Nearly Tripped over Big Feet

We were discombobulated. Bruce a no show, Knight late - it had the makings of an upset. People out of position, the lineup all jumbled up. Poor Gene thought he was a jinx.

Just when we got the Big Head from our 23-3 win last week, we almost tripped over the Big Feet. We were down 3-0 in the first, and that nearly was enough to put us away on an off night. But in the end our defense saved us from getting too far behind, and we put just enough of a rally together in the bottom of the seventh to prevail 6-5 on a walk-off 120 foot fly out.

Randy and Gene made diving catches in the outfield to provide the highlights. Joe got a K to go with holding a pretty decent hitting Big Feet team to single runs in the third and fourth after the first inning, aided in part by a sweet double play turned by the Knight from a feed from Derek at third. The Lefty to Lefty to Lefty double play, gotta love it.

In the bottom of the seventh Buddha, Gene and Joe came up with the table setters to load the bases with one out. Knight hit a line drive two run single to tie it up and Chuck came though with a hit to reload the bases. Up strode the strongest guy on the team and you knew he would park one to deep right to allow Haz, running for Joe at third, to waltz home. But this is reality and Heffe just managed a sinking liner to LC that the outfielder managed to corral, and he was only about 120 Big Feet out. Jeff took off from third, and even though the throw beat him by plenty, he had to throw it off balance and it was wide and Jeff scored easily.

A good team wins the close ones on nights when they aren't at their best and we proved it once again.

Milestone:

Chuck        150 g (#1)

New G

Long time ago, when I was in college, I had a brief relationship with one of my classmates in the English Department. It didn't last long, and she went on to court fame in three different ways. She wrote a best-selling novel that became a Hollywood film starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. She married the future writer/producer for the Simpsons and the Family Guy. And if that wasn't enough, she found out when she was 25 that her biological brother was none other than Steven Jobs, who was given up for adoption by their bio-parents after he was conceived and born when they were still in college themselves.

Good thing we didn't last. Think of how I would have held her back.

I bring this up because, having become a die-hard bandwagon fan of your Golden State Warriors, I can't help but be reminded of our own Ol' G every time I see an interview with Draymond Green. He's the "New G" to our old one. He plays solid D, and gets offense in the most clutch situations in whatever way they need it, be it a pass to someone standing next to the basket waiting for a layup, hitting a 3, or fighting for an offensive rebound, and is in the mix in everything the Warriors do, which this season seems to be winning a lot of games. And he likes to bark at everyone around him and being the vocal leader of the team. You don't mess with him.

Our G shares many of those qualities. He seems like a quiet leader until something needs to be said to an ump or to back up a teammate when the other team wants to start a ruckus. Then watch out. And I swear DG looks a lot like OG.

It is said that DG has a "high basketball IQ". Hmmm, but then, we realize that Ol' G is married to Deb, so that would explain where that came from.

So what I want to know is what secrets are there lurking in  Deb and OG's past that we don't know about? Draymond would be a little older than their daughters...makes you think, what were they doing in college???

Which leads to a classic moment in our last JFT game. Ol' G has been known to go up the middle, in fact if I were to track his hits, I bet 90% of them go between the two center fielders. But he rarely hits it on the ground, mostly it's line drives in front of or between the outfielders. Well, G comes up in the top of the fifth after Randy put the game away with a two run blast to make it 10-3. The Slammers pitcher then throws four deliberately illegal high pitches to walk him intentionally, saying something like, "wouldn't you do that with a guy who hits it hard up the middle?" Didn't do them any good, by the way - we ended up putting up three more runs in the inning and eight in the sixth to win going away 23-3.

Of note was that after tossing a shutout in the first game we went another three innings holding the Slammers scoreless and even though they broke through for three in the fourth, we have allowed a total of three through two games. Not bad. Somewhere in there was an 4-11-1-2 double play - I can't even fathom that now in retrospect - but I wrote it in the book. Bruce made an all out dive in left field for the play of the game.

Besides Randy's bomb, Chopper also had a two run shot - no chance for a goose as I stood at second with a double when he hit it. Buddha made an impressive JFT debut - 4-4 with the game winner in the first inning. Bruce also had four hits including three for extra bases - just can't hold that boy to a single. Ol' G got mad after the walk - he sent the next one to the fence for a triple. Draymond would be proud.

Milestones:

Ol' G          10 3b (#6)
D               150 ab (#15)
Randy        150 ab (#16)
Randy        50 g (#17)

Where Have You Gone, Bobby Muller?

This season was going to be different. This was the year that we were going to overcome the Pinky's dominance since they came into the league and we became the bearers of those nondescript also-ran second place t-shirts. You know the ones - you are either checking the oil in your car with them or if you wear them, it is as an undershirt. They are like the trophy's we mistakenly gave our kids for 'participation' (so little Josh or Jen wouldn't feel like someone else was better than they were, even though they were).

It was a little disappointing to hear they were not going to be in the league, an empty feeling. Where would the competition come from?

Then Lefty did his best to spark the flames - half of Pinky's had joined Advance Construction, he said, our former main competition. Now that could make for a great year - and we were starting the season against them. Bring it!

But in the end you have to play the game. I think there are at most two or three Pink's on AC, and it ain't the best of the best. And they were without our friend Bobby Muller, who perhaps is the best they have to offer.

The result, predictably, was that we continued to own Advance, a trend that has been going on for a couple of years now. Ownage is a 10-0 beat down, and it wasn't that close. We didn't hit all that well, and while we had the usual assortment of up the middle nifty force outs (from G to Knight, or Knight to G or Chuck to Knight, you get the picture, and the first baseman (the short one) fell down and stretched out to all of his 5'7" to get to a low throw from Chuck in the last inning to preserve the shutout. The taller first baseman caught a couple of hot shots as well, but that was about it. We were never threatened.

The game ball goes to Old Joe, a shutout is a shutout. D finished but unfortunately a 10-0 lead ensures he doesn't qualify for the save. But he had his part in preserving the blankout.

Chuck did his thing, going 3-3 and a walk, Knight had three hits and the game winner, which occurred in the first inning, and Lefty had a couple of doubles. Next!

Milestone:

Lefty        30 2b (#1)

Bandwagon

I admit it. I am firmly on the Warriors bandwagon. Oh I was entertained a little in the We Believe years a few years ago, the upset of Dallas and all that. But this year is different - they play in such a way that you can't take your eyes off them.

So I leapt (and they say Old White Jews can't jump, or something like that). Firmly on the wagon, and I ain't movin' off.

The reason I bring this up is that the intriguing thing about the Warriors is that they have this team where the motto is be selfless, share the playing time, come off the bench if the Coach asks you to, and most of all, always give the credit to someone else. There is no ego.

And how does that apply to Transdyn? Well it looked like we were going to lose a few really good players, after a tough Fall season, but then we reloaded - and it turned out we may have too many guys. These things have a way of working themselves out - Rene can't make early games, Mike O'Neal who we originally added couldn't make late games, and Load injured himself in his first game of the season on his other team. So we didn't have too many guys last week, and we won't tomorrow (if we are not rained out). But what I am here to say is this coach will try to emulate the Warriors (at least in the field) and ask people to move around, sit out innings, etc. And we will be stronger for it.

Last week was a weird game. Let's face it, we are literally half way between the talent level (when you add in our average age) between the D Lower division and the D Upper (which is really C). So play up or play down was our choice. Being Cotton sluts, we asked to play down, and although we haven't seen most of the teams, it appears (if last week was any indication) the level of play could be er, um, Lower D.

I mean one guy on Where My Pitches At didn't even know you have to stand on the base until the next pitch is thrown. And trust me it wasn't that he was trying to get a lead to steal second base or third.

So what we did was make a couple of early errors getting the jitters out to go down 1-0, and then came up in the bottom of the second, and all twelve of us reached base in a row, and we scored ten runs. Ten hits, an error, and a walk. Then three straight outs but we will get to that later. I drove in the first after we loaded the bases, Tom followed with the eventual game winner, and then the biggest hit - Mario knocked it over the right fielder's head for a two run double. Every other hit was a single.

Then we settled down defensively. D made a couple of nice plays at first, and Brian went into the hole for a hot shot later in the game. Mario made a prancing tumbling catch in right center - the debate was over whether he made it look extra dramatic, but it was a nifty play anyway.

The hitting was in spring rust mode, although D and Monty were robbed on fantastic catches by their left fielder. That is everyone except Coop, who had three straight hits for a perfect night.

We didn't score again until the last inning to make the final score 12-3. After those three outs to end the second, the next twelve at bats through the lineup produced two walks and a single (by Coop of course). We need to watch that against better opposition, and learn to pour it on.

Tomorrow may get rained out but if not, we can win again and brag that we have a bigger winning percentage than even the Warriors!

Milestones:

Heffe      120 bb (#1)
Mario     200 g (#8)
Mario     40 bb (#6)
D            350 ab (#13)