Apparently the CYO baseball league has a lock on the West Sunset field for Sundays in perpetuity. They play every week. It is inconceivable that they would not have a permit. The problem with that is we had a permit that clearly listed us as having the field yesterday.
If we ever needed a clear indication as to why the majority of us should not be professional negotiators, this was it. Most of us instantly got red-assed and started chirping amongst ourselves as to what was going to happen at 3:30 when the permit took effect and the CYO game was not over yet. Cuz that's our field, and those kids need to learn the RULES!
Luckily, we are captained by a person with infinitely more patience and panache, Greg, who took the high road, and also managed to insert some venomous verbal barbs to the grumpy CYO guy while he was offering resolution. It was pretty amazing to see. CYO guy was so sure he was in the right, but he didn't gather his evidence first. He knew they had a permit, because they ALWAYS have the permit. This particular strategy has been used several times on us, and they are always wrong. Greg offered to move us down to the other field, and we did, while the guy was fumble-fucking with his phone to download the permit that he KNEW they had. Turns out they had a permit for the field....next week. Wah wah.
In his defense, he was categorically apologetic and made a special trip down to acknowledge the error. I don't think any of us would mind if CYO paid for our permit at some point, as a goodwill gesture. Let me also say that Greg was right from the start, when he tried to get us to go down to the other field immediately, and none of us would because we are all a bunch of playground tough guys that want to push around some kids.
The weather was absolutely amazing, the sun was a bit of a bear, but the roar of the ocean and the warm temperatures made it one of the nicest games I have ever been a part of. Game time was late in starting with all the bureaucracy, but we did get going by about 3:45, and the teams looked a little wonky. Sean was pitching for the homers and Satch for the visitors. We drew first blood to the tune of two runs and when I saw the lineup for the homers, I got a little worried. Powell, Sean, Lynch, Adam, Nick W to start off. As far as I am concerned that's 3 doubles and 4 stolen bases every time around. My defense came to my rescue though, and we managed to quash the impending slaughter a few times.
The extra gleam in everyone's eyes was due to the left field fence, which we rarely have and even more rarely is it a mere 286 feet from home plate. I went to bat the first time with a cheater bat--avoided getting hit even though Greg put in the order-- and then grounded out to Powell. That was about how my day at the plate went. Others fared much better, especially lefties. Elon hit 3 doubles, Lynch had an almost in the park homer, Sean was masterful as usual, and Phelps, well, he had a bad toe.
I threw 5 innings, was helped by two double plays by my defense, and exited the game with the score 6-2. Felt good, the mound was nice. John McG pitched another great inning, then HR came in for two strong, though the homers did start to mount a comeback, and New Guy Ben closed the door after some fireworks. Sean threw the bulk of the game, and Greg came in for the final 2, which felt like the first time in a while.
I have to say that the home team was on wrong end of several close plays. I was not in the position to question some of the calls, but I have to say there were a lot, and none of them went their way. Maybe our defense was that sharp, but I think more than that, our defense was really sure of being in the right. Maybe the CYO guy energy was rubbing off on us. Specifically Lynch's almost-homerun and Adam's put out at third in the 9th inning. They were the difference in the game, unfortunately. Maybe our defense was that good? Either way, the homers were raging in the comeback, from 8-4 they quickly made it a close game and we were all a bit worried in the bottom of the 9th, with the tying run on 2nd. However, the comeback was not to be.
The icing on the day was Ben hitting a legitimate homerun in the 9th inning, a towering blast that cleared the fence by 20 feet and probably would have been about 340 feet had it not slammed the concrete wall of the upper deck arena. Nice to see something like that.
Most people had a hard stop at 6pm, but we managed to get the full 9 innings in, another glorious game in the books.
Final, 8-7, Visitors.
Highlights:
* Such a mighty wallop. I know it says 299, but that thing was still going up when it hit the wall.
* Elon does really well at everything, considering he comes out twice a year
* Greg, Gaspar, McG, Phelps and Sean all did great behind the dish. Two lefty catchers has to be a MBC record
* Kenball with the diving catch in left field!
* Elon with the diving catch in right field!
* Gaspar once again showing his level of surgical aptitude, dropping a hit perfectly in between all fielders in left
* Ana with a nice hit to right, with an RBI
* Lynch with the down the line triple, I tried to coach him from third but he didn't listen
* Brian had a hell of a throw to third to get Adam (if he was truly got).
* Greg scaled a 15 foot fence to get our baseballs back. He's like Spiderman and Thurgood Marshall rolled into one
* Ben doing it all, including a fine pick from the mound for the final out
* Good to see Tony out, even if he wasn't playing, hopefully his glorious return is not too far off
* Tim helping his brother out of a jam with a pressure play at 2nd
* The sun on the ocean made for pretty blinding conditions in the latter part of the game
* Two double plays is a nice thing to lean on when you are pitching
