Leaky Areolas

Like many English words, there are several meanings to the word areola. For example, did you know that it has two or three other meanings in biology (besides the obvious)?

• Areola (lichen), a round to polygonal part of a surface of a crustose lichen
• Areola (entomology), a small ring of color or gap in wing margin of insects
• Areole, a raised structure bearing spines on cacti

I am going to assume the Orinda softball team named the Areolas is not named after lichen or insects. A cactus part would be kind of cool, but then it would be misspelled. That leaves the obvious:

• An areola is a small colored area of skin, usually around the nipple

So they are named after the female body part that is one of our favorites. In fact it is used to give milk to our babies, so there is a very strong reason for the shape and size of the areola and its permeability, and it is not just there for us to gawk at.

Why do I bring this up? Do I have your attention?

Because in the Conehead game against the Areolas Monday night, their defense was spongy and leaked and it led to two straight Conehead innings of twelve and thirteen runs, and we ran away with the game 28-6.

It was shaping up to one of those manager's nightmare of a game. For some reason our team, despite having won four straight championships in Orinda and eight of nine overall is having trouble getting players on the field. Here is where I thank Bill H and Gerry D for coming to our rescue so we could field a complete team.

We were missing some of our best hitters and fielders, not to mention our rock Joe on the mound. The Areolas are one of those teams that seems better than they play, because it is usually they that cannot get their players to games. But this could have been the night they stood up to us.

Instead it was our players that played out of their minds. Ol' G and Chopper carried a large part of the load. G was 5-5 including a double and a three run homer that capped off our second Conehead inning. Chopper had a bases clearing double in the first Conehead inning, and didn't hit a single - he hit three doubles and a triple.

They each contributed four RBIs but they weren't alone in the one-sided slugfest. Three others had four hits, including Doc Larry and the two Jeffs, and the only thing that kept Derek from a fourth was a semi-intentional walk, and the only thing that stopped Larry C was that he was only up four times and had a sac fly once. Everyone scored and had at least one RBI. Overall, we hit .745 as a team, and although it was aided by the leaky defense and some Conehead hits, we pretty much pummeled the ball all night long.

Our defense in contrast was steady, and Doc Larry pretty much shut down the Areola offense. Gene made a couple of rally-killing running catches in left center and Chuck made a nice charge and throw out on the infield. I don't recall a single error.

As for the Areolas - perhaps they need a name change - the correct plural for Areola is Areolae. Maybe that would stop the leaks.

Milestones:

Chuck        140 bb (#1)

D               40 bb (#13)

D               250 rbi (#15)

Bill             50 h (#32) (YAY!)