I feel like we really deserved this game, last year's 4th of July came a and went with very little fanfare. No BBQ, no beer, Don just walked away with another year of the AOY trophy. So this year was nice to have something familiar, and a great game to boot.
Yes, I said game. We ended up playing one long game with an intermission. Or maybe we didn't. It was a fluid kind of thing.
Greg started for the visitors, and Sonny for the homers. Greg had his 17 Reasons shirt on for good luck, and Tony had his custom made MBC uniform. In general, the visitors had a lot the more mature players of the MBC, but also a smattering of the new crew. The homers definitely had the advantage on paper, and it turns out, in reality too. They scored first and often. they also had every lefty just about, and they seemed to hit in bunches. The visitors was more of a happy go lucky kind of thing, we scored our runs the old fashioned way, by hoping the other team made errors. Tony followed Greg, and I think Phelps and McG and Mike N. followed Sonny
I won't attempt to recap the whole thing, mostly because a week has gone by now and it is hard to remember, but I can say that it was a great first 9 innings, and we managed to the tie the game up in the 9th, only to let it slip away in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a long drive, a fast runner, and a veteran player in left field. First pitch, Sean blasted to left, over Bob's head, and enough away that he had a triple for sure, and a homerun once we realized that it was going to have to be a 3-man relay to get it home. He deserved it.
BBQ was off the hizzy this year, thanks to lots of healthy side salads, Anna's cornbread, which was used to bribe a park official who had a beef about our charcoal grills, a tri-tip from Grass Valley Will, and lots of good times sharing laughs and food with friends. I know I wasn't the only one that was grateful that we are able to start getting life back to normal-ish. I hope things continue to go in that direction.
Awards for this year: Anna Marjavi was our walkaway Rookie of the Year, as she comprises all that we value in the game, drive, spunk, good sense of humor, regular attendance, and the ability to reliably catch, throw, and hit the ball. And as usual, she also suffered from a frustrating game of defense and offense all day. It never fails, win an award for great play, have a not-so-great-play day. Happens all the time, but no matter, big congrats and thanks to Anna for her spirit and play over the last year plus.
The Asshole of the Year has been wrested away from Don, who didn't even have the guts to show up this year. The AOY trophy went to a man who has personally contributed to the degradation and ruination of the great game of baseball, our own pitcher's cheat wholesaler, Pelican pine tar stick producer Dave Phillips.
The 2nd game got a little sloppy as it usually does, and we lost a few players without a 2nd game reinforcement that we usually have in years past. I started for the visitors, and Sean for the homers. Sean was pitching his ass off, and we were not able to do much. I had to leave in the middle of the game, and I don't know if they played the full 9, or stopped at 7. The game was suffering from severe torpor at that point. And still the most fun that anyone can have.
Happy Birthday America!
Highlights
* Big hitters for the day: Will, Dan, Sean, Chris P., Mike L All of these guys hit the piss out of the ball, I think Will had about 5 doubles. Dan might have had the longest drive to right center.
* Double plays helped both teams out of jams
* John McG had the hardest line drive of the day
* More than one pop foul to the catcher was caught, a difficult play
* WE had a lots of fans, mostly to do with Adam's daughter
* RBI Ed was on the scene and even managed to wash his uniform some time in the last 12 months.
* The game was changed by a suspect fair ball call down the left field line.
* I managed to throw out a runner at first from right field, all while being trucked by Adam who was playing second
* Doc came out and umpired a spell, and then faded back into the corn field
* Knuckleball was working pretty good at one point
* The weather was the usual mixture of heavy fog, wind, 10s of sun, etc.
* Daniel D. drove up from Monterey, and got his doubleheader fix
* Dennis saw the panic of the week before when no one showed up and decided to bolster our numbers. He is post-back surgery, so thanks to him for his willingness to sacrifice himself
* Nick Smith saw the old 2018 sign up sheet that still listed him as bringing a Weber and was guilted into coming. By any means necessary.
* At one point we had a little league style play where everyone ran after the ball, abandoned their bases, allowing the runners to advance.
* Mental note, maybe we need to bring either exclusively propane from now on, or a metal bucket to assure any rangers that we will be disposing of coals properly.
* I apologize if I missed any other plays, email me and I will add
Thanks everyone for showing up, and staying safe. I love this game so much, it's great to see if survive and thrive.
S. Paige.
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