In the biblical story of King David, who as we know slew the monster Goliath, the latter is said to be nine feet nine inches by some accounts, and a mere six foot nine in others. But the point is David took his single slingshot, and Goliath went down, and then David cut the monster's head off and the Philistines went running off into the hinterlands, never to bother the Jews again. At least not for a while, they always eventually came back, but that's another story.
We all know the story of this year in Orinda Senior softball. The Philistines, er MTC55 or speedzone.net or whatever they really call themselves, is a top level tournament team sandbagging in our back yard. They have mowed down everyone they have faced this season so far, and that includes the Scouts and the DC's, two of our traditional rivals. They loaded up for our game - I saw at least three players that I hadn't seen in the two games I watched them play earlier. That is the MO of these tournament teams slumming in the rec leagues. I play against two of them, one in Pleasanton and the other far away in the City, and those two roughly combined to comprise this team. They create a roster of 25 tournament players, and pick the 12 available for any given game, and depending on the competition, bring their "A" players or "B" players.
But we have our David - Joe has his own slingshot, a wicked curve unlike anyone else's in slow pitch softball. In the first inning they were clubbing everything he threw up there, and they jumped to an 8-0 lead, and I don't think there was an out yet. We held there but this looked like it was going to be a long night, even if it only lasted an hour and fifteen minutes.
Then a funny thing happened. Joe 'figured it out' as he put it. The Ringers all seem to move up in the box, so they can jump on the pitch. Since they are mostly all as large as Goliath, they can hit any pitch from there. Well Joe combined throwing deep with his patented curve, and MTC was rendered helpless. They are too arrogant to adjust.
The turning point may have been when he faced Tim Millette, who is a nationally ranked player, and although currently somewhat injured, possesses one of the most lethal swings in slowpitch softball. Joe induced him to pop up near the third base dugout and Chopper couldn't quite reach it, but this Goliath was done.
Joe got him out twice, and he may as well have swung with his head in his hands. At the end of the second as we walked off the field down 10-3, Joe told me he's got this one, that is he figured it out.
You will forgive me if I didn't quite believe him at that point - they were still up by seven, and had the hammer, and there was a lot of game left. But with one out in the top of the third we clobbered six straight hits around a walk, and it was punctuated by one of the three key hits of the game - Doc Larry sliced one down the right field line with the bases loaded, and when he scored to complete the grand slam, suddenly we were tied ten all.
At that point we believed we were at least going to be in the game. Then Joe shut them down three straight innings. He OWNED them, he was right! And in the fourth Lefty crushed a ball for a solo home run and we clung to a one run lead for a couple of innings.
You could see the panic showing in their faces and they were pressing at the plate, and they don't play defense anyway. In the top of the sixth, we loaded the bases with no outs, and up stepped up our long lost three hitter, Pope. He sent one nearly to Lafayette, over the right center fielder's head, and it was off to the races for the second grand slam and our third big hit of the game.
We held them to one in the bottom half and then got some insurance in the top of the seventh - appropriately on a double by Joe and his surrogate scoring for him on D's sac fly. They had a short rally in the bottom, but they were all trying to hit seven run home runs, and this translated onto pop ups to end the game at 17-12. Sweetness.
As for the playoffs in a couple of weeks, it could go either way. They may have more weapons we haven't even seen yet, and you just never know in this game. But two things we know - we can hang with them, and we have our 'slingshot' - Joe's combination of his arm and brain. He may not be young like David was in the story, but he is just as deadly.
Milestones:
7/20
None
7/27
Lefty 10 hr (#15)
We all know the story of this year in Orinda Senior softball. The Philistines, er MTC55 or speedzone.net or whatever they really call themselves, is a top level tournament team sandbagging in our back yard. They have mowed down everyone they have faced this season so far, and that includes the Scouts and the DC's, two of our traditional rivals. They loaded up for our game - I saw at least three players that I hadn't seen in the two games I watched them play earlier. That is the MO of these tournament teams slumming in the rec leagues. I play against two of them, one in Pleasanton and the other far away in the City, and those two roughly combined to comprise this team. They create a roster of 25 tournament players, and pick the 12 available for any given game, and depending on the competition, bring their "A" players or "B" players.
But we have our David - Joe has his own slingshot, a wicked curve unlike anyone else's in slow pitch softball. In the first inning they were clubbing everything he threw up there, and they jumped to an 8-0 lead, and I don't think there was an out yet. We held there but this looked like it was going to be a long night, even if it only lasted an hour and fifteen minutes.
Then a funny thing happened. Joe 'figured it out' as he put it. The Ringers all seem to move up in the box, so they can jump on the pitch. Since they are mostly all as large as Goliath, they can hit any pitch from there. Well Joe combined throwing deep with his patented curve, and MTC was rendered helpless. They are too arrogant to adjust.
The turning point may have been when he faced Tim Millette, who is a nationally ranked player, and although currently somewhat injured, possesses one of the most lethal swings in slowpitch softball. Joe induced him to pop up near the third base dugout and Chopper couldn't quite reach it, but this Goliath was done.
Joe got him out twice, and he may as well have swung with his head in his hands. At the end of the second as we walked off the field down 10-3, Joe told me he's got this one, that is he figured it out.
You will forgive me if I didn't quite believe him at that point - they were still up by seven, and had the hammer, and there was a lot of game left. But with one out in the top of the third we clobbered six straight hits around a walk, and it was punctuated by one of the three key hits of the game - Doc Larry sliced one down the right field line with the bases loaded, and when he scored to complete the grand slam, suddenly we were tied ten all.
At that point we believed we were at least going to be in the game. Then Joe shut them down three straight innings. He OWNED them, he was right! And in the fourth Lefty crushed a ball for a solo home run and we clung to a one run lead for a couple of innings.
You could see the panic showing in their faces and they were pressing at the plate, and they don't play defense anyway. In the top of the sixth, we loaded the bases with no outs, and up stepped up our long lost three hitter, Pope. He sent one nearly to Lafayette, over the right center fielder's head, and it was off to the races for the second grand slam and our third big hit of the game.
We held them to one in the bottom half and then got some insurance in the top of the seventh - appropriately on a double by Joe and his surrogate scoring for him on D's sac fly. They had a short rally in the bottom, but they were all trying to hit seven run home runs, and this translated onto pop ups to end the game at 17-12. Sweetness.
As for the playoffs in a couple of weeks, it could go either way. They may have more weapons we haven't even seen yet, and you just never know in this game. But two things we know - we can hang with them, and we have our 'slingshot' - Joe's combination of his arm and brain. He may not be young like David was in the story, but he is just as deadly.
Milestones:
7/20
None
7/27
Lefty 10 hr (#15)
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