Super bowl Sunday game is always a little weird. I am not a fan of football, but the "big game" has become more than anything about football these days, and sometimes it is good to have your finger on the pulse of what is going on. Plus our friends host it each year since we don't have cable, and they make really good buffalo wings. The timing conundrum is always hard, since we are still starting at 1pm these days, and in theory, we should be able to play a game and make it before the 3:30 start.
Yesterday was no exception, in fact we cruised through that game with time to spare, by 2:30 we were deep in the last innings of the game, and only a blip in the control of the pitching in the 9th kept us from finishing in under 2 hours.
This game was also special as it was Alejandro's last game—for a while. I was very pleased to see how many people came out for it, we were 14-13 at our pinnacle, and the game was a pleasure to be a part of. Alejandro has been coming out for many years now, he is a great guy and we will miss his talent and his personality. Sure, he is a Dodgers fan, but it turns out, there are a lot of those in the world and it is better to live and let live. I am also pleased to hear that there may soon be a MBC sister game emerging in Mexico, stay tuned.
I started for the homers and Sean for the visitors. I was trying to push the tempo of the game as much as possible, so it was 1 warm up pitch, 1 throw down and let's go. The change up was working, as was the fastball. The curve never really got consistent, but I was helped by some solid defense. Tony caught a pop fly, Adam and Good Aaron made some scoops, Nick W caught some fly balls, Greg was a wall behind the dish, Gator was roaming all over SS, and Rick perfected the wait until the last minute play at 2nd.
We got out to a 1 run lead, the visitors tied it up soon after, and we had ourselves a ball game. Sean was throwing well, and I think we hit into at least 2-3 double plays to kill the rallies. However, Good Aaron hustled his way from 2nd to home on a single and we took the lead again. My shoulder is sore from pitching, so I will try not to pull it patting myself on the back, but I stepped up, with Alec on base, got into a 2 strike hole on a deceptive curveball that I may or may not have gone around on, and choked up on the tree trunk and put my entire soul into one. It could not be confirmed if the sound off my bat, or my grunt was louder. It went a long ways in left field, and Sean, gentleman that he is, gave me the twirly sign for HR. Yay! This was what google maps tells us.
That put the game in our pocket, and we did not look back after that. The real irony is that Gator hit one further than me, to center field, but Dave would not acknowledge the distance, and our complaints fell on deaf ears. So it was a really far double. Maybe it is because Gator appears to still be able to run, so he has to leg out a real in the park HR.
While all this was happening, the weather took a left turn, we had been enjoying 67 degree sunshine and blue sky in the park, and in no less than 3 minutes, a wall of fog rushed over the game, and we were in a gray, raining nightmare. I have never seen the weather change that fast. Sunscreen was traded in for long sleeves in one half inning.
Tony, Alec and Gator combined for the save over the last 4 innings, and all did well. Dave took over from Sean and we landed in the 9th inning, still up 5-1? That is how it ended, we Hip-Hip-Hoorayed for Alejandro, provided a cathartic release related to his upcoming move and scattered to the 4 winds.
Highlights
* Farwell and Good luck to Alejandro, thank you for doing your part for the MBC!
* The two change-up sequence that Greg called against Sean was Machiavellian. And it worked!
* Double plays for the visitors all day!
* Nick's running catch was impressive
* Alec brought some heat to the mound in his debut
* Great to see all the new guys coming out on a regular basis!
* Thanks to Marcie and Anna for providing just the right send off
* Rick and Johnny B both out!
* Tony's on-going battle with pop ups is a real thing. But he caught one!
* Mike Naldony is hitting with the shin guards now on the reg, and he is in my head.
* A clean fast game is something that we should strive for more often
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