GASPAR:
awesome day
to play ball not too hot not too cold.
-plenty of
parking despite bay to breakers crowd.
-we started
out 7 on 8. a few more players trickled
in and by the
3rd inning we
were 10 on 10.
-carter
started (and finished) for the visitors.
Greg and tony split
the pitching
duties for the homers.
- we had our
first female player in a long time.
robin (a friend of
Daniel’s) played a great game. caught a ball
in the outfield, showed
off a strong arm and got herself an infield
hit.
- it was a
see-saw affair most of the game and the score stood at 5-3
visitors in the bottom of the eighth. then
the homers sent 11 men
to the plate and a bunch of them scored.
- the
visitors mounted a spirited rally in the top of the ninth but it
fell short. final 10-7.
- individual
highlights:
mike latting had some loud hits
mitch fooled the defense and hit a shot down
the right field line that
plated a couple of runs.
ed caught all eight for the visitors. gamer.
jesse, back from a long absence, had a couple
of nice hits and played
a solid infield.
chris tagged up on caught foul pop.
tony had a great suicide squeeze that worked
brilliantly
LATTIG:
'twas a
glorious day in Golden Gate park, the field bathed in sun and dotted with Bay
to Breakers stragglers. One of those was our very own Daniel, who brought two
friends into the fray with him - which put us right at 10 vs. 10. And one of
whom represented the first 9-inning MBC game by a woman in the last few years (Ed. Note: Since Dani
Leone picked and moved to the Big Easy, and started playing football) and
certainly the first one that started barefoot and in a silver-sequined top.
Needless to say, she backed up the flash with a strong arm, good glove and
solid swing. Even taunting Greg that he needed to throw it harder her second
time up....
On to the
heart of the matter, where the aforementioned Mr. Snyder, fresh from Paris,
took to the bump. No cheese and wine hangover here, as he held the visiting
squad (which appeared to be a powerhouse of pull hitters) to a mere three runs
over 6 or 7 innings. (my old memory, as I mentioned, often doesn't serve)
I'd like to
think we had a solid old-timer defense behind him to help. Adam at the 2, Nick
Smith 3, Me 4, Richie 6, Will and Tony switching out 5 and Gaspar patrolling
the outfield. We even turned a nice, clean 1-4-3 double play on Dennis to
stymie a rally. Oh, and got Chris' friend Elias out about three different times
before finally stranding him at third. (ok, maybe he was safe two of the three
times... but barely!)
On the other
side, Carter carried on the strong pitching legacy of the Rockwell boys (did I
get that right?) for the visitors, holding the home side to 2 runs throughout
most of the game. One produced on a line drive by yours truly that almost took
his arm with it into center field, and got on Mitch so fast that I thought
Richie was DOA at the plate. Luckily, the throw was fumbled and the run was
scored. And I once again feel like it is possible to hit a ball hard. Nice
feeling to have back!
On to the
8th, where Tony picked up where he left off on the mound - tossing an array of
pitches and arm angles at the visitors that had them baffled from start to
finish. Then, in the bottom half, Carter's dominance waned just as the moon
began it's trip across the sun, casting an eerie pall over the field. Seriously
- the light got funky! I think that must have been what happened. Because all
the sudden a few hard hit and well placed balls, combined with a few errors by
the normally flawless SS Chris Powell opened the floodgates - leaving us
somewhere in the 12-3 vicinity.
The 9th got a
little adventurous, with the bases being loaded and us scrambling to actually
figure out when and if it was possible for the tying run to come up. But Tony
tightened up in time to buckle down the win. And we all lingered for a little
while looking through the pinholes in our caps (and our cups) at the eclipse.
My guess is that was the only place in America where a game-used cup was used
to cast the shadow of the eclipse. So... we should be proud I guess.
Have fun this
weekend folks. I'll be on a little road trip up Oregon way. See you in two
weeks!
MCGRATH:
It was pretty
grand outing with the bay to breakers and the eclipse. Greg could have been the Connecticut Yankee
as a few of us were completely in the dark about the forthcoming eclipse. A friend of Daniel's named Robin played right
in a gold sequined top and borrowed spikes from the gear bag. She was a very good player. I hope someone got a photo.
Greg, back
from Paris, pitched for the homers, and pitched well, mixing in the curve ball
with some good fast balls. Carter took
the bump for the visitors and was killing it for the first 7 innings. In 8th the score was 5-3 in favor of the
visitors, then the homers batted around and the ugly inning saw them get about
6 across the dish in classic MBC fashion, some good hits, some dinkers, some
bad luck and some bad D. I don't think
Chris Powell could have gotten more bad hops in the same inning. The homers hit
it hard that inning and the infield dirt was totally unforgiving. He must have woken up the next day with about
4 or 5 bruises.
In the final
frame, Tony relieved Greg, got the first two outs pretty quickly, but then the
homers started making a run at it with a 2 out rally and all of sudden it was
getting interesting. Then yours truly
got in the box with Ed's pink bat with runners in scoring position. Greg who was catching at that point stated
that it was "a pink bat moment", but it was Will's moment. He was too much for the pink bat. He made a great play at SS to pull down the
pink-bat-missile that was sailing toward the OF just to the left of second. Damn him.
My only hard hit ball on a 0 for 5 day.
Ed caught for
the visitors and Adam caught all but one inning for the homers
After the
game we monitored the eclipse vis-a-vis a "cup-ology" shadow casting
technique pioneered by Greg. Bob's cup
from 1983 seemed to toss the best shadow.
I think I had one of those back in high school. It sort of looked like the Jason mask from
Friday the 13th. Nick got some photos of
the crescent sun. I hope they end up in
the blog.
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