4/23/15 San Quentin Giants vs. MBC

The first prison game of the year was met with a lot of traffic and paperwork to begin with.  Not exactly how one wants to start the season, but it is the Bay area, and it is prison, so....

Rules have gotten stricter; we have to formally sign no-hostage and no-interaction forms now, and the gate guard goes through each of our pieces of equipment searching for contraband (I guess) and we can't bring metal bats, metal canteens or bags of any kind.  Sorry Noah, you will have to leave your 57 lbs of gear at home this year....

As usual, we lost one man before we started (get that license renewed rookie) and not as usual, we were led by our new manager, Johnny "Cornelius McGillicuddy" Bartlett into the depths of the pen. He composed the line-up, kept a formal scorecard and was quick to argue on behalf of the team on a bullshit ground rule double call.  Under his new management, we thrived.  This was close to what the lineup looked like ( I am operating off of memory here.)

Mitch CF
Ed LF/RF
Chris SS
Satch P/RF
Sean 1st/P
Duane 1st
Brian RF/LF
Sonny 2b
Daniel 3b
Greg C

I wouldn't say I felt good going into the game, or at least not better than usual.  But once on the bump, the fastball seemed to be pretty lively and I got a couple of people to swing at the knuckleball, so all was well there.  In the second, mixed in between a couple of very loud hits, I managed to strike out the side.

In a rare move of thinking about someone other than me, I took myself out and asked Johnny to put Sean in to make sure he got a chance to pitch.  Glad I did, as Sean stifled the Giants for the rest of the time, striking out three for himself.  In addition, Sean hit a massive gapper that should have been a triple, but was called back inexplicably by the 2nd base umpire who called it a ground rule double, even though the player had never signaled it.  It never came in contact with anything other than the usual fencing and concrete out in right.  I was pissed cuz I scored from first on the play and had to go back to third. Eventually I scored on Duane's hit to the right side and subsequent defensive error, as did Sean.

The Giants for their part played a good game, their best pitcher was in the hole, reportedly for some vague allegation that he was dealing.  SQ S.O.P is that you get thrown in solitary while they investigate your case.  He had been in there a month already, and showed no sign that he might be released any time soon.  The replacement pitcher was a young kid, with a decent fastball and a great curve that he used sparingly int he first few innings and relied more on as the game went on.  We hope to see him again.  A lot of new faces on the Giants, but they all knew what they were doing and the game was a closely contested one.  The fans started strong, one in particular was jabbering away the entire game.  He wanted to know each of our names as we came to bat, and he rode us pretty hard for everything we did.  Thankfully, he was on the Giants case as well, especially as Sean and I piled up K's.

The most amazing play--and thankfully with a good ending-- was the left fielder crashing the concrete and pipe barrier in foul territory in pursuit of a foul ball hit by current AOY, Ed.  The outfielder caught the ball a split second before his thighs hit the low concrete wall and his head connected with the pipe railing.  A sickening sound thudded through the park, and it looked like it could be really bad.  An alarm was sounded and we waited for what seemed like a long time, while the EMT came rolling out in his golf cart.  Luckily, the fielder arose after a minute, with a bandage on his left eyebrow, but moving under his own power.  And he held on to the ball!   We all applauded loudly.  It was a great play.

Darkness was falling rapidly, and in the last inning, it became very hard to see the ball against the wall.  A double to right center was missed by everyone, Mitch ran the opposite way to catch it, before realizing it was behind him.  Sean got the final out and we gathered to shake hands and humbly accept praise on the fact that we managed to win a game.  We talked to SQ stalwarts Chris and Otter, who let us know that the A's are again a force to be reckoned with.

Final Score- 4-1 in five innings, making it an official game.

Out the way we came, listen to the same jokes about getting to leave because we won, and that we looked like a team formed in a bar (yeah, and...?), took a very dark team picture and on to the Marin Brewing Company for some refreshments.