Monday, June 16, 2014

6/15/14 West Sunset



Apparently attendance has been light for the past few weeks, so if you are reading, this start making plans to come play on Sunday and not go to brunch with your significant others friends from the South Bay, who you really don't care about anyway and who will be 30 minutes late and then talk about their trouble with finding suitable and trustworthy dog walkers the whole time.

Nothing could have been more appropriate on a Father's Day to have the younger generation figure in the game and figure greatly they did.  Aiden, Liam and John all played like All Stars, made some amazing defensive plays and in general made us feel like we were part of something pretty damn special.  Mitch and Satch squared off on the bump, both going the distance and both keeping the game within reason through a mastery of defense and gutsy pitches.  I can say for my part that the defensive skills of Aiden, Liam and John went a long way in making this a close game.  Aiden’s first catch seemed like a lucky break, in that he caught it instead of being killed by it (a frozen rope that curved into his glove).  His second was a rollicking backwards leap that surprised everyone, Aiden included, who confessed his eyes were closed in the last second.  Not to be outdone, the next inning, Liam gets a high, windy fly ball that he tracks down with confidence and aplomb.  An inning after that, John Carey makes a diving catch in the no man’s land of left-center, I tell ya, it was a thing to behold.  I know Bob  and John M. were proud papas.  Not bad for an outfield that ranged in age from 9-15?

For the first 8 innings, the teams were pretty tight, we both scored 1 run in the early part of the game, and that held for a few, then the visitors went up and then the homers scored and there we were cruising into the 8th and it wasn’t even 5 pm yet!  The homers were pretty stacked with hitters though and it was only a matter of time before the defensive odds caught up with us.  Not coincidentally, Rick K., another father who rarely gets Sunday playtime was also out and was a sizable contributor to the game, including the laziest triple in recent history.

With a 4-2 lead in the 9th, we visitors felt we had things fairly locked down, but no lead is safe, and with a misplayed infield pop up and then a barrage of hits, the homers came back, tied it up, then Mitch (who had been robbed several times in his at bats) stroked one up the middle and the homers were victorious 5-4. 

Quidam id mihi damno ludos.

Highlights

* Defense!

* The grass in the infield killed every ground ball

* Mitch pitched a hell of a game and deserved the win.

* Explaining the Gaspar shift to the kids proved to go against everything they had learned about the game up to that point

* First game I pitched in shorts ( I left my baseball pants on the garage floor) since the infamous post-Bay to Breakers game of 2003.

* There were some very close plays at first, John Carey was HUSTLING!

* For not coming out often, Rick was on the ball as usual, including a texas leaguer that fell due to the outfield was playing him at 490.

* Satch and Greg,  Strike ‘em out, pick ‘em off, that was pretty awesome

* Liner back to me, almost knocked the glove off.  The hand doesn’t hurt today though, so that is something

* There were an inordinate amount of line drives right at people

* I love a quick tight game. 

* Duane isn’t swinging at my curveball anymore, making it much more difficult to get him out…

* I threw one of the nastiest knucklers in history to Gaspar, for strike three.  Unfortunately so nasty that Greg couldn’t handle it either and Mike made it to first.

* Happy Father’s Day to all of you


Post Script

Tony Gwynn died today at 54.  He was that true jewel that loved the game and it loved him back, pure and honest.  How many players these days will play for only one team in their career?  A cautionary tale in smokeless tobacco use. RIP Mr. Padre.