Well, the time tested method of dibs and COVID bureaucracy finally screwed us.
We are not able to secure a permit because we are not a league, and that is the only people getting permits. The other field was taken by a non-official league that had just started their game. The other field near the skate park was taken by softball batting practice, leaving us to chance a move to St Mary's or play at the other LL field. We measured out the bases, which were about 15 feet into the outfield on all sides, and the mound. Throwing on a flat surface was nice after months of falling off the cliff at Potrero. However, the more immediate concern was any hard hit foul ball to the left had a decent chance of damaging property and/or risking injury to bystanders. So everyone tried real hard not to pull the ball. It mostly worked.
Sonny started for the homers and he went the distance, with a win under adverse conditions. This was not his first CG, but it may have been his finest. Not only were we on a field 2 sizes small, we had a constant gale force wind to contend with, no joke, about 25-35 mph. I started for the visitors, and felt good, not trying too hard, and once we realized that the wind was blowing the right direction for the knuckleball, we had some good innings. Sean came in after I took myself out of the game on a injury in the 6th, and he took it the rest of the way and held the visitors right where they were.
The visitors put up 4 runs very early on, and then we quieted them down. We could not score a run to save our life in the beginning, and the key word for this game was double plays. I think the visitors made 4-5 of them. I know I hit into at least 2.
We were getting good hits, John Mcg had a loud day with the bat, as did Urano, but we couldn't get them around. We finally scored a run in the middle of the game, and then another. The visitors were making it look easy, and we kept getting every bad hop and dropped ball that we could. I will say that we did have good luck with our second efforts though, and still managed to get some outs after a oopsie.
By the 9th rolled around, we were in a 5-4 scrap, and looked like we might tie it up. Chris L led off with a hit, I bunted him into scoring position, but Sonny doubled down his effort and we left our tying run on base.
MVP: Sonny with the complete game
Highlights:
* Chris P made a couple of amazing over the shoulder catches, and almost made a few more. He seemed to have invented a new position Short left fielder stop.
* Elon had an amazing dig at first
* Bob made a couple of good put outs are first on tricky grounders, and Sean and I both remembered to cover 1st.
* John McG made several outs at 2nd in needed scenarios, and also slapped some boss line drives.
* The wind made anything in the air a gamble. A ball I thought was going over 2nd base ended up falling about 5 feet behind me on the mound.
* Double plays!
* JT showed up to make things almost perfect, and did a great job of keeping the score and innings straight.
* Mitch didn't care about the wind, he can still Mitch whenever he needs to
* New guy Virgil is a dead ringer for Richie, if Richie had a gray beard. It's amazing
* I clicked for a second in the 5th inning, and had a 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks.
* Is that a foul ball, a double, or a homerun? was one of the themes of the day.
* We kept hitting the ball hard, but right to the wrong person
* A great game of baseball under not so great conditions.
* Get well soon Greg, Anna, Tony, anyone else nursing an injury beyond our usual bunch of injuries....
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