The Catch

I wrote in a previous post about the memory, and how it changes events. Things you thought, just were not so. Just the other night, I was talking to a teammate about the '68 World Series; he's from Detroit and I am from St. Louis. The Tigers and Cardinals played in the World Series that year. My memory is seeing the game that put the Cardinals up three games to one in that Series and then they blew it and lost the next three games. He insisted that that game was in Detroit, so unless I traveled to Michigan, that was not the game I saw. I do remember that Bob Gibson pitched the first game, and set a Series record with 17 strikeouts. We were supposed to go to that game but it was on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. We spent the morning in synagogue, and came home and watched it on TV. Instead we must have gone to Game Two, which the Cardinals lost 8-1, as I found out when I looked it up. So there you have it, I don't have a single memory of the one World Series game I ever experienced in person.

Which gives a pinch of salt to the following. Some of it may be true some may be not. Here is the story: I also remember that my dad caught a foul ball sometime in the 50s at Sportsman Park, the original St Louis baseball venue that later became known as Busch Stadium. In those days they gave you an actual scroll when you caught one; I clearly remember seeing it. Eventually he gave me the ball. But a ten year old has no appreciation for history and the rarity of events. As soon as I was a ball short to play with in the street, and it was the only one available, I started playing with it. I used it until the cover was coming off, and then one day, someone overthrew it, and it rolled down the street, across the intersection, and into the sewer. Gone.

Later I felt guilty about it. I mean, that ball should have been on the mantle and I just simply disrespected it.

Another time, I have a vague memory, when I was really young, of attending a game with my father, mother and my sister. I was only eight or ten at the most. At some point in the game, they all three got up to go to the bathroom. Being a FAN, I moved from the farthest seat from home plate to the nearest in our group of four. I mean, how unfair was it that my sister got to sit closer? And before they got back, my mind has this happening...a towering foul ball goes up, and it drifts closer and closer, and I can't seem to track it, and it hits the seat that I had vacated.

I don't know how much of any of this is true; I hold them to be true regardless.

But here is what I know is true: Today, I caught a foul ball at an Oakland A's game at the Coliseum. I finally got one after all these years.

My friend Don helped me with some woodwork repair (he is a wood artist), and I happened to pick up the board he fixed for me yesterday. While I was there, a friend of his called him up and offered him his box seats for today's A's game. Later that night Don called and asked if I wanted to go. Of course! Who wouldn't?

We had seats in the sixth row behind the visitors' dugout. They were fabulous. I was late, we didn't get there until the bottom of the second. He gave me my ticket, it was the aisle seat and he had seat two. I thought of giving him the aisle seat, but something held me back.

Before we got there, the A's had made a couple of errors, and given up a run, and then the next time Seattle was up they hit a couple of bombs, and by the seventh the A's had five hits to the Mariners' three, but were trailing 4-1. It seemed at that point that it was a waste of great seats. The good guys were going to lose, and I even kind of lost focus on the game.

And then in the bottom of the seventh up strode Derek Norris, the A's rookie catcher. I don't even remember how many outs there were or what the count was. But then he hit this flare foul, and it was coming our way. Time slowed down, and seemed to stop completely. No one moved, except me. I just slid out of my seat, and got under it in the aisle, and it just floated and floated, and I reached up and speared it one handed. And it stuck in my palm. Everyone around cheered. Guys were giving me high fives, everyone was telling me nice grab. One guy, who was actually sitting closer to it on the other side of the aisle, left when the A's still trailed in the eighth (!), and on the way out said "Great Catch."

It was what we all dream of when we go to the games. And here's the thing: The A's got one back in the eighth, a game tying two run homer in the bottom of the ninth by Josh Donaldson, and a three run walk-off  by Brandon Moss, after he saved the game in the top of the ninth with a great defensive dive. They won 7-4 in a critical game for their pennant chances.

I'm not saying I turned the game around; I had nothing to do with the A's coming back. These are just the facts. But I have to say that the game changed after that catch, especially for me.

When I got home, I called every teammate that I know is an A's fan to see if they saw it. And every single one seemed to have the same experience, they were doing other stuff or flipping back and forth to the dismal Cal football game or they were out and forgot to record it. They all seemed to start watching in the eighth, and saw the incredible ending. No one saw the amazing play I made.

But Don, he was there. Don doesn't want to be too complimentary, but here is what he said: "It was legitimate." High praise, and I will take it any time.

So I dedicate the ball and the catch to you, Dad. You deserved a son who could respect what you did in your time. And now I have matched you, and I will savor the ball until the end of my time.

p.s. Eventually I found a friend who had a feed from somewhere that recorded all A's games (that's where these pictures came from). I was able to see exactly what was happening at the time of the foul ball that I caught. It turns out that the count had been 2-2 on the previous pitch. Norris swung and missed the 2-2 pitch. The umpire ruled that Norris had foul tipped the ball and it had hit the dirt, so he got another pitch, which he hit to me. However the replay showed that in fact, Norris did NOT foul tip the pitch, and even if he had, the catcher caught it before it hit the ground. So he should have been out in two different ways, but instead he got another chance and so did I. Some things are just meant to be. 

Where's The Love?

The fans love the long ball. It's something I just have to accept.

Sunshine Saloon was up 8-0 in the top of the sixth last night. Sir Guy was pitching brilliantly. Granted, the 4 Speeds do not have a murderers' row - no one will confuse them with the Bronx Bombers of '27, or even Boomer's Bangers, the team to beat in our league. But still, he had a shutout going.

We had played just enough defense behind him to keep the 4 Speeds off the board. Someone said they stranded the bases loaded four times all told. And I had saved the infielders a couple of times on low throws to first - not quite in the dirt, but still with my shoulders that need surgery and my slow to bend 58 year old body, not bad.

And then in the top of the sixth, up steps Reggie with a runner on first, and bang! he hits it over the right center fence. The crowd erupted, all two of our fans. I was in the hole, so I was right there. You would have thought there were dozens of fans. It was like World War Two had ended. Ticker tape. Times Square at New Year's. It was LOUD.

Mark then triples into the gap and I came up and hit a beautiful laced line drive over the shortstop to get him home. I could hear the crowd yawn. Reggie says "nice swing!" That's all I got, and I was thankful for that.

But I am not bitter. So what if the women love the long ball. My girl appreciates the line drive. And she knows baseball too.

OK maybe I am a just a little jealous. But I will probably never hear that cheer, unless something extraordinary happens, and if it does, you better go to church or your other place of worship, because the end of the world really is coming.

In the mean time, our second shutout in two weeks, this one ending 16-0. We are officially on a roll. It is coming together for this team, and we have some momentum and confidence going into the stretch run. We are technically not out of the race for first, and have a realistic chance of ending third and even second it we can put it together after our bye week next week.

Mark had a Mark game, 3-4 with a double and a triple. Larry and Bill and Mongo and Tom (cough cough do I hear camped under it in the first?) stayed hot with three hits each, and Reg drove in four with the homer and a triple. Bob's found his stroke and he had two solid hits, and his two with Steve's two provided evidence yet again that if the bottom of the order hits, we win. Tim drove in two with a double and a single. And Heffe had two run scoring singles, and that laced line drive over the SS was a thing of beauty.

Too bad our bye comes now - but it remains our task to keep the momentum up over the next two weeks for our next game. We might even be tied for second by then :)

Until then, dream of that home run over the fence and the crowd going wild. Except Reg and Mark - you can just remember.

OKYCHIFTM

The Title, it stands for "OK, You Can Hit It Farther Than Me." - Quote from Cage, when RB hit his second shot over the fence, opposite field in left center, for a single. His first, a towering blast to right, nearly landed in Dublin five miles north of the field.

It was a single because he and Cage had already gone yard. the latter continues to be our hottest hitter of the fall, and in fact, his HR, leading off our eleven run sixth that salted the game, set a record for home runs in the shorter fall seasons (5). Two more to tie the all time record for any season, no pressure.

I have to cede the floor to our hero, Cage at this point. We played the Big Kahunas, who used to have our number, and routed them in the end 24-8. We now have taken the lead in our all time series with them 5-4. They are hard to hate now - they lost two of their a-holes, and their leadoff hitter/second baseman-turned-catcher apparently stopped drinking, rumor has it, and has mellowed a lot. Interestingly, they are not nearly as good a team since they lost their over the top edge.

But Nick is always good for something chippy (as are many of us) with the other team. I will quote him:

"My favorite part of the game: In the 1st inning I walked off the field very slowly as my ankle was killing me and didn't want to turn it on a jog in the grass, I broke a light jog as I hit the dirt passing the RF heading out to his position, when he says: "long run huh?"  I took that as an asshole comment, but said nothing....until about the 6th inning when I was walking out to the field and he was walking in from his position, clearly defeated...I think the score was well out of hand at this point.  I said: "long run huh."  He said nothing."

Some stats: Cage, RB, and Hama went 12-12, double, two HRs (plus the single over the fence), 14 RBIs (seven from RB), 10 runs, and two walks. The rest of us weren't too shabby, either (Jason 3-3 with two sacs, Sir Guy stayed hot at 3-4, Mario 2-2 with 2 walks, and Timmy 3-5 and scored four runs, an off game).

ESPN moment a throwout from center to Jason, and then a strike to Monty at home to gun down a suddenly Little Kahuna.

If we lose ALL our games the rest of the year, this will tie 2005 for our best record ever as a team. That ain't happening.

Which means last night we tied the record for wins in a year, and we have half the losses we did that year, and that was a pretty damn good year, the year of Ryan Baxter. We also set a team record for wins in a season in Spring that year (10-2), and this season we can tie that with two more wins.

We have eliminated everyone but the Show Boaters in the race for first place. They trail by two with three left; obviously we can send them packing next week too as we play them heads up. Even if we lose, they would have to beat us by +17 to gain any tiebreaker advantage, so all we would have to do is won one more of the last two.

In other words, this is fun, and I'd say we are in a pretty good position wouldn't you? Are they giving out cotton for both the season and the playoffs this year?

Let's win one, and take our chances.

Milestones:

Heffe        50 r (#4)
Sir Guy     750 ab (#6)
Jason        200 h (#12)
Rams        50 g (#23)
RB           50 rbi (#29)

Conementum

My new boss Ross, who I suspect is a potential softball slut, liked to hear me bring in the scores on the mornings after. "19-2", "19-1", "24-3", "23-8", "14-3", "23-0", and Monday "21-4" (my other teams are doing as well as the Coneheads).

After three weeks of dominating wins he asked, "Aren't you bored?" And the thing is NO, I am not at all bored.

Lefty is another story, but that will wait for another day.

However, it does give me pause as a writer. It's a challenge. I mean, how many times can I say Chuck made a great play in the hole and nailed an idiot trying to go to third when he didn't have to run?

I have to dig a little deeper, and effuse, and enthuse, and elucidate. And alliterate. And finally pontificate.

On...what makes us a great team? And here is what I came up with:

It's ego without selfishness. We have some characters - some love to talk, some never listen, some love to stink us (OK one). You have to have a little ego, a little swagger, to succeed in any sport, especially baseball, because whether it is when you come up to bat and there are two outs and no one on, or if you are pitching to some young guy stronger and faster than you who could take your head off with a line drive, or chasing down a ball in the gap, you have to have that knowledge that you will prevail. And then in the handshake line those young guys are shaking their heads as much as they shake your hand, it's like a chorus of "how did that just happen?" when we whip them.

Case in point and the highlight of Monday's game. Greg has been scuffling, for him, in the batter's box. Which for him means over .500 instead of .650 or .700. Well, he comes up in the fourth after Chuck had knocked in one and then he and Sting and D loaded the bases, and the Knight just wills the ball into the left center gap, and doesn't stop running until he is getting high fives in the dugout for a salami. We were already ahead comfortably 8-1 (comfortable for everyone except Joe of course), but that shot made the statement to the Speed Goats, "you just don't have a chance against this team."

The beauty of this game and this team is not knowing who it is going to be next week that has your back or gives us the highlight reel - we seem to be very good at sharing that. Some of us do it by hitting gap homers, and some by getting consistent soft liners to keep the line moving, but it is all about what can I do to contribute. And that is what makes us a great team.

There is the data - Chuck had a monster game, 4-4 with two doubles and three RBIs as a leadoff hitter, Heffe with the four paints, Gerry three of the same and a walk, Randy with such a bomb triple (that gave us the lead we never gave up in the second) that I scored from first (five RBIs total to lead the team), Sting a similar blast. And of course we turned a couple of double plays, I would put our infield up against anyone's, whether it's Randy or Greg or Ol' hurt G or D or even me to go with Chuck.

Who will it be this Monday?

4-0 at the half way point. Not half bad, Heads. Next victim, WMD. Let's show them what destruction is.

Milestones:

NONE!!! See, ego without selfishness

Committing Harry Caray

You thought this was going to be about harakiri, often miswritten as harikari, according to wikipedia. It refers to a form of seppuku (or ritual suicide), which in turn means literally "the cutting of the belly."

You see I grew up with Harry Caray as the lead broadcaster of the St. Louis Cardinals, along with sidekick Jack Buck. This was long before he became a caricature of himself as an old slurring drunk guy at Wrigley Field doing the Cubs' 7th inning stretch; he was actually run out of town by the Cardinals, purportedly because he had an affair with the daughter-in-law of Auggie Busch, the owner of the Cardinals and Busch/Budweiser Beer. The way I heard it, he and the woman were drunk and stumbled out of the bar of the locally famous Chase-Park Plaza Hotel onto Kingshighway Blvd. in St. Louis, and there was some sort of car accident and they were busted big time; after all if you are married, you really shouldn't sleep with the wife of the heir apparent of your boss's corporation, even if you are a huge consumer of his products.

As a kid, I was always confused, why does the broadcaster's name mean suicide in Japan? And then he went and committed professional suicide. You see - everything in life ultimately makes sense.

That is irony; you thought this was going to be about a negative thing. No, it is because the trademark of Harry Caray as a broadcaster doing the games was when there was a big fly, he would ring out, "It might be, it could be, it is, a HOME RUN." It was his trademark call.

And I have been thinking this about the Sunshine Saloon team. It might be, it could be and it remains to be seen if we actually become a playoff team, but we took another giant step Wednesday night as we beat the Oaks, our main competition for the lower spots in the playoff hunt, by a ringing score of 18-16. In fact we are tied for third, and still could be playing for second or third before the season is over.

I can't remember exactly, and Sunshine is the one team play for that I have never kept the standings myself, and damn Pleasanton stopped archiving the scores from seasons past. But I swear we have almost always if not literally always lost to the Oaks in the 2+ years I have been on this team. It usually goes like this: we take a lead, they come back, it's close for a while and then they rise up and nose us out, or completely blow us out of the water at that point.

But not this week.

This week, they scored two in the first and we answered with five. They scored two twice more and then five in the top of the fourth, but in between we had a five run inning without making an out. This was a continuation of how hot we were last week, but against much stiffer competition.

All this damage was done by the top of the order. Tom stayed hot; he didn't make an out all night, with a couple of hits and a couple of borderline errors that he hustled out. Nor did Larry nor Mark W, who drove in six on the night. Mongo, Heffe, Darrell and Tim also had hits their first two times up in these rallies, and Sir Guy had a sac and a two run single. We were unstoppable.

The Oaks answered with their five, and there we were in the bottom of the fourth trailing, teetering on the edge of where we had been so many times against the them. Going down. But not this time. The bottom of the order rose up and with singles by Mark V and Steve, and a walk to our leader Don we set it up for the top to plate three more.

After that there was a quiet exchange of zeroes in the fifth, and we held them in the sixth. And damned if the same thing didn't happen, this time starting with Bob - three hits and another walk to Don set the table for another five spot, highlighted by Mark's inning ending gapper with the bases loaded.

We were all set with an 18-11 lead going into the open seventh inning. The Oaks would not go quietly. They played smart, hitting line drives and the machine was in motion - one run, two, three, when would it end? And we missed a couple of fly balls we really should have had, and the uhohs were in the house. And up stepped Ron the fattest player on the planet, who can't run, and can't hit it very far, but I have to admit, he can place it as well as anybody, present company included. He proceeds to hit a dribbler up the middle past the mound, and our rover who shall remain nameless, couldn't come up with it, and the flood gates stayed open. They got within just a few but then on a ball destined to the LC gap, our leadoff hitter and hero Tom Terrific made the statement of the game; he said no mas, and cut it off in mid-air, and there were two outs. The tying and perhaps the lead run was on base (we still weren't completely dead even if they tied it or took a lead because we had the hammer, but we didn't want it to come to that), but they popped up to end the game.

A big sigh was had by all.

It means we have our destiny in our own hands. New territory for this team, but we might just be on to something. Before it's over even Boomer's may fear us - they only got us by one run to start this roll.

It continues next week. Reggie will be in the house. Don't roll out the red carpet, he doesn't want that kind of treatment. He just wants on this wagon train, he knows a good thing. See you then.

The Magic is in the Dugout

Jason: I have to explain once again.The Game Winning RBI, no longer sanctioned on any level of organized ball, is the run batted in that puts a team ahead to stay in a game you win. Simple, even if obsolete.

You have the advantage here, now that you are a power hitter. You lead off, all you have to do is go yard, and the way we are playing we will never trail again, and voila you can get four the rest of the season.

OK?

I say this because Jas went yard twice in our latest rout, 14-3, over the outmatched Richert Lumber team. He called his shot - we were both early to the field, and walked in together. "Winds blowing out to left on field 3," he muttered. "I'm going out tonight." And then he DID it. Twice. He didn't tell me it would be twice either. OK, I am impressed.

But no GWRBI. That is because we started as slow as Richert. It was 0-0 through two. They did, because...well because Sir Guy was dealing as usual, but who was that catcher? He called a helluva game. Oh, me? Bill's Earned Run Average when I catch the whole game: 3.00. Who's your Daddy?

If you look at the box score, it didn't seem like a typical rout. Except for D with his usual four hits (and mostly they were grounders that found their way through), and our latest super sub Jesse (3-4 with a double and a triple), a lot of guys had kinda off games. But there was no panic, just a quiet calm that we would win as usual. Confidence is a great thing when you are going well. We are playing like the Giants and 49ers - just go out, know you will, and then crush the opposition.

There is always a moment when you know it's over. In this one, it was Mario handling a tough liner in the outfield (playing second, don't get me started), that is bobbling it momentarily, and when the runner goes from third, totally hosing him with a bullet to me at home. Game over. I don't remember the score, but the statement was "don't even think it, you aren't coming back on this defense."

Mario had a good hitting game, with three hits including a double as did Sir Guy, 2-3 with yet another two bagger.

And so it goes. The magic is in our dugout this season, and the magic number is two. I say this knocking on wood, my head and anything else around me. But if we can win the next one, then we can win the next one and it's over. We have lofty goals this season, let's get them.


Milestones:

Coop     250 rbi (#4)
Mario    150 g (#10)
Jas        300 ab (#12)
Rams    20 2b (#16)

Ya Gotta Gimme Sumpin'

Open letter to the Coneheads:

Ya gotta give me a break. Give me something to write about. I'm turning into the Craig of the pen. Throw me a bone. Give up a lead. Come from behind. Go yard back to back to back. Hit a walkoff grand slam. Goose me. Something! Puleeeeeze?

How many times can I write about great hitting and defense? How can I write about starting the game with ten straight singles? Where is the drama in that? We lost one inning tonight 1-0. There is your drama of the evening.

I need G back, and not just for his blasts and his defense. I need him to come and get a key injury in the championship game. Now THAT is drama. Or come back and  finish a fight. Hell, start a fight. I don't care. I just need some new material.

We blasted the poor saps du jour, the Angry Ground Balls, 23-5, and it wasn't that close. Almost all singles. Derek had the decency to hit a couple of deep balls late for doubles, and Sting joined him his last time up. Besides that it was 28 singles in four innings. A nifty .738 team average. The ten straight in the first with no outs is undoubtedly a team record. At least Gerry said I don't have to research it, it is obvious.

And I know how they got their nickname, the AGB. When we hit grounders, they were just too hot to handle for them, and thus the anger. That dirt must hold demons for them but to Chuck it's just another day at the office. We should change our name to Easy Ground Balls. Cause we make it look easy. As when Chuck and Randy turned a 6-4-3 DP with runners on first and second. I just wish I had an arm, because the lead runner strayed a little too far off third. Now that would have been a highlight, the 6-4-3-5 triple play. Doesn't happen every day, nor today. As it was they got runners to third with less than two outs at least twice and didn't score him.

Four hits were struck by Sting, Heavy D, the Knight and Heffe. D had six RBIs.

Joe had the longest (by time) fielder's choice in the history of softball. He hit a one hop shot to third, the baseman tagged the bag for the force, and threw in the dirt to first. The ball rolled away from the first baseman, neared the second baseman. Joe stopped hobbling, read the sportspage, had a beer, ran to the bathroom, gave himself the stink eye in the mirror, and still they hadn't picked up the ball. "Run, Joe, Run" came the chorus from the dugout. "Run it out like it matters!" Joe tiptoed to first. "Safe" came the cry of the ump. Another run to make it 9-0. And so it went.

And I didn't make that up. Well, some of it. But that is what you have driven me to. And truth be told, it's just fine by me. More (or less) drama next week.

Milestones:

Chuck        950 h (#1)
Lefty          150 ab (#22)

p.s. Happy Birthday Chuck.

Who Are Those Guys?

It's time to talk about my other team, Sunshine Saloon. My mother always taught me, if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything. Unfortunately my life is riddled with instances when I did not listen to my mother. But that is another story.

Sunshine Saloon, which is semi sponsored by the best sports bar in town, plays over 50 in Pleasanton. We have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory many times. Base running mistakes, mental errors in the field, lack of clutch hitting, balls clanking off our gloves. These were our specialties. We took pride in them.

We scored exactly seven runs in six of eight games in one stretch last season. You don't often win with seven runs in softball, although we did win one of those, the last one by a score of 7-1.

There were a few times we played a complete game, offense, defense, you know, those are the two major components of the game of softball. Then we would revert the next week to our old habits. It's been a little frustrating. I won't admit it, but there were times I was literally frothing at the mouth in those games.

Now all of the sudden we are getting better. Old Dogs, who said no new tricks. Last week we came within one run against the dominant team in the league, losing on a walkoff hit, the score just 13-12.

Well, we have arrived after this week. We played an unbelieveable game, and won 23-0. Yes you read that right, 23-0. That is, we scored 23 out of a possible 25 runs. In Senior ball you have a five run limit until the last inning. We scored 5-5-3-5-5. And we allowed zero, nil, nada, zilch, and none. And then the game was over.

And, this is the best part - we did this without our regular pitcher, Sir Guy, who is easily one of the best pitchers in the league, and our star shortstop Mark.

Now granted, we beat nominally the worst team in the league called Deja Vu. But they have two wins this season, and they humiliated us once last season. In fact we were tied with them at 2-3 going into the game. Well we can strut now - we are the masters of our domain now. Who else in the league owns a 23-0 shutout???

We hit .829 as a team. That is unheard of. We had three guys go 4-4 (Tom, Hef and Larry - sounds like a nursery rhyme, does that make me a what?). Two went 3-3 (Darrell and the other Mark), and everyone else had two hits. It was truly a rout.

And Larry, filling in for Sir Guy on the hill, had each batter claiming Deja Vu. They would pop up, or hit a soft line drive to SS, and think they had just seen it, deja vu all over again. Because they had.

And here is the kicker. WE DID NOT MAKE ONE ERROR. That is a rarity even for the best teams in softball. We are not pros out there. But we made every single play in this game.

And now we are only a game and a half out of first place.

Did I dream this? I guess we will find out next Wednesday, when we try to do it all over again...

And Now For Something Completely Different

It just gets so boring, those sixteen run innings. Last inning, second inning. it's so last week and the week before.

This time we had to make it interesting. The Big Bad Kahunas only showed up with nine players. Easy right? The way our team has been hitting? Gap here, gap there, here a gap there a gap.

Only you have to play the game on the field. So we spotted them a 9-1 lead. They had a new right fielder and he robbed D in the first, and they held us to a single run. They slowly built that lead as we struggled in the second and third.

But that is no lead at all for this team. The heart of the order came up in the fourth, and this time RBIs by RB, Hama and Heavy D would not be denied as he hit a two run hobble double. Chopper brought him in with a towering triple, and when he scored suddenly we had a game at 9-7.

The Kahunas got two in the fifth, and what they didn't know is that Tom and the defense would shut them down from there out. We came up in the bottom of the inning, the top of the order was up again. Jason, Timmy and Cage produced a run, and up stepped RB, and you knew what he wanted. He blasted one over the right center fence and we were within one. Hama and D came up with the tying run., Hama with his second double in two innings, and D hit the ball so hard this time right at the right fielder he was frozen in his tracks. Only this time the laser beam rose and rose until it hit half way up the fence. Someone should check to see if there are broken links in that fence.

After we held them one last time, up came Ramsay who had had a tough night. He took advantage of the spacious outfield finally and doubled down the left field line. It was all but over. Jason followed with a single, and then Timmy muscled up and sent the ball over the center fielder's head - and he wasn't even really drawn in very far to try to get Rams out on a shallow fly. Walk off, game over, 12-11, we're 5-0, and take a seat Kahuna-meat.

Bout time the top of the order did something. The bottom has been carrying us for weeks.

Those big hits notwithstanding, the best moment was Jason after his last hit. It was a sinking line drive, so Rams had to hold up, playing it conservative with no outs, and he didn't score. Jason wailed, "I can't ever get a game winning hit."

Well Jas all I can say is without you there was no game winner at that time. In the top of the seventh, he made one of the great catches of the season on a blooper to left, over the shoulder, blind, just beautiful. Kept the Kahunas off the board and thus we only needed the one run to win.

Great season, we have now run the table for the first half, I think for the first time in this team's history. Magic number is unofficially 3. Let's do it in three games.

Milestones:

Timmy     500 h (#4)
Jas          30 2b (#12)
Rams      150 ab (#23)

Johnny Be Good

This working for a living, it really gets in the way. Normally, I spend the days in reverie reliving last night's game, conjuring up phrases, researching the classics in literature to come up with the theme for the game. It's fun.

Now, earlier in the week I got this idea about our latest super sub, and Chuck Berry has been in my Head all week. Go, Go Johnny Go, Go, Go.

Only then it became Go, Go to work Heffe Go...Go Heffe Go, Heffe be Good.

However. I digress.

I still remember what it was all about. Johnny came in and took ownership of the middle infield for a couple of games, especially Monday against Team Confusion. He ate up balls up the middle to get a force, took a shot off his chest and still got the ball to Chuck for the force, and turned a great double play. It's good to know we have him in the wings for this season, in case Ol' G can't get back for a while.

He fits right in because the Coneheads are all about defense, it's really one of the two things that sets us apart. You don't win 19-2 last week and 19-1 this week back to back against nominally the two teams that will fight for second place (if we have our way) without it.

There were other memorable plays. A couple balls scooped up at the hot corner by Greg, although he tried to show off his curve and his slider to me on the throws. But the signature play outside of Johnny B Good was the hot shot to Joe at the mound. How do you have reflexes like that at his age? At any age? He turned and whipped it to Big D coming across the first base bag. Bang Bang, shot down again.

Of course Joe had to tell me he doesn't think I would make that play, since he threw it high, and Derek has what, 6, 8 inches on me? Well, Joe, it may or may not be true, but who has struck out more this season? Huh? Huh???

I digress...yet again. I gotta get more sleep.

I can't remember exactly but I think we had three or four DPs altogether and Team Confusion had no chance. Because we had a decent night at the plate too. Chuck started us off with a walk...I wonder what our record is when Chuck starts the game with a walk. He didn't make an out the rest of the game going 3-3. Sting followed with a single in the hole to right (he will turn into a 2 hole hitter yet!), and even though we hit into a couple of outs, Lefty came up with a two out two run shot for a double, and the race was on. We started out kind slow, and only had a 6-1 lead through three but we kept a steady flow of runs and ran away with it. The capper was a bases loaded triple by who else but Chopper in the sixth. Markley quietly went 3-3 with a walk, and has made such a habit of not making outs we don't even notice any more. Sting and Lefty were the others with three hits, and everyone contributed.

I almost forgot the pitching. Joe and Larry were so steady, it was easy. Three runs allowed in two softball games, not bad at all. Can't wait until Monday. Whoda thunk I would say that. Monday is a work day.

Milestones:

Sting          400 h (#12)
Chopper    200 ab (#19)
Lefty         10 3b (#20)
Markley    100 h (#22)

Feelin...Hot Hot Hot

I considered skipping the blog again, or just leaving it at this:

Get on your dancin' cleats.

Olay Olay Olay Olay
Feelin Hot Hot Hot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHyaJ4viMg4&feature=related

But instead just open that, and play it while you look at this:

Four games in, 4-0. Too early to talk magic number but if we did it would be 5. Or probably 4. Because -

We beat the temporary second place team last week 22-6 and this week 30-11. Those are gaudy numbers, and it will be tough for either to claim a tie breaker on us, even if they could beat us next time around.

We scored more runs in the second inning than we had players. For the second time in three innings going back to last week's walk off slaughter we scored 16.

The bottom of the order went 12-12 with 12 RBIs. The only outs they made scored runs - a Sir Guy sac fly that very nearly cleared the LC fielder's outreached glove, and another by Mario. For those that don't have the scorebook that is Monty (3-3, 2 BB, 4 RBIs, 3 runs), Sir Guy (4-4, 5 RBIs, 3 runs, GW on the gapper that did fall to score the first two runs), Coop (2-2, 3 BBs, including a bases loaded RBI one, 3 runs), and Mario (3-3, 4 runs).

In Tim's number two spot, we had Ramsay. He merely went 5-5 with 4 RBIs. Timmy, I have bad news - I came up with a new theory. You are a fine hitter but apparently on this team batting second leads to never making an out. So you are out starting next week, and I am in. Ram had his turn. The rest of you - forget it, I am the coach.

And we haven't even talked about our power hitters.

We hit six over the fence - and as we know only two counted as HRs. So it was a race to first two over, then it was take your base. Cage continued his unbelievable season - he hit two out among four hits - the first was a three run job, and really made the statement that we would not be stopped in the second. It made it 8-0. Followed shortly by Hama's blast to round it to ten. But we weren't done. Derek had a lot of anger in his swing from a rough day, and he smashed one of the next pitches over the fence. And he repeated it the next inning, and then his hardest anger hit was his last time up, when he lasered the ball in between the right fielders. Later, Jason joined the party with a line drive shot to RC.

It was some inning, that second. An out, followed by 8 hits plus a couple of walks sprinkled in, followed by a pause for another out, followed by seven more hitters reaching base. We are indeed hot, hot, hot.

I'd say the ball must have been carrying Tuesday night, but thanks to Sir Guy's mixing things up Basbhat certainly didn't match our power or our consistency. They did have one blast for a Slam that produced almost half their runs. In fact for the most part they were so off balance, they hit weak grounders, soft line drives right at people, and lazy fly balls.

And then the kicker, Nick laid out completely to snag the final out of the game on a sinking liner to left center. The batter hadn't even looked as he put his head down to get a head of steam to get to second...when he looked up, and saw everyone starting to walk in, he looked at me and his first base coach incredulously and said "But that was a Gapper!"

Statement: I might be on the ground but U R going DOWN.

We will have to do without the pitching prowess and the hitting of the older half of the hottest father-son team in the Western Hemisphere next week. But I am sure we can pick each other up in Bill's absence.

This is fun...let me rum bum bum bum

Milestones:

Monty      250 r (#6)
Cage        650 ab (#7)
Sir Guy    50 h (#7)

Sir Guy    10 sf (#11)
Hama       50 r (#26)
Rams        50 rbi (#28)