3/27/11- St. Mary's

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