So Close

You may think a shutout in softball is vary rare. Transdyn came awfully close Tuesday night - a run scored on an error with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, and the final score was 13-1 over the Blue Dots.

But here's the thing - it make a much better story this way. Thanks, Cage. You gave me material.

After running down at least two gappers earlier in the game that would have produced runs, Cage ran under the final 'out' and then it doinked off his glove. The Blue Dots had a runner on second and he scored easily. At the bar later, Cage was contrite, even humble. He said it just clanked off the end of his glove.

Tom, the pitcher, not so much. "I'm going to kill that son of a mother", he said. Well no, I'm just kidding. Really, I'm just KIDDING. He said he would settle for Cage's first born, if it weren't for that fact that he is now paying for his second kid in college, and doesn't want to face that again. So rest easy, Cage, there will be no retribution. Myself, since I was sitting out on defense, I had already vacated the dugout to get in line to do the after-game high fives. But we did that after the next batter anyway.

I looked it up (naturally). We have had three shutouts in the Pleasanton years (2000 to now): Once in the playoffs in Fall 2012, and twice against a team called Pru Blue in 2007 and 2008. But never against a team with quality hitters like the Blue Dots. It was an impressive win.

Tom had a lot to do with it - he had them leaning this way and that with his mix of pitches, and made a couple of excellent plays, once on a scorched line drive, and once on a hot shot grounder. And to top it off he covered first on a grounder to first baseman Albert. Brian at 2B ranged far down the line for a popup that Chopper in right could not have reached. On another play, Tom deflected another line drive and Jason at short adjusted and got the out. Rene made a great catch racing in on another ball - although he was really only showing off his speed - he took a step back, then admired the height of the fly ball for a while, ate lunch, got a pedicure, then ran under the ball. The defense was so solid, we didn't want to mess with it, and I sat out and our middle infielders stayed in their starting positions (they had been switching off in the middle of the game until now).

Rene led the way on offense with another 4-4 game with two doubles. He is so hot (.900) that going 4-4 is the only way for his average to go up. Brian tripled home Jason as the second batter of the game - little did we know that when he scored on Cage's subsequent single, that was all the runs we needed. Load crushed one over the fence for two runs in the top of the fifth - a key hit because we had been nursing a 4-0 lead since the first, which is normally not enough, and who knew that we would catch almost everything the Blue Dots hit. After that the gates were re-opened and we won going away.

By the way, I didn't finish a post for last week's game, but one important thing - Tom put down the first nine batters in that one - that may be more rare than a shutout in softball. That game was pretty ho-hum - we scored one or two runs in every inning and won 10-4. Albert crushed two doubles and led the way with three RBIs, and Chopper and Brian had their usual three hits.

Milestones:

5/19
Coop             650 h (#2)
Chopper        150 ab (#25)

5/26
Jas                450 ab (#11)
Tom              10 bb (#21)
Tom              50 g (#25)

Touchdown!

As Tom noted, Transdyn scored five TDs and a field goal Tuesday. Yes that's right, we won 38-2.

You might think that is record territory, but believe it or not, way back in the early days, the year 2000 to be exact, our first in Pleasanton, this team won two different games in one year by identical 44-3 scores. One in Spring, and one in Fall.

Still, we haven't broken 35 since, and haven't scored 30 since 2012. And this team has had some pretty good vintages recently and in the mid-2000s. Impressive.

It helped that the Rounders are in last place, haven't won a game this season, started with nine players, and can't hit or field the ball. But - we were hitting line drives all over the place.

The game (foot)ball goes to Albert, who was out to prove that you can hit a 275 compression softball (or whatever it is - we lightweights don't really pay attention) over the fence at this late date. He did it twice, and although the two bombs were not quite worth two TDs, he led the team with eight RBIs. Jas and Brian had 11 RBIs between them, and they bat 1-2. Cage was perfect at 5-5 with a walk, and fell a HR short of the cycle. Jas also had five hits, and everyone else had four except Mario and Coop. Mario was 2-3 when he went out with a bad back. Coop had been the hottest hitter in the lineup - he still had three and a sac fly to boot.

The only sad Transdyn players were Sir Guy (on the DL), who was bummed he couldn't fatten his batting average like everyone else, and D (at his kid's game) who will have to hear it from Albert about how to hit a round ball squarely. Monty must be in Australia or somewhere for work, honing his cricket batting stance.

Two defensive plays of note, two 55+ year olds turned a line drive double play. One of the few balls hit hard was right at Tom's head on the mound, and he snagged it. Yours truly anticipated it, and ran to first, and Tom threw behind me and I reached back and down to corral it and force out the wayward runner. What was extraordinary was not that the two OG's made the play but that neither of us got hurt in the process.

When the infield was playing in the outfield and vice versa in the last inning, Nick made a great stop playing second, and moving toward second, he was able to step on the bag and toss to first to emphatically end the game. And preserve the narrow margin of victory and keep the Rounders out of the end zone.

Six games - six good wins, half way to the promised land. We better watch out or they will want to move us up again.

Milestones:

Heffe        1300 ab (#2)
Mario       550 ab (#10)
Rene        10 bb (#20)

What's in a (Nick) Name?

Athletes love to give each other nicknames. My old friend and teammate George (Top Gun) was infamous for giving everyone nicknames on my original team. We started out as a Chevron work team, and he gave nicknames to everyone in our work group in addition to the softball team. Archie, Maynard, Sir Guy, Squint, Boom Boom (don't ask) were just a few.

JFT/Coneheads only has a few and most came with them, Heffe, Chopper, Lefty. Others have not stuck - Chico for Chuck, for example. I just can't imagine him rapping with Carlos Santana in Spanish. You can't force it. Reggie a.k.a. Sting has been the exception. Anyone that was at that game at JFK and saw him sitting down in the outfield in a panic taking of his shoes and socks when that hornet took liberties through his clothes will never forget the sight.

Sunday's was pretty ho-hum as JFT games go, we kind of sleepwalked through a 14-4 victory over the Masterbatters that was never in any doubt. The most exciting hitting exhibition was Knight going yard with a walk-off home run, and it was a walk-off because we ran out of time, or I should say the Masterbatters ran out of time.

Randy went a perfect 3-3 with a double. D had the only other extra base hit, an opposite field laser to Concord on which he hobbled into second base with a double. Other than that a bunch of guys had a pair of hits, and scored a bunch of runs.

So I was left to ponder what the best defensive plays were, and I came up with my dive to take a hit down the line from one of their few good hitters, a lefty. Not easy for a 60 year old to go down and get that one, backhanded at that. Routine for Chuck I know, but still, not too shabby. And nothing else stuck out.

But you don't want to toot your own horn, too much, and I remembered a line shot headed to the LC gap that Bruce leapt up and grabbed. It only seemed not that outstanding because it was so graceful and he got there so fast, he hardly needed to jump, and made it look routine. Dare I say he looked like Pegasus, the horse of the Gods, and for those who don't know who that is, look it up. When Bruce runs, he is like a stallion with wings, galloping but gliding at the same time. I swear when he goes from first to second base it's like three strides.

Pegasus is a little awkward for a nickname, so let's shorten it, say to Peggie Sue. Bruce 'Peggie Sue' Reed. There. No one will be the wiser and they all will ask, how the hell did you get that nick name?

Think it will fly?

Milestone:

Randy          10 2b (#14)

Breaking Out

The true sign of a good team is what they do in the games they don't play up to their standards. Do they lay down, or gut wrench it to a win? In games two and three, Transdyn scratched out wins by scores of 11-7 and 11-10. Especially the last one, in which we had to protect a one run lead.

At this juncture, the Dirtballs (game 2), who also might be thought of as playing down in this league, have scored only two fewer runs and allowed only four more, but have lost two games while we are 5-0. This illustrates the point, when the chips are down we have come though.

All this changed the last two games though. While we welcomed back Load and had the middle of the lineup we meant to have for the first time, we put up a complete came against Kung Fu Panda, and after jumping out to a 11-2 lead and then allowing them to creep back to 11-6, we put up a six spot and won going away 19-9. Load had three hits in his season debut and Jas was on base four times and Cage and Alberto went yard.

Then last week, we summoned up last spring in a big way. Breaking Bad, which traded in a bad name (BAHSBAT) for a Bad one, came in tied with us in first place at 4-0. We punched them in the gut every inning and scored 5-4-4-5-4 runs. Sounds like a senior league team with the five limit in those leagues. We walked it off when the bases were loaded with one out in the fifth and Sir Guy put the ball over the drawn in outfield. Turns out the (slaughter rule) winning score had already scored - the scorekeeper had it wrong on the scoreboard. So walked off to the tune of 22-6.

D absolutely crushed one ball, which doesn't happen much in this league any more. I half expected the light bulbs in the scoreboards to start popping like in the Natural. Rene was a pest all game, going 4-4 and has started the season 10-11. Tom was a perfect 4-4 too, and Jas was 3-3 with a walk, and dove deep into the hole to rob one of the Bad hitters. Coop has been on fire (3-4), and had the biggest blow of the game, a bases loaded, bases clearing triple. He has seven RBIs in the last two games.

It was a complete team win - all but one of us had at least two hits, all but one had an RBI and all but one scored at least two runs. Everyone contributed in a big way.

Breaking Bad is now Broken Bad. We are in first place, alone. This week we go for the first half sweep against the 0-5 team. I like our chances.

Milestones:

Game 2
Cage        400 rbi (#2)
Heffe       350 rbi (#3)
Monty     1000 ab (#3)
Sir Guy    900 ab (#4)

Game 3
Heffe       400 g (#1)
Pauly       250 rbi (#5)
D             30 bb (#9)
Alberto    50 ab (#49)

Game 4
Cage        250 g (#6)
Load        201 rbi (#11)

Game 5
Pauly        30 sf (#2)

Wholly Holey Holy

I'm gonna say it, I just can't resist. We played the Holey Sox last week. The church team (actually called the Holy Sox) has more holes than Swiss cheese, to coin a cliche. We ran away with the game in the second inning, plating 11 on our way to an eventual 20-7 Christian slaying. We fed them to the lions.

But it's ok, they are going to Heaven and we are going to Hell as we all know. Cotton burns, too. No amount will protect us from the flames of the depths.

Story within the story, their coach and left center fielder Mark P and I were teammates on the Walnut Creakers MDSSL team, the last time I pretended to be retired. We have almost nothing in common but in softball all you need is to be in the same lineup for a couple of years, and you are friends. So after I hit my usual flare over SS in front of him my second time up, he cheated way over almost behind the SS the next time I batted, and I hammered the ball over the pitcher's head straight up the middle, splitting the outfielders for a double. The pitcher was not pleased. "Did you do that on purpose?" he asked when I got to second base. "Of course", I said. He was not pleased with this response. I think he called on Yehovah to curse me. You can call me the Monster of the Midway from now on.

The next inning when Mark was going to coach first, he commented into our dugout, "nice hit." Gene was sitting next to me. He thought it was about his grand slam in the second, which was really the blow that put the game away. On a scale of one to ten, his was a nine point nine and mine was maybe a seven. How dare he think Mark would be complimenting him?

Defensive highlights included a great play in the hole by Chuck in the second, and yet another all lefty double play in the third. Besides Gene's big fly, there was Lefty's two run homer in the first, which actually put the game away at 2-0. It was of Derek proportions, or to continue the holy theme, like our Pope might hit if he ever turns 40.

We held them in check until the bottom of the last inning. In strode Lefty, staked to a 20-2 lead. He gave up five. I think he is like a any good closer - he needs the game to be close to be effective. I think I saw Joe changing his pitching depth chart though.

Ten guys had multiple hit games, including Chopper with a double and a triple and a single - the mini-cycle. No Christmas goose though. Bruce and Joe had the other perfect games at the plate. In our Conehead inning, we batted around (plus two) with 15 guys in the lineup - and the hardest hit balls were line drive outs by Knight and the Buddha, who were on a Crusade. OK I will stop now with the religious references.

Milestones:

Stink Eye 150 g (#1)
Heffe       250 h (#3)
Lefty        400 ab (#4)
Bruce       50 ab (#22)