Ride the Big Wave!

Things are going so well for Transdyn that we don't miss the Beer Fairy from last year (D's OGF), or even that Sir Guy, after filling that role for a while, stopped and left us dry at the end of our wins. Ah those were the days my friend.

And win we have done in convincing fashion. I don't want to jinx anything but we have dominated the first third of the season as everybody has now played everyone else once, and we swept the series to go to 4-0.

This week the victim was DS Electric. Formerly known as the Big Kahunas. I guess they aren't so big any more as we slaughtered them 24-2. I think the electricity has even been shut off.

This is how it has gone: We hit at least 8 straight hits to start an inning twice. That's twice in three innings. And both times they were all singles. The second time, Rusty screwed it up - he hit a double for our ninth straight hit. After that, D only made an out because he refused to take a walk. He missed intentionally on ball four twice, and then nearly took the third baseman's glove off (he did catch it for a nice play). Bert stepped up and promptly smacked a ball nearly to Hacienda Business Park a mile away. I guess that is what you call an exclamation point!

Three guys with four hits, five with three, and everybody with at least two, now that's all around contributions. Jas scorched the ball every time up - only a leaping catch by the shortstop his first time up prevented a perfect 5-5. Cage led the way with six RBIs, followed by Bert with five.

And really my intention on this post was to just talk about our defense. We have now allowed less than half the number of runs (21) as the next best defense (46). It starts with pitching and Tom's ERA is falling precipitously. He had two Kahuna K's. Brian displayed some nifty glove work on a couple of balls in the hole. Hama at third - well no one knows if he just closed his eyes at just the right time - but he stuck a couple in his glove and got the outs. Nick kept track of one liner that was hit a lot harder than it must have appeared in the outfield, and the ball just kept rising, but Cage stayed with it til the out was made. And D showed some good hustle on a pop up foul behind him on the fence. Never an easy chore. Let me tell you as a first baseman - when I was in my twenties that was easy to get to, and now in my dotage, it would be a challenge. D is somewhere in between so it goes down as a great play.

It's a bad combination for the opposition - stellar defense complimented by a relentless offense. If we keep this up, the sky (a.k.a. Cotton) is the limit.

Ride the Big Wave!

Milestones:
4/19
Cage        900 ab (#5)
Jas           30 bb (#10)
Hama       30 2b (#15)
Tom         50 r (#30)

4/26
Cage        450 rbi (#1)
Tom         200 ab (#24)
Bert          50 rbi (#31)

Just One Look, That's All It Took

What a weird game.

There we were missing seven regulars, Chuck with his mystery injury so he wasn't leading off again, and our lineup didn't resemble anything like, well, our lineup. And the first two innings, we hit, or rather didn't hit like it.

And we had two K's in one inning.

But we scratched a run across a run in the top of the third to take our first lead on a ground out by tours truly. I was wondering if that run was going to have to stand up.

And then...

Our Conehead inning in the fourth started off innocently enough. A walk to Gene (who went 2-2 with two walks and 3 RBIs), and a fly out. But seven singles and a bases loaded walk later, Gene came up again and he busted it open with a two run Conehead double, which was our only extra base hit of the game. After another run scoring single and another bases loaded walk (the Holy Sox pitchers helped us out with eight walks altogether), it was 12-2 and the game might as well be called right then. The final score was 14-2.

Chopper and the Knight led us with three hits, and Pope joined Gene in the three RBI club. Chopper made the acrobatic play of the game on a throw home stretching this way and that while tiptoeing the plate. He can quit his day job - he has a future in the circus. No I didn't mean as a clown but as a trapeze artist.

Knight fought off the sun on a couple of high popups in shallow left, and Pope hung in on a tricky hard hit fly ball that got caught up in the wind. But mostly Joe just sent the Holy Sox back into the dugout after hitting Holy Rollers.

Hopefully we have both halves of our team next week.

Milestones:
4/17
Lefty        200 rbi (#1)
Sting        30 2b (#3)

4/24
Gene        30 bb (#3)
Gene        100 rbi (#9)
Haz          100 r (#10)
Knight      20 bb (#12)

Nobody beats Sunshine 23 times in a row!

Last night Steve Kerr channeled Vitas Gerulaitis in his post game press conference after the Warriors finally took down the Spurs at home after 33 straight losses in San Antone. "With apologies to (Vitas Gerulaitis), I'll use his line," Kerr said, paraphrasing the late tennis great. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, beats the Golden State Warriors 34 straight times. Nobody, you got that?"

And he rode off into the sunset.

The actual quote from Vitas was "And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." – after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.

Well let me tell you, neither one has anything on Sunshine Saloon. We had lost 22 in a row OVERALL to Boomers in the regular season. None of this home and away stuff. And don't forget the Warriors beat San Antonio in the playoffs in Texas a couple of years ago in the last year before they became Champions.

Instead we also included 4 lost playoff games to the Blasted Boomers over the years. One year we had them 10-5 and coughed it up. Another year in the regular season we had that split game - we had them down 7-0 in the third inning of a game in April where they had everyone at Vegas or somewhere for Tournament play. The Softball Gods ripped open the sky, and since we hadn't made the fourth inning yet they suspended the game when the deluge came. When we continued the game two months later, they outscored us 9-1 for the rest of the innings to win 9-8.

I had given up on this league and was going to quit this season. There was no drama - beat the 4 Speeds a couple, lose to Bada Bing a couple, play competitive against Boomers but go home empty. Make the playoffs only to lose to Boomers again. The OAKS quit the league last year and that was our last actual rival. There was no point. Woe was me. I was feeling sorry for myself.

Then in the off season I ran into the manager of the OAKS in the Walnut Creaker MDSSL league (we were going to be on the same team until I got a job). He said their demise was premature - he had back surgery last year and no one wanted to play while he was recovering. So they are back (pun sort of intended) (by the way he was the one effusively congratulating us after the game as the OAKS took our dugout for the next game).

And we added Pauly and Greg, and Lamont and Chris were coming back (although...), and suddenly there was a glint of hope. Now am I glad I came back, even if the highlights only include this game!

Because we threw off the Monkey. Last time we beat Boomers (6/2/2010) it took an improbable eight run bottom of the sixth to tie them and then they were in such shock they went out without scoring in the seventh and we pushed across a run to win it.

This time, we did spot them a 7-0 lead after two. But we actually kind of dominated them the rest of the way, outscoring them 16-1 over the next five frames. That is no fluke - they had chance after chance to come back. Tom had them all trying to hit 15 run homers because that is what they think they do. But our outfielders tracked them all down. Really Tom had them eating out of his hand. The Hammer hammered it right into our gloves. Mark Green hit towering flies to Frank in left center. Greg ran everything down in left field, as did Gordon and Al on the right side. Everything went our way. I told Tim to play over a couple of steps on one guy and he hit it right to him.

But the story was our offense, which woke up in a big way. There were hits all up in down the lineup. Al, Tim, Steve and Don at the bottom were collectively 12-14 with six RBIs. Bottom of the order hits, we win. Not to be outdone, the top of the lineup had four of six hitters (Tom, Mark, Heff and Paul) with three hits, and Greg had a double and a triple good for three RBIs.

Boomer's Bangers changed their name to the Renegades - their tournament team name. We are undefeated against the Renegades - time to start a different sort of streak.

On Solid Ground

Your Golden State Warriors are the metaphor du jour for all good team play, these days. Who can argue with 72-9 going into the last day of the season, with a chance to take down the all time record for wins in a season in the 70 years of NBA History. We won't mention the other countless records they have set this year, and this is on top of winning the whole shebang last year, yet emerging the hungriest team in the NBA.

The Warriors, as we know, are so good that they get sloppy at times, and this leads to the few losses and close games that shouldn't be. Coach Steve Kerr likes to say that he wants them to play "solid". By this he means make the routine play; be consistent; don't try to be a hero, just make the high percentage play. The outstanding plays will then follow without trying to force them.

Sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't, just as Nick sometimes must throw behind the runner from left center to first base as he did last week. The point is that there is a balance in there somewhere.

Which leads me in my roundabout way to talking about our opener and what this season looks like.

Adding Rusty to the lineup just makes this team SOLID. It's not like we weren't successful before, but sometimes that last piece is what you need to push you to the next championship. No pressure Rusty, but you filled that role for us perfectly.

So that's what I felt driving home from our last game (wanting to actually forget the Warrior loss later that night) - we played solid. It started with good defense in the first, holding a good hitting Brew Crew to a single run. Tom had them reaching to try to jack the ball out all night, and it led to a lot of easy fly ball outs.

And then we came up in the bottom, and after a single, walk, single, single to tie it up and load the bases, up strode our version of the three pointer - Big D. Ironically, Steph Curry is probably about the same height but on the basketball court he looks like a little guy. Not so D on a softball field. He hit a laser shot over the right center fence for the slam and we never looked back.

In the second it came back around to the top of the lineup, and once again, it was Jason, Cage, Rusty and D putting up another five runs, with an assist from Albert, Pauly and Heffe. Solid.

At that point you're thinking, well can we just put up five every inning and win like 30 to whatever?  But instead it got to be a defensive duel in the middle innings - some nice catches by Rusty and Cage, and Albert, and some wildly entertaining dancing if not completed putouts by our prima ballerina third baseman Pauly.

In the fifth we pushed across another two runs, and in the sixth Rusty put the icing on the cake with a three run Jack; he had flirted with a couple of long fouls and a deep flyout and had to settle for two hard line drive singles to that point. He was determined to put it out. Just in time, I might add, to make Bert's followup deep fly a single as we were over the limit. So Bert had to settle for a quiet 4-4, and will probably complain that D and Rusty took all his RBI chances away. Which they did.

But again with the Warriors comparison - it's about the extra pass, in our case the extra at bat, and we are solid from 1-12 this year in the lineup.

Milestone:
Bert        100 ab (#40)