The 4th of July doubleheader. Always a great time, if not just for the fact that we get to play 2 baseball games instead of 1 but also good food, good hanging out, good celebration of a tradition that has been going on for many years now. None of us were feeling particularly patriotic this year given the current direction and climate in this country of ours, however in keeping with the spirit of focusing on what you can do locally, we did our part to entertain the people in Golden Gate Park with a couple of excellent baseball games.
The weather was....very San Francisco. A light rain was falling when we got there, though
some would argue it was just a heavy fog.
Through the course of the day we had moments of sun and warmth, but if I
had to call it one thing, it was a classic 4th Doubleheader weather
pattern.
Game One:
Satch started for the homers and Sean for the visitors and
that's how it started and that's how it ended; a complete game for both of us
and a really amazing back and forth. I would say that Sean was the more
dominant of the pitchers through the game. I felt like I was constantly in
trouble trying to figure out how to avoid more runs. Part of that might have
been the Murderer's Row of a lineup that I was facing which didn't seem to have
any flex to it at all.
Surprisingly we did not have the usual yuge numbers that we
normally do. It was 10 on 10 for both games, with a few people that could only
play the first game and a few people that could only play the second. Kind of
strange though because usually at these games you end up sitting half the time
because you're trying to cycle everybody through the defense. One of the great
things about not having 14 people in the lineup is you can get your good
hitters more often than normal; the bad news is as a pitcher they also get
their good hitters up more often.
The visitors opened up in a hurry helped by Chris Powell who
was hitting line drive after line drive all day and by the time we'd gotten to
the second inning I think the score was 2 to 1,
We had answered back with at least one run and from there it went up to
4-2 and it stayed there for quite a bit of the game. Somewhat reluctantly, I
will mention that I was responsible for tying up the game for four in the later
part of the game. I say so because my hit was not the most spectacular but fell
into a right field pocket that allowed two runs to score, still a line drive in
the books I suppose. Our team had its own version of the Bash Brothers x 3 with
Patrick, Jacob, and good Aaron hitting one after another.
Visitors then tacked on another run to make it 5-4 and we
went into the bottom of the ninth needing two runs. We got the first one very
easily, with good Aaron doing what he does all the time, line drive smash to a
hole in the outfield and then hustling as hard as he can to 2nd, then stealing
third, then coming home easily. With that the game was tied, all that remained
between us and BBQ was one more run. Two outs, runner on 3rd, and Satch
at the plate. Everyone tense, onlookers looking on, family in attendance,
impressionable youths waiting to see whether it's possible to still achieve as
an adult. I took one pitch and decided that I would swing at the next pitch if
it was anywhere close. Luckily it was and I hit a clean ground ball up the
middle, the run scored, and we all got to celebrate the doubleheader with the
traditional BBQ.
BBQ:
There were a multitude of dishes including a return of the
delicious blueberry dessert that Laura has brought out in year’s past, and some
new ones like fried Peaches, deviled eggs courtesy of Anna, a green salad from
Chris Powell, as well as a multitude of hamburgers, sausages, chips, drinks , hot
dogs, ribs, et cetera. Thanks to Nick for manning the grill, and everyone who
brought something to share. Special shout
out to JT, who again saved us all from being savages with his amazing portable and
all-encompassing picnic dining set.
The awards were eschewed this year with one exception,
Aaron, Jacob and Patrick were co-Rookies of the Year, congrats kids! No
pressure, but you are the future of the MBC game.
Second Game:
The second game — as usual with the doubleheaders—proves to
be a more lackadaisical affair, with more reminders as to who's up, or what the
order is. Which isn't all of our fault, since
some people do leave and the person that you thought you were batting after may
not be there anymore. However, a few libations in, the game gets softer on the
edges. We kept the teams the same, with
one trade, where we got Sean and they got Mitch, as a way of settling the need
for more arms. Our team, it turns out, was stacked with arms and we ended up employing
a Round Robin ploy, where we would have a new pitcher each inning.
I think it worked well, the score of the game again went
back and forth a little bit but at some point, we went ahead and stayed ahead.
I think we were having more fun than the other team was in the second game,
especially when there were a few innings when the ball got kicked more times
than it got caught, and the inning dragged on. Mitch pitched most of the game
for the home team and did very well but grew visibly frustrated when watching
his team unable to grab the handles of the baseball.
There was a comeback late in the game and was helped immensely by my inability to field a ground ball at first base. The home team threatened, bringing the score within 2 but ultimately unable to mount a comeback and the final score was 8 to 6.
Highlights:
* Thank you to everyone who brought out food utensils tables cleaning supplies grills charcoal or plums in a big box
* Special thanks to Greg and Nick for securing double permits for the day, which as the years go by has become more and more of an arduous process with the Parks and Rec. We also had a Ranger come and sit in his vehicle behind home plate for about 15 minutes just eyeballing us. Hopefully we left the field in good shape so that we don't have any blowback from that.
* Great pitching from Sean another dynamite head-to-head complete game competition I'll keep doing it if you keep doing it.
* Chris Powell with the line drives and some amazing diving plays at shortstop.
* Daniel comes out of the woodwork or at least the Monterey
area once a year to play baseball the only regret is that we won't see him
again for another year I wish that he could be able to play with us more often.
* Mitch being on my team in the first game was amazing because when you have Mitch playing shortstop, he also is essentially a 4th outfielder that is able to track down all the difficult bloops and blips that seem to happen in our game.
* Ed's shoes finally bit the dust, luckily he was able to take the next paid of spare cleats from the team bag, which apparently is where the previous pair also came from
* Very glad to have Gabe back from the Middle East, safe and sound
* Double plays to kill rallies were making their presence known
* Ed comes out twice in 4 years, and he plays people perfectly in the outfield, robbing them of hits
* Thanks to the band that played Take Me Out to the Ballgame twice: once with all of us singing and a lone guitar accompaniment, and one with the full band
* Anna had some nice digs at first and a two RBI at bat
* There was a high percentage of rockets caught by infielders
* Charlie D had 3 putouts at 2nd, including a bare-hander and a nice sno-cone scoop, nice job kid!
* The amount of hustle down the line to beat out close plays at first was impressive and discouraging
* Thanks to Gaspar, Greg, Naldony, Nick, Patrick for doing the catching
* Sean definitely helped us a couple of times by loafing into a base with time for us to get the force, maybe he knew that he was going to be traded in the next game?
* Jacob with the big fly of the day, a long drive down the left field line:
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