirt for a hit

* Brian almost had another one of my hits to center, the key is to get it high enough that the wind takes over, I am good at hitting real high balls, not long, but high

* Duane almost had an amazing bunt, Tony and Greg had the presence of mind to let it go, but it was almost perfect

* Sean also had a suspect hit, I don't think it hit the bag, but Greg did and called it a double...them's the breaks and I shouldn't be complaining

Well, hope everyone enjoyed themselves, wherever you were.

S. Paige

UPDATE: Gaspar reported in that he was at the Giants game, which is a perfectly good excuse.

5/1/11- Camp Swampy

2011-05-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

"What a day for a baseball game"- Everybody

It was sunny, clear, the wind was blowing out, and we were all astonished that only 19 people showed. We were expecting dead men in rags to come shuffling out, mumbling about how they have been too busy with family and work stuff.

In any case, we split the teams, Satch starting for the homers, Noah for the visitors. The teams seemed pretty well divided, there was power on both sides, and defense, but the play that defined the day was the gork. By the end of 3 frames, the visitors had run up a healthy total of runs, by employing every dink and drop hit they could muster. And it wasn't that we were dropping the ball, the hits were just very strategically placed.

The homers relied more on good old fashioned hitting and shitty fielding, which is the MBC way. Our luck took a turn for the better when John McG stepped up and hit a 2 iron out to left field that just kept going and going. Mike Lattig was out there, which is usually death for all good hits, but this one stayed on a level course and sailed over his head. Rounding third, John had the look of a man in disbelief, as we all steered him home. An added bonus that his kids were there to see it.

Two innings later, Brian Phelps stepped into the box, after fooling us all earlier with opposite field power, he put one into the rafters in right. Brian, being quicker and younger than most, didn't look as though he needed the O2 when he stepped on the dish for the second home run of the game.

Then it got interesting.

John hit another one to the exact same place in left, only a little further, and Brian hit one into the right center gap that left us all in disbelief, as two people hit 4 home runs in one day! Definitely a first!

We homers had the defense going for us, as we turned a number of double plays, which really helped when we needed to have a quick inning. But for the visitors, the hits just kept on coming. The score obviously was a little higher than usual, as were the players, we tied the game at 6-6 and then again at 9-9. However, the visitors had a little more moxie going for them, and when they brought in Johnny Bartlett, "The Man who knows how to Cool the Bats," we knew that the death knell could not be far behind.

The final score ended up in the 13-9 range, and while there was a bit of fire left in people to keep playing, the sun and the excitement had drained the players. So it was decided that we would go home, while we still had time to have a beer and enjoy the beautiful day.

Highlights:

* Adam and Nick both played a great first sack, making scoops and back handed snares

* Three double plays, and almost a fourth, and we actually successfully completed the 3-6-1 DP!

* A special note from JT," I was glad to see Mitch, until he caught the best ball I have hit all year"

* Bob showed up in the 6th again, and went right to work

* Gaspar and I worked out a bunt/steal play,and it worked great, and we caught Nick unaware, I took third and then home to tie the game! Love that kind of stuff!

* Adam slid hard into second and got a skinned arm for his effort, he doused it in HydroPerox, and slapped some tape on it and kept playing. That's cool.

* Chris once again played a great SS

* A note to all: I was always told that in the MBC that it is uncouth to do the ol' fake catch and tag at second when a guy is stealing and there really isn't a throw. I guess for us, every time we slide, we risk our baseball future. This was also told to me by Richard Baluyut, so one has to take the source into account. But I would say that its a good rule to follow.

* We had a new guy (Daniel?) out, who had a real pretty hit

* I think I was 5-5, was anyone else? I am trying to remember not getting on base, help?

* Tony made one of the prettiest Rojas plays we have seen in a while. The pick, the pump, the set, the double pump, the walk and the throw. Got him!

* I hit Jay (sorry) and then he got a hit off of me. That's even.

* The outfield was really fast, which is really unusual for Camp Swampy. It was like concrete with bumps out there

* I struck Noah out three consecutive times, with three change ups. Someone else made the reference, so here it is: Roy Hobbs versus The Whammer

Not sure where we are next week, but it will be Mother's Day, for all you mothers. So bring your mom out.

S. Paige

4/24/11- Cop Field

2011-04-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

I wrote a much more eloquent recap, and it was erased somehow, damn!

Well, all I can say is that Jesus is lucky that we had enough to play a game, otherwise there might have been some real angry people in heaven once we got there! In any case, it was a beautiful day, well, it was a little chilly when we first started, but the clouds blew away and we were left with gorgeous sunshine.

We started with Havana 6's and Jay and Ed showed up a little after the first inning began, and we had ourselves a real game. I forgot how tiring it can be to play with 7's, its nice to be active more, but it is also nice to be able to sit down once in a while.

Greg and I started on the bump and Greg and I finished on the bump. Great to have a complete game from both sides. It was also great that each of us had some real short innings, 5-7 pitch kind of things. The whole game moved really quick and we were finished by 5:15!

We were also graced by the return of John Carey, who looked like he had done some growing since we had seen him last. He promptly announced his return by hitting a triple off me to open the game. The brashness and talent of the youth, eh? I got my revenge, but he still played a hell of a game. He moves out of the way of the knuckleball better than his old man too. Played all over, and even caught the last inning, and showed off a cannon for an arm.

The visitors started off ahead, thanks to said triple, but we clawed back to take the lead. We see-sawed for a few innings, and found ourselves tied 4-4 in the 3rd. Somewhere around the 5th, the homers took the lead, and never looked back. We unloaded for a bunch of runs, and by the end of the game it was 12-5ish. Timely hitting, timely errors and base running seemed to be the differences in the game.

Highlights:

* Thanks to everyone who made it out for the holiday

* Greg pitched inside to everyone and came close to hitting just about every batter. Ironically, the only person who was actually hit was Greg, by me, in the ribs. Sorry. I would have hit you in a spot with more padding, but with Greg, I am not sure where that would be

* Paul had another good defensive game, both for and against his team

* John Nero, with a sore leg, played a good second base, and scored about 3 times.

* JT had some nice plays after getting pulled off the bag at first. One of them was as I was trucking in, and he claimed that he is one of the few people that probably isn't as worried by my massive girth. My worry lies in my basic understanding of physics and how it relates to two large masses colliding

* I threw changeups and knuckleballs to Jay, confounding him, until he managed to rip two of them for solid singles. I love it when we can all teach, and learn and succeed

* Adam was 0-5 in his first at bats, and started to lament not taking the charity single that was offered to him on his first at bat. His last three at bats were better.

* I hit a ball that was generally accepted to have cleared any MLB center field fence. Stoner, where are the cones!!!!!!

* Chris made a number of great stops in the infield, including a sure fire double down the line

* Gaspar threaded a hit through the Gaspar shift again, and almost did it twice. The first time I have seen a center fielder record a pop fly out in short left field.

* We almost had John Carey caught stealing, nice throw Mike.

* Tony had three fielding errors in one inning, almost consecutively. And they were all different kinds of errors. Or maybe he was just giving us a chance.

* The Rojas knuckleball rule was also established, where he must swing at a knuckleball, if it is deemed awesome enough

* Gaspar reported a successful trip to Girgus for hair trimming. No obvious signs of head wounds or trauma, good news!

* Bob hit what looked like a sure fire single to right, and let loose a little trash talk. Prematurely it turned out, as it was caught. Oh well.

* We had a strikeout, pickoff at third to end an inning, not sure what the base runner was doing.

* We ended the game with a double play. That was cool.

* And now, for your viewing pleasure, the most dramatic 10 minutes of Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. Adam and I were discussing the nuances (Win one for the Looper!) and agreed that the fight scene is frightening, because you know that Kelly Leak probably would have killed that kid if they hadn't pulled him off. And then the classic running away scene. And where does he go to drown his sorrows? Pool hall, of course. Probably won some money, got a half a hand job in the bathroom, pulled some smokes out of the cigarette machine. The glorious 70's.

4/17/11- Camp Swampy

2011-04-18T21:51:00.001-07:00

For the third week we found ourselves at Camp Swampy, although it was not the same weather that we have had before. As me and Mrs Paige came own from Sacramento, we watched the temperature drop from a balmy 88 degrees, and halfway across the Bay Bridge, the fog was sitting there like a cloud on the land. Camp Swampy was bathed in gray, and yet, as the perfect tease, if you looked east, you could see Oakland and the sunlight streaming in. It didn't stop us from having a great game, and it didn't stop the 30 guys from partying their asses off throughout our game, drinking Corona and having a BBQ. I tell you the Mexican leagues know how to turn any Sunday into a party, and when they go for it, they go for it.

In any case, we had 11-11, by the time everyone showed up, and the teams were evenly split again, making for a great game. Greg Snyder started for the homers, his first start in a while, with Sean plaything but not tempting fate with the injured leg and tweaky arm. Good move. We went down in order in the first, but with Satch on the mound, we were not so lucky to escape unscathed. It was to be the first of a series of scoring innings. 1-0 after the first, 3-0, after the third. However, it was not to be the end, as we visitors pounded back, and took the lead, 4-3. They then came back and tied it up 4-4.

Then round about the 5th or 6th, the wheels came off for the Homers, as we unleashed an orgy of hits. It began with 3 doubles in a row, and didn't stop until the score was 10-4. It began to sprinkle and spit rain, and then the sun would come out for a second, and then it would go back to grey, hot and muggy.

Johnny took over for Greg, and settled the game down, getting a couple of quick innings. I kept throwing, feeling surprisingly spry. The homers brought it back to 10-6, and then we got back in the hitting game, and scored 5 more. Going into the 9th, we thought we were cruising to a easy victory, but the ginger of the homers could not be denied. By the time we got two outs in the inning, they had brought the score to 15-11. However, with a foul chip to the first base side, the game was over.

Well, not quite, we rambled around for two more innings, but the score never changed, and while it was great to play a few extra, we were all pretty cold and exhausted by the end of it. With smiles all around we packed it in, and left the field feeling fulfilled.

Highlights:

* Weather aside, it was a great game

* Tony managed to have three hits that never left the infield, at least two of them on knuckleballs that squirmed away

* Rich and Sean each had some long balls hit to right

* Mike Lattig again showed off the leather in the outfield, making a number of great catches

* Bob showed up in about the 5th, and used a metal bat for the first time that any of us could remember, he promptly popped out to 2nd and stated to never do that again

* I made Sean run the entire game out in center field, no matter how deep he played, I still managed to get it over his head. The trick was the wind was blowing straight out to center, and as long as I hit it high enough, it would carry.

* The change up wasn't working for anyone today, I think it was the wind, which slowed it down too much, and held it up, like it was on a tee

* Defense on both sides was pretty good, no particularly bad plays anyway

* There were many loud hits, and it seemed like a lot more extra base hits than usual

* Elvin fouled off a pitch that was two feet over his head, none of us could quite believe that he actually got a piece of it

* Good to see Nero, Cagle and Edwin back after an absence, and new guys Howie and Dirtbag guy

* Adam tried pitching to few batters, couldn't find the dish, but the arm looked good

* Thanks to Nero, Greg, Ed, Bob for catching

* Lattig came in for the late relief, and looked good except, for once, he might have been sorry he wore shorts

* Paul came through with a solid RBI double when his team needed it

* Paul also got picked off of first. I noticed that he was 8 feet off the bag, while I was not even on the rubber

* We had another pickoff, from Adam, not too many times that has happened

* Rich, who we found out played 7 years in the minors (pretty amazing credentials for the MBC!) manned center field and SS, and took away hits at both positions

* Mitch worked the right side of the field all day, and I think scored at least 5 times

Next week we are at Cop Field. See you there.

S. Paige

Punishment is a bitch

2011-04-15T11:29:00.001-07:00

Since my buddy Rob has refused to come out to the game on a regular basis, I am posting this picture. He's the little guy. Dig the hat placed far back so that the bangs can be undisturbed. Speaking of disturbed, the other guy in the photo was. No one has heard from him in a while. Sweet bat though.

4/10/11- Camp Swampy

2011-04-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Again we had a large number of people show up, which is great, but it makes one all the more frustrated on beautiful days when 10 people show up. But I suppose one should always focus on the positive.

The numbers and people being what they were, the teams were divided as Grey Mission jerseys versus Mission shirts and other jerseys. There was a little grumbling from the others, as it seemed as though the MBC regulars were going to walk away with it. Gaspar in particular seemed to think that the MBC jerseys were too stacked, but hopefully the outcome will be a lesson that one should never be too sure about anything....

William Zerbes, looking trim and relatively clean-shaven walked out of the woods and demanded that he start on the hill. Well, demanded might be a strong term, but certainly we had to remind him that usual protocol does not allow one to show up and get the starting duty. But we were all glad to see him, and no one else on his team was fighting for the position. He had dropped to a three quarters, almost sidearm delivery and had more pop on his fastball than we had seen out of him a few years. After establishing that he still had it, he passed the ball on to Johnny Bartlett, who did what he always does, which is eat the innings, get the outs when they are needed, and in general, play the outside part of the plate like a Stradivarius.

Sean, replete with strong mustache, started for the visitors, and we had decided to platoon the pitching duties for the team, as we were fat in arms. Sean went three, then sent in Satch, tossed three, then we went to the Irish courage of Dustin (D-Sky) to close it up.

Or at least that was the plan, but in a rare instance, we actually had to play extra innings because the score was tied, and not just because some of us will play until its too dark to see. It was a hitters day, no one seemed to have too much dominance on the hill. The ball bounced a bit more, especially in the outfield. The score was all over the place, 3-0 , then flopping to 6-4, and then back again. It was really good game, punctuated with some timely hitting, defensive gems and gaffes, and lots of good opportunities that were actualized or squandered.

We went into the 11th, and with Greg Snyder now on the hill, and the visitors up by a run (scored by the master of the delayed steal home, Tony Rojas), the home team managed to get to their last out, and with two men on base, Loren stepped up and sent a ball deep into right center to secure a win. The final score was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-14, mostly we knew that it was a close one, and everyone contributed.

Highlights:

* A beautiful day, lots of players

* Adam, our new political ally, made a phone call to the SF parks and Rec, and got them to mow the jungle that was the grass, thus making the game safer and more enjoyable

* Both teams showed some great defense, it was nice to have a game that didn't have too many real weak spots

* Paul made a great catch in right field, fighting the sun and the run

* The sun, proved to be a fierce enemy for the 2nd baseman, and we had a lot of shading and running away from pop flies

* Rich anchored SS for the homers and turned a lot of MBC singles into easy ground outs

* I battled Zerbes for at least 14 pitches in my third at bat, before striking out. Touche, Bill.

* My only hit for the game was my first at bat, when I managed to hit a ball up around my eyes

* Gaspar, bucking the trend, had a sharp grounder to the right side of the infield for a hit, while we all bunched up on the other side, traditional Gaspar shift style.

* Someone had a great sacrafice bunt. Love that.

* Thanks to Greg, Mike, Noah, Adam and Ed for catching

* Johnny hit Adam twice. I guess when Bob isn't around, you got to hit somebody.

* The knuckleball worked well for a few innings, especially when I needed it to. That isn't always the case

* In general, everyone seemed to be better about knocking down ground balls, not always getting the out, but its a good step to keep the ball in the infield.

* Loud hits were registered by John, Loren, Rich, Nick, Zerbes, Ed, Tim, Sean, Lattig, to name a few. If you feel you had a loud hit I missed, let me know....

Let's keep the momentum going, this morning's rain was nice, probably packed the clay, so the fields should be in good shape. Not sure where we are yet.

S. Paige

4/3/1- Camp Swampy

2011-04-05T12:56:00.001-07:00

FULL DISCLOSURE AND HUMBLE APOLOGY

I WOULDN'T KNOW HOW THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME WAS BECAUSE I WASN'T THERE.

By the bottom of the 2nd, I had my uniform on and stepped up and hit a opposite field double. Then I scored. That's what I do for my team. Tony, who was pitching when I hit said double, hit a bunch of our guys, including me. I guess that's what he does for his team.

In any case, it was a real barn burner, Sean threw one pitch, called it a day and brought in Johnny. Johnny did the deed, pitched a hell of a game, and was hindered as we were the whole day with strange defense and deep grass. Tony lasted five or so, gave it over to Loren, who threw 3, and turned it over to Greg for another 4. Satch took over for Johnny in the 8th, and pitched the rest of the frames. The knuckle ball was really working for at least one inning, and the change up had big swing throughs the whole game. Which was nice.

We had 26 at final count, yet there was a lot of tentativeness, about playing. It's important to make sure everyone plays, but there should never be a question about fielding 9 players quickly, when we have 13 to choose from.

The score was forgotten and recalled several times in the course of the game, and if I had gotten there on time, I could have kept score. Or so Tony says.

By the end of regulation play, the homers, also known as Tony's team, eked out a 13-12 game. Kudos to you all. Then we kept playing and finished the game at a very neutral and pleasant 14-14 game. The chill in Camp Swampy was a bit more than everywhere else in the city, which was still blistering at 70 degrees or whatever.

Highlights:

* While the defense paled at times, there were a few plays that got done right by the end of the game. And that's progress!

* We also had some really good plays at first, close plays, runner beating out the throw, that kind of thing. Love a close play.

* Adam, and countless others, had some deep drives to left and right.

* Mike Lattig accounted for all the action in center field, wading through the buckwheat and the dandelions to make some great snatches

* Ugliest baserunning- When deciding to steal a base that you shouldn't be stealing in the first place, don't slow down or stop in the middle of your run, you have made your commitment, stand by it.

Best Heads up play- Loren was on third, after some monster shot, and started talking to the basecoach, and Johnny game me a little head nod from the mound, and then fired it over. He could have rolled it to me as it turns out as Loren was the last person to even know there was a play going on. Atta' kid Johnny, you're keen as mustard! Tough as desert rawhide!

* Bob had a great "fuck you" line drive, complete with witty remark after he hit it

* It was a real twofer kind of day for Bob, +2 HBP. It's like a blue moon.

* Loren played a good game for a guy with a mild concussion....thanks for the spirit!

* Nick Smith had a great snare at first, backhanded, high skip

* Owen came out for the first time in a while, great to see him back in a uni

* Total Hit Batsmen: Had to be at least 7.

* Bob made sure to collect money which is good, and if you didn't give him any, make sure you do next time. This club is cheap but it ain't free.

* Helpful Hint- Make sure you make a good second effort on balls. Just because you don't catch it doesn't mean that you give up, and put your hands on your hips and start thinking about what happened. Pick up the fucking thing and get it in. Many a good putout starts its life as a double.

* The chalk lines on the first base side were wrong, and it really made for confusing running when rounding first.

* Special thanks to Ed, who caught a full inning against his own team in the last part of the final inning, just to speed things up.

* Chris sent a email saying that he was looking for his Black and Silver glove at St. Mary's two weeks ago. If you have it, let him know or bring it to the game.

Thanks to everyone who came out, it was good to have a nice big showing. Great weather, good times, lots of stalwarts who stayed to the end.

S. Paige

3/27/11- St. Mary's

2011-03-29T16:21:00.001-07:00

Told you it would be ready by Sunday, but noooooooo, you didn't listen. Well, all you suck-asses that didn't make it, missed a hell of a game. We ended up playing Havana 6's, until Doc, that's right, you sumbitches got shown up by a old guy, showed up and made it 13. And we all played a hell of a game. John , his brother in law and nephew were out before 1, shoveling dirt, draining water, raking the diamond, because they wanted to PLAY BASEBALL. Sean, fresh from his UK stint, and eager to play was there, and of course, Satch went at him. The first four innings were not real pretty, Sean must have been dreaming about this game, because I think he must have had double digit (12?) strikeouts for the day. Which is real tough when you only have 6 people on the team. I know Phelps and Mitch both wore golden sombreros for the day. The visitors had no problem with scoring runs, and the score was 3-0 for the first four frames. Satch muddled along, getting loose, and when Sean struck out the side, I countered with a 3 pitch inning. I'll take that any day of the week.

After my strikeout at a ball in the dirt, I was able to get on first through an errant throw. Took second on a fielders choice, and then stole third. That's right. Gamer. Noah made a spot-on throw and I would have been hosed, had I not taken the sliding option of the outside, so as to avoid colliding with Loren. Suddenly, we were on the board. 3-1. Mitch followed, as did another, and another, and before we knew what was going on, we had taken the lead 4-3.

We never relented the lead, and for some reason, the same pitches that were unhittable earlier were falling for extra base hits. Sean pitched 7 and then gave the ball to Noah, who did a great job of keeping us close. By that time, the score had reached a very kind 7-4 (we subtly erased a 3 run homerun by this high school kid, Josh, to keep the game from being a washout.) I kept hurling, and was able to avoid catastrophe, easier said then done, when you know that you have to face Chris, Loren and Sean every inning. Luckily, the changeup was working, so I got the pop ups I needed. Final score, lets say 11-4.

The weather stayed nice for the game, we were joined by a few bums and a lady bum with her small dog in tow. Very strange. They never really got into it, but I did hear the occasional cheer.

Highlights:

* Everyone who actually showed up.

* Dan, John's brother-in-law, made a spectacular over the shoulder catch in right field to stop a rally. * There were some long balls hit, including the homer that Josh had

* Doc and JT did a good job at playing positions that I know they don't enjoy

* The nice thing about striking out a lot in Havana 6 is you know you will have at least 4 other at bats to get it right.

* Josh also had a number of great plays at 3rd. Please come out again!

* Thanks to Greg, Noah and Loren for catching, St. Mary's is not the easiest field to play backstop, between the sun, and the short wall that sends caroms back into your spine

* Chris, of all people, missed a sure fire double play ball, blame can sort of be laid at the feet of a very soft infield that deadened every ball that took the first bounce in the grass

* Mitch had a tough day at the plate to begin with, but laid down the prettiest bunt I have seen in a long time, that's the kind of baseball I love!

Well, it looks like its drying out, so all your fair weather players can show up again. S. Paige.

PS. I am including our current email list. If you see email's on here that you know are invalid, let us know. It's stupid to have 100+ people in a email chain, and not be able to conjure up more than 10 people.

Chris Powell <chris.powell@eminent-designs.net>; Daley Aaron Robert Carey ; aaron@lixolux.com; Adam Pfahler ; applegrc@sutterhealth.org; bhats25@yahoo.com; bigben527@hotmail.com; Bill Zerbes ; bothan25@yahoo.com; brad.mason5@gmail.com; Brian Cagle ; Brian Girgus ; brianphelps415@aol.com; Carl Grubbs ; cbberman@yahoo.com; chad.one@gmail.com; "chefjamesmueller@comcast.net" ; chris@eminent-designs.net; craigbaerwald@gmail.com; Dan Mandel ; Dan Martin ; Dan Phillips ; Dani Leone ; Danny Chester ; Dave Johnson ; David Neumark ; david_lewis99@hotmail.com; dchapnick@vantagepartners.com; Dennis Briskin ; Doug Norris ; Duane Harris ; ed_sidawi@yahoo.com; elvin.vu@gmail.com; esakumoto@yahoo.com; Ezra Gale ; fierlight@yahoo.com; focusphere@gmail.com; franmcalero@yahoo.com; gd3@pacbell.net; Greg and Oliver Magrane ; Greg Snyder ; gregmitra@sbcglobal.net; harguspig@aol.com; Jason Pienkowski ; jbspack@gmail.com; jcav0917@hotmail.com; jcivetz@gmail.com; jgruer@hotmail.com; jmcgrathlaw@aol.com; jmhamilton@hotmail.com; johncnero@yahoo.com; Johnny Bartlett ; Jonathan Tiemann ; jsinnarajah@google.com; kanderson03@gmail.com; Keefe Dwyer ; Kevin Connell ; loren.s.fraser@gmail.com; macclonan22@yahoo.com; Matt Chandler ; Matt Stone ; menlopark_ussd@yahoo.com; Mike Gaspar ; Mike Lattig ; MIKEHOLLAND2000@gmail.com; Mitchell Burnham ; Neel Bhatia ; nicholas castoria ; Nick Levine ; Nick Smith ; NickKinsey@yahoo.com; nishant.bhatt@gmail.com; noah.s.bowling@gmail.com; NOMAD1854@yahoo.com; owenrundall@hotmail.com; Paul Kibel ; Pete Simoneli ; Peter van Schaik ; phil_colvin@yahoo.com; PLAIN_RO@yahoo.com; pshebs@gmail.com; rfordiani9@yahoo.com; Richard Baluyut ; Richie Garcia ; Rick Kvoriak ; rjaneway10@gmail.com; Rob Kvoriak ; Ryan Bezenek ; salvadorwill@yahoo.com; Sean Paul Presley ; seansullivanesq@gmail.com; skileschico@yahoo.com; solszew@yahoo.com; Tony Acquarelli ; Tony Rojas ; venturatile@sbcglobal.net; victor@cdxbuilders.com; Vitalij Stelmashewko

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

2011-03-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

So here we sit, watching the drizzles, the downpours, the light misting, and hoping against hope that it will be dry enough by Sunday to play. Only to be deluged with some sort of biblical storm right around game time.

Johnny Bartlett has been in Buenos Aires, with the Phantom Surfers, and Sean and Anthony are with Nodzzz in the UK. Adam is in LA. Someone must have given them the info early that this stretch of the month was going to really blow, weather-wise.

Now I will state that the St. Mary's field is amazingly resilient and dries very quick, even after a big storm. So, rain on the weekend will not necessarily mean that we won't be playing. The last few times we have attempted a last minute switch, the response has been less than stellar. So this is just a heads up, that St. Mary's is playable on a week that you might think there was no chance. So come on out if the call is made.

Other than that...at least its not snowing.

Fuck you fucking rain, you are ruining my life, and forcing me to do things like clean and my wife is going to divorce me if I keep moping around like this!

Bring on the baseball!

S. Paige

3/13/11- Moscone

2011-03-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

We are playing baseball and that is final. That was pretty much the gist of the mail that I sent out at the beginning of the weekend. And it seemed to work well enough, we had exactly 18 out there, and a pretty good game after it was all said and done. Although the teams may have been a little lopsided, there was enough tension to warrant that it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Satch started for the homers, and threw the standard 9, plus two innings of the 3 inning game that we played afterwards. Yeah, you read that right. And the arm isn't really all that sore today, its mostly legs and back and ankles and wrists. But more on that later. Greg started for the visitors, and did a great job keeping us stymied for most of the game. The visitors teed off on me like the stands were packed with baseball scouts, and when they weren't getting legit hits, there were some miscommunication and booted balls which helped the visitors to keep on coming. By the end of the 1st it was 4-0. Then it was 6-1. At least we were on the board, thanks to Satch's high fly ball, pass ball, fielders choice, fielders choice again, run scored. I alerted my team that I would not be doing any more of that unless absolutely necessary. Maybe that's why my legs are sore.

We were welcomed, as we often are, by the sweet siren song of the bum that hangs in the Marina. I think we might have gotten his name this time, but we definitely knew he was drunk, and that he was ex-military, and is supposedly moving to Florida and getting $1900 for his Army disability. Which would put him at around 70% service connection ( I work in the business). He yelled at pretty much everyone, cursed Lattig for his Dodgers alliance, and in general, did what he does. He'll be missed.

We started a real comeback around the 7th, when Greg's luck finally wore off and we started hitting the ball. It had rained a few times since the beginning of the game, well, misted, and I am sure that the heavier ball probably worked in our favor too. In any case, we managed to close the gap to a one run game. It was not to be, however, as the visitors did not sit back on their laurels, and exploded for a few insurance runs to take the 9 inning victory.

The rain had turned to hazy sun when we finished, so we wiped the slate clean and started a 3 inning exhibition. Tony had taken over for Greg in the 8th, then made a mid inning switch, and brought Greg back to the mound. Then Tony went back to the mound to throw some more for the short game. Satch kept throwing, until finally relenting to let Brian Phelps have the last inning. Us homers had dominated the first inning of the second game and were cruising along, eager to squeeze some dignity out of the day, but the visitors would not be denied, and slowly they crushed our hopes in the 3rd, took the lead, and shut us down in our bold attempt to comeback. 20 minutes later, it started to really rain.

Highlights

* For a game that highlighted some defensive gaffes, we managed a number of double plays, both traditional and otherwise.

* John Nero was a Hoover at 2nd base, accounting for at least 6 or 7 put outs, his first play of the game was a real beauty

* Doc came out, on his motorcycle, and got at least 2 hits!

* We broke 3 bats in the dead muggy air

* I had one of the most beautiful sounding line drives of all time, that went straight to the center fielder.

* 4 comebackers, two of which might have taken my head off. I got a glove on both of those screamers, and then lost them

* Rich played an amazing 3rd base, making two over the shoulder catches in short right, and starting our inning ending double play.

* Rich also became the 1st MBC'er to hit the light pole in the top rung, and then have the ball drop into the protected area

* He also hit a line drive foul that hit a branch squarely and bounced all the way back into fair territory.

* Chris also had an amazing defensive game, including robbing me of a sure fire hit, again.

* Jimmy played a good 2nd, and had a angry triple that rolled into the softball game

* The change up worked on most people, and I got a lot of waves and bat throws.

* The change up also worked on me, as I hit two very high outs. I finally made up for it with a first pitch rocket to Mars that cleared everything. Too bad it was wet, or I might have been able to walk around the bases. I got a double because I am fat and tired.

* Thanks to Ed, Mitch, Greg, Gaspar, and Tony for catching

* Gaspar had a classic hit to left, even in the face of an obvious Gaspar shift

* Paul also had a nice clean line drive when we needed it

* John's triple sparked us to start our long road back in the first game

* Gaspar earned the new nickname "Huckleberry" by choosing to play and steal in his rolled up jeans, you looked awesome Mike!

* A big thank you to JT and Bob, for the new boxes of Rawlings balls that came our way. I picked them up at the Presidio field, man, we got to play there again, it is looking great!

* I did the thing that I always bitch about, which was swing when a person is stealing second. In my defense, at least I didn't foul it off, I just missed it.

Lets hope for sun, we are at West Sunset next week, time TBA.

S. Paige

Ruminations: Missing two in a row for a good cause

2011-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Wife's birthday party, mother's birthday party. They were both great.....YOU ain't gonna win that argument, ever.

And this week, I got no reason to complain. I'm headed down to Spring Training, cactus style. There's a lovely place down there called the 3 Palms.

They got a pool, cool ones and a 'cuzzi.

Walking distance to some sort of terrible Sav-A Plenty, that sells handles of booze (check), Fried Chicken (check), sunscreen (double check), and probably access to a $8.99 dvd of Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (bless their rag tag little hearts).

3 Games.

Dodgers vs. Giants, at the Dodgers new house. First game where I've gone into the rival park for a GvD game. And I hear that that rickety old canyon dweller, Dodger Stadium is a real peach; olde tyme to the core, and full of great style.

I'm looking forward to enjoying the game and not being stabbed. Not because of anything I was remotely involved with, but when you have 12 guys with you, sooner or later, something has to happen. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that part?....that's a lot of beef to wrangle, when all you want to do is have a laid back time in the desert.

So there's that one. Then we are seeing someone at Giants home, Mariners maybe? In any case, Saturday day game, that hangover probably isn't going to be pretty. I get a lot of drink coupons through the SW card, and man its like pulling teeth trying to get rid of those things on a plane. I don't blame them, but its been a while since I had free drinks I was trying to give away. Last year, I bought the guy next to me some drinks, and split the cab when we got there. Not a bad way to go. Maybe I'll see him again. He's probably going to be stabbing me, accidentally of course.

Then, my personal favorite, A's and Giants! I am looking forward to seeing how the A's are gonna wallop the Giants this time. Man, its never pretty, but its always a good time. I love sitting with a bunch of A's fans, they know what we are talking about, and they are confidant as always, that they are going to hammer the Giants. And they always do. Even when they lose, it still seems like they just play better than the Giants.

And this year we get to see it in the A's home park, which I also have never been to. I am rooting for the A's this year in the AL, full bore. They made some great trades, and I love how they play ball like the MBC. Or is it vice versa?

Scottsdale.

The Pink Pony has apparently reopened. But is extravagantly expensive, so I may miss it. I am hoping that Uncle Sal's is still open, it looked like my kind of place. There's a bro factor in some towns that ain't my thing, its a bit too much like being stuck in a frat party that took over a city. It ain't a bad thing always, just ain't my thing.

Should be a great vibe riding on the Worlds Series win. You get enough booze, sun into a crowd, and I guarantee there's some sort of altercation going down with guys calling each other out on opposite sides of a busy street. That's a safe one. Total Rep keeper there.

So, off I go. Enjoy the game, I don't know where it is, but I bet it will be great. And if my steady and sturdy Southwest airplane ( #1 in customer satisfaction, not an official Southwest spokesperson) does fall out of the air, you boys do that East/West thing that I spoke about, with the games and HOF tour. It think it would be great. The Ramblers seem like stand up guys. Why wouldn't they be, half of them are MBC'ers. Simonelli might have some trouble showing up, so maybe he can be a bench coach in absentia. Ezra's the secret weapon that just popped up for the NY squad. Little does he know that we have an Ezra named Ed now. Catches a good game, maddening hitter of line drives, got the spirit. And I don't think he's a Yankee fan, so that right there is nice.

Things go right, I'll be hitting the tarmac in our fair and foggy paradise around the time you guys will be in that post game glow of "Sure I'll have that third beer" and "chips and salsa are a perfectly fine dinner."

Enjoy the game, make sure Bob at least gets thrown at once, not hit necessarily, but close....

Wish I was there with you.

But, there's always next week.

Cheers,

S. Paige

2/27/11- West Sunset

2011-03-01T23:17:00.000-08:00

Satch couldn't be there. But at least there was a game. And 19 people showed up apprarently!

Here with a recap is Ed:

It was sunny, there were 19 guys.

Johnny went 8 or 9 for the homers, Greg went 7 or 8 so for the visitors. Rich took over for Johnny, Tony closed it out for Greg.

Homers got 3 quick runs and three more before Greg got out of a bases loaded jam. He didn't allow a run after that (maybe the third or 4th inning).

Johnny was unhittable early on, finally giving up his first hit and run about the 4th. The visitors kept tacking on runs.

In the top of the 8th or 9th the visitors made a big comeback. With two outs the a few well placed balls and some generous defense lead to the the visitors scoring 3 runs and taking the lead.

Tony got the last outs for the win.

Highlights

-While catching, Tony called a pitchout with the bases loaded.

-Rich made a great diving catch in center

-A nice guy named Jamie came out even though his friend who told him about the game didn't

-I think there was a great play on the infield for the visitors, but I can't recall who made it.

Keep up the spirit. I'll be out scouting the desert talent.

S. Paige

Our Brian

2011-02-25T11:35:00.000-08:00

This entry serves to invite all of you to get your haircut and shaving needs with MBC longtimer, shit disturber, and general live wire, Brian Girgus. He is now licensed by the State of California to put a sharp blade to your throat, probably while grandstanding about the Yankees chances.

In any case, go see him!

Mystic Haircuts

14 Haight St, San Francisco

Brian C. Girgus

California barber

Haircuts, straight razor shaves,

barber services

415.694.9605

Thurs, Fri, Sat, Mon

10am - 6pm

haircutsforeveryone@gmail.com

2/20/11- St Mary's

2011-02-20T18:23:00.001-08:00

Well, 8 strong brave souls faced the beautiful weather and warming sun to play baseball on Sunday. Quite interesting that we had 26 last week, and this week you people couldn't muster up enough gravy to make it out for a beautiful day.

We took a long infield and outfield, I threw 3 outs to each batter for some situational hitting, and then took batting practice, 10 hits, run on the last one.

It was great, too bad you missed it. Here's Bob with a postscipt.

Hope what ever you doing was better than baseball, oh wait, what could that have possibly been? Don't know where we are next week. Maybe you can take the time to see if you really care about playing or not....

Here's your hero lineup:

Bob, Elvin, Tony, Adam, John, Satch, Ed, Nick Smith.

S. Paige