It was a beautiful day Tuesday. Sparklingly clear from the recent rains, warm, sunny. A great day to play two that night for the playoff championship for Transdyn. We would be the favorites - but it is a competitive league, and we lost last week for our first loss of the season to end up 9-1. Our confidence was not broken, but there was a shred of doubt that crept in.
In the late morning, I went out for a smoke break, minding my own business, and thinking about the games that night, and a little Chinese Buddhist woman comes right up to me and says - "Namo Ami - Tofu."
Say what?
"Namo Amitofu."
Now I work in downtown Oakland in a start-up company where the average age is about 27, as young as my kids. I mean the CEO is all of 31. And it is just off Chinatown, and believe it or not downtown Oakland these days is full of hipsters and hipsterer coffee houses and hipsterest vegan restaurants. I thought she must be talking about some tofu joint up the street where I could go to lunch.
She wouldn't let it go. "Namo Amitofu." She stared at me. Finally she says, "It means good luck. Just repeat it over and over all day long and you will have good luck."
Well now I get it. This was a sign about the playoffs. Because we know how superstitious ball players are. And if some random Buddhist is going to accost me on the street and tell me to repeat Good Luck all day long on the day of playoffs, by god I will repeat it all day long. And so I did.
It didn't work all that well Tuesday - they postponed the games until next week because the fields were torn up from the rains. But the jury is still out, and I still want all my teammates to repeat it over and over again come this Tuesday - maybe I will even eat some tofu. And then we will see.
We did have a loss as I said. It was only by one run, and we were missing two of our best hitters in Hama and Mario. You gotta figure they are worth a run or more. But we played a little lackluster, and spotted the Pacheco Brothers five runs, and then after we fought back to take a 9-8 lead, let them come back to retake the lead at 12-9, and we just couldn't push enough across to win. Final score 12-11.
RB and Cage did what they have been doing all season and tried to carry us, RB with 4-4 and two doubles, and Cage with a massive three run homer. And Timmy and Jason and even Heffe, Mr. Slump on Tuesdays, had three hits each. Jason does get the tough guy award. After taking a beating on a hot shot that blew up his hand/arm, he came to the dugout to ice it only to find out he was leading off. So he went out and hit a bomb over the fence so he could get back to the dugout and his ice. Very efficient.
We just couldn't get the big hit when we needed to and left too many guys on base, bases loaded once and two guys on three times. And couldn't break out that big inning that has marked our other games, and totally demoralizes the opposition.
It wasn't a total loss - we collected our regular season Cotton. And there are ways to rationalize it - it's hard to go undefeated all the way through the playoffs. Well now we don't have to worry about that. We can just go into Tuesday vowing to ourselves and each other that we want to get to the last game, and when we get to it, just finish it right. If we are back to ourselves, it won't be a problem. We can be relentless and we have the best pitcher in the league, and the best defense.
And if all else fails - just keep chanting - Namo Amitofu, Namo Amitofu.
Milestones:
Coop 500 r (#1)
Cage 30 hr (#2)
Cage 200 g (#7)
RB 50 r (#27)
In the late morning, I went out for a smoke break, minding my own business, and thinking about the games that night, and a little Chinese Buddhist woman comes right up to me and says - "Namo Ami - Tofu."
Say what?
"Namo Amitofu."
Now I work in downtown Oakland in a start-up company where the average age is about 27, as young as my kids. I mean the CEO is all of 31. And it is just off Chinatown, and believe it or not downtown Oakland these days is full of hipsters and hipsterer coffee houses and hipsterest vegan restaurants. I thought she must be talking about some tofu joint up the street where I could go to lunch.
She wouldn't let it go. "Namo Amitofu." She stared at me. Finally she says, "It means good luck. Just repeat it over and over all day long and you will have good luck."
Well now I get it. This was a sign about the playoffs. Because we know how superstitious ball players are. And if some random Buddhist is going to accost me on the street and tell me to repeat Good Luck all day long on the day of playoffs, by god I will repeat it all day long. And so I did.
It didn't work all that well Tuesday - they postponed the games until next week because the fields were torn up from the rains. But the jury is still out, and I still want all my teammates to repeat it over and over again come this Tuesday - maybe I will even eat some tofu. And then we will see.
We did have a loss as I said. It was only by one run, and we were missing two of our best hitters in Hama and Mario. You gotta figure they are worth a run or more. But we played a little lackluster, and spotted the Pacheco Brothers five runs, and then after we fought back to take a 9-8 lead, let them come back to retake the lead at 12-9, and we just couldn't push enough across to win. Final score 12-11.
RB and Cage did what they have been doing all season and tried to carry us, RB with 4-4 and two doubles, and Cage with a massive three run homer. And Timmy and Jason and even Heffe, Mr. Slump on Tuesdays, had three hits each. Jason does get the tough guy award. After taking a beating on a hot shot that blew up his hand/arm, he came to the dugout to ice it only to find out he was leading off. So he went out and hit a bomb over the fence so he could get back to the dugout and his ice. Very efficient.
We just couldn't get the big hit when we needed to and left too many guys on base, bases loaded once and two guys on three times. And couldn't break out that big inning that has marked our other games, and totally demoralizes the opposition.
It wasn't a total loss - we collected our regular season Cotton. And there are ways to rationalize it - it's hard to go undefeated all the way through the playoffs. Well now we don't have to worry about that. We can just go into Tuesday vowing to ourselves and each other that we want to get to the last game, and when we get to it, just finish it right. If we are back to ourselves, it won't be a problem. We can be relentless and we have the best pitcher in the league, and the best defense.
And if all else fails - just keep chanting - Namo Amitofu, Namo Amitofu.
Milestones:
Coop 500 r (#1)
Cage 30 hr (#2)
Cage 200 g (#7)
RB 50 r (#27)
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