8/24/25 GGP

Beautiful SF summer Sunday.  About 66 degrees and foggy, saw the sun twice in 3 hours.

Thank you to everyone that showed up on Sunday, we were without a MBC founding member for the first time in a while, that I can remember.  Greg, Tony, Adam all out of pocket for various reasons.  For the game purposes—in their absence— seniority fell to Nick Smith, who was out there playing like it was 2001.  

I got to be on the same team as Sean, which rarely happens, and we faced our old rival, Sonny Big League.  Sonny's pitching has improved a lot over the years and now that is he is a professional, he is a tough arm to face.  His fastball has more zip, and he breaks off the off speed stuff with aplomb.

I started the game, hoping to get some innings, and much like Ralph in the Alka Seltzer commercial,  I can't believe I ate the whole thing!  Big cap tip to my team, this game was won on defense.  I got to the field planning for the 3:30 start time, and of course the game before ended at 2:30.  So anyway, I didn't warm up beforehand, and took the bump without having thrown.  Needless to say, the first inning was problematic, the homers scored 2 and then I went out for the 2nd feeling better.  

About halfway through that inning I remember feeling my arm loosen up and have more pep.  A good feeling to have.  Curveball was finally working regularly, so I used that in the beginning of the game, and then as my elbow got tweaky towards the middle of the game, I moved to a change of speed style.  

We answered back the two runs and then one more to take the lead which we didn't surrender the rest of the game.  We had a couple of nice efficient innings in the middle, in the sixth, I checked in with Sean about pitching.  He encouraged me to keep throwing and so I did.  Probably because Greg was not there to shame me to into giving up the bump and stop glory hunting and thinking only of myself.  All true, but when no one is saying it out loud, its easier to ignore.  Again, thank you to my team for letting me eschew the code for the game.

Gabe came in after Sonny, who is a scary pitcher to face.  He's got a real cannon, and seems like he has settled down a lot since starting, but the odd pitch comes in high and tight and makes one's starfish pucker.  I think we tend to forget what facing a real fastball is like.  Gabe is here to remind us.  Anyway, my team did admirably against him, but I was shit.  I struck out and flied out.  Chris Powell followed Gabe and did great too.

About the 7th inning, the homers got to me, and the score was 8-4 with threats of more.  My defense once again made the plays and we escaped with no further harm.  I downshifted into slow, meatball corner pitches and that was pretty much the game.  Bottom of the 9th the homers threatened again with a a lot of baserunners, but we got the job done, with a diving catch in center field by Cleveland's own Mike Gaspar to end the game.

Final, 8-4, visitors.

Highlights

* Some amazing plays were made

* Jacob new guy did well, hit a rocket but unfortunately got Mitched (who was on our team!!!! and filling in for Nate who disappeared) on a sure fire triple

* Alejandro with the shoestring laser catch

* Mitch was great everywhere he played, but got fucked by the wind in right in the first inning.

* THE WIND IN RIGHT!  Dang, it was a wall.  Gabe tattooed one off of me early in the game to right center, and it literally stopped in mid flight and dropped for a catch.  The whole game the wind was an issue

* Gaspar hit a Gaspar special that should be a first-ballot Gaspar HOF.  It arced around third base and landed about a foot from the foul line.  It was perfection.

* Two awesome pop outs behind the dish, Gabe and Kenball making the plays!

* Everyone who played first base made an awesome play

* I think there were 2 or 3 double plays.

* Big hits and RBIs- Gabe, Powell, McG, Sean, Lynch, Anna, Nick W., Gaspar, Mitch, Kenball

* The band was out and entertained us the whole game, complete with a national anthem and 7th inning stretch.

* Kenball again with the foul out catch, at first base

* Gabe had at least 4-5Ks

* Best curveball of my whole game was employed to strike out Nick Smith, sorry!

* The changeup made for about 5 weird, end-of-the-bat squibbers

* Sonny put it best, "When you throw the whole game, you feel like you got to do your job."

For the kids that don't know what the fuck I am talking about.

8/17/25 GGP

 After 2 weeks or more of subpar showings, Greg shamed a lot of us into making the game.  It worked, as it usually does, and we had 11-11 for the bulk of the game.  That was the good news.  

The bad news was that we stood around for an hour waiting for the game before us to finish.  

Officially, our permit was for 3:30, so we were a little early, but we were being polite, letting the teams know that we were waiting and anything they could do to move it along would be appreciated.  Our inside lane was that Liam and Aiden were playing on that team.  That blew up in our faces, and what was promised was not delivered as the minutes ticked by.  Supposedly, it was a 1-run game and they didn't want to just quit a good game.  I get that.  What happens if it gets tied up though?  Luckily, they floundered, and the game ended.  We didn't start our game until after 4pm, so it was an abbreviated contest.

Sean started for the homers, with Gabe in new catcher's gear, bought off Craigslist by someone giving up the game.  I started for the visitors, with Greg behind the dish.  Dave scored a run for us in the first inning, which we thought was a good portent of things to come.  How wrong we were.  The first couple of innings were not bad, the game was back and forth: 3-2, 5-3.  

Then the roof caved in on our defense and the homers pushed 9 runs across the board.  Ouch.  

I was pitching for what felt like a month and we still didn't have an out.  I gave up my share of hits, including a Gabe hit that should have been a automatic round-tripper (see picture below) but for whatever reason, no one was fighting for it.  Our infield could not make the throw to first base.  Anna tried her best, but every throw was 5 feet in front of her, or 5 feet over her head.  So it went, on and on.  My estimate is that we were about 2 for 10 on ground ball outs in the inning.  When we got the first out, it felt like Christmas.

So the game from there out was not quite as much fun as it could have been.  I threw 2 more innings, then handed the ball off to Dave for the final inning.  He did great, but we could not do anything with the bats, and Sean ended up with a CG and the win.

13-5, Homers.

Highlights

* New guys abounded, and they were all good.  One in particular smoked the ball

* My change up was getting cranked and the knuckleball was working but still being hit hard

* JT was robbed of a hit by an overzealous New Guy who should know better than to pick on a old man

* Tony was out, in a rehab start, taking it easy, but great to see him!

* The homers staffed a real Murderers Row of a line up

* Mike N was responsible for some soul crushing RBIs

* Greg and McG and Gabe behind the dish

* Aiden and Liam were not invited to play with us, but wormed their way into the bottom of the lineup

* Diego made some good stops at SS, but had a case of the yips

* I guess the old saying that pitching, defense, home runs, timely hitting, baserunners, and speed win ball games is true.

* So I posited the question to our dugout in the midst of the hitting doldrums: There is no Buster Posey rule in the MBC, so would it ever be OK to truck the catcher at a play at the plate?  More to the point, if Gabe was the catcher, and the runner knew what they were committing to.  For those that don't know, Gabe is probably a solid-muscle 250lbs and built like a defensive end.  There are only a few people I can think of that would create more than a minor disturbance for him in that situation, so that would make it seem like a caveat emptor situation.  Greg bought up a valid point that Gabe should be asked what his opinion on the whole thing might be.  I admit the whole thing is sort of half-serious, if anyone actually tried to bust the catcher, we would probably all be very upset.  However, if the catcher is bigger and stronger than you—by a lot—does that change anything? 

8/2/25 San Quentin Giants vs MBC

First time in 2 years that I got play inside, and it is a whole new thing.  Since our Snyder brothers and Sonny are now coaching the team, we have the inside track on entries, and extra time, and getting out in a reasonable fashion.  

The day was expectedly brisk for 7:45am, in the parking lot, and we were on time for our gate check.  I was even allowed to bring in the Tree Trunk, after appealing to the team that I needed it for my gentle giant hands.  Fat lot of good it did me, but it was an entertaining anomaly for the other team, so not all bad. 

Greg sidestepped playing time, so we had 10 players in the lineup, which was nice.  I was assigned 1^st base for the bulk of the game, as it was concluded that I could do the least amount of defensive damage from there.  Liam started on the bump and was in good form, throwing 6 strong innings, 4 runs scored, of which only 2 were earned. He was busting the hitters inside and kept them from getting anything extended.

Our starting defensive set up was: 

Liam-1

Gabe-2

Satch-3

Mike N-4

Lynch-5

Sean-6

Shark-7

Carter-8

HR-9

Conor-Reserve

So not a bad team, all things considered, and we kept it close for several innings.  We got out to a lead early on and held it for the first half of the game.  The highlight of the game for us was definitely the round-tripper that Gabe hit out to right center and into the First Nation sweat lodge space.

The SQ players are a fast and aggressive bunch though, and there is only so much you can do when guys can take bases with impunity and are always challenging the arms.  A better 1^st baseman may have had some of them, but I was peppered with one wild pickoff throw after another from Liam and Gabe, and SQ made the most of it.  We were still ahead 5-2 when a player ripped a ground ball to center that megged Carter (as the kids say) and by the time he got to it, the batter had an in-the-park HR.  Damn.

We also held the distinction of having only lefty SS's for the game, Sean and Shark splitting duty.  Liam left with the game still intact 5-4 and handed the ball off to Satch for an inning.  I coughed up the lead but managed to lean on my defense enough to escape with the score knotted at 5-5.  This was mostly due to a great catch in left by Shark who had the gamesmanship to fire the ball to Nadolny covering 2^nd and double up the runner.  If we have one thing in common with the SQ team, we both could improve our baserunning skills.  I struck out a player for the final out with the Eephus changeup, freezing him.  yay!

Shark came in for the final innings of the game and threw well.  The SQ players started to get used to our pitching, and their hitting became more confident.  They scored a few more runs, as our offensive output dried up and though we played an extra inning since we had the time, it was to no avail and the final score was a loss for the MBC

9-5, SQ Giants.

Highlights

* ‎As they tear down the old wall behind the backstop, there is less of a problem with the ball blending into the background

* Gabe's HR was a real beauty!

* Liam's pitching was on point 

* Both Liam and Shark had the runners befuddled from the stretch and we picked off several runners

* The defensive play of the game was a hit to the gap in left center, easily a double.  Liam got to it and made an amazing throw to on a line to 3^rd base, and Lynch then fired it home to Gabe to tag out the sliding runner at the plate.  It was awesome.

* We staffed 3 lefties in the lineup and still couldn't get that short porch

* Add another victim to the hit...wait...9-3 SQ putout

* Greg caught the 10th, which was nice

* Shark made some great plays at SS, and had a lot more hustle, word is he is a lot younger than the beard tells us

* The bane of the outfielders is the fly ball that tracks into the gravel and about 15 inmates doing laps

* We were welcomed with the addition of Jenny and friends, who came in to cheer the teams on.  Greg has been playing baseball for 30 years in the MBC, and finally got the compliment from his wife that this "baseball thing is kind of entertaining."