From a Leap to the (Bleep)

The last two weeks have produced a dichotomy - crisp hard timely hitting and fielding in Walnut Creek to a depth in Orinda that this team has not known in my 16 years with the Coneheads.

It started with leap - Randy went high to snare a line drive from the opening hitter in the first game of our double header a week ago Sunday. It set the tone in important game against the Polar Bears. They came into the game in second place. Granted we were already in the drivers' seat - a game and a half ahead with two weeks left. But lose that game and suddenly the pressure is on for the two remaining games against a good Big Feet team and a desperate Advance Construction team.

Instead starting with the Leap, we dominated the Bears. Although we started slow, we opened it up with a six run fifth featuring a two run double by Gerry and Bruce's follow up two run triple. Gerry, Ol' G, D, and Lefty ended up with three hits to lead the way.

In the nightcap, you could tell we let up after clinching first place in the opener. It didn't help that two of our players had to leave and we started without a schmiddler. Big Feet declared war on the middle, and even after hitting old Stink Eye, doubled up that effort for the first two innings. How many times can you apologize for going at the pitcher after you hit him?? By the time we figured it out, and pulled in Haze to plug up the middle (and go with three outfielders) we had spotted them an eight run first and a 15-1 lead through 2 1/2 innings.

After that we made a valiant effort to come back, and finished with a more respectable loss 19-14 (if there is such a thing). We were led by Chopper's 3-3 with five RBIs, including a bases loaded triple. Nomah continued his perfect hitting, and started his streak of right handed Heffe hits using Heffe's bats (bloopers landing 15 feet behind the first baseman) as he went 4-4.

In the last game of the Walnut Creek season (in which we rebounded to club Advance Construction 20-6), Nomah took the Heffe hitting style to a new level. I mean I never on all my teams got three ducks in a row just ten feet behind the infield like that. I bow to the New Master. Just for good measure as they squeezed tighter and tighter on the right side, he smashed a line drive to now wide open right center for a double his last time up. I bow to the Old Master too.

In other highlights, Bruce had a bases loaded and clearing double in the first that pretty much advanced Advance to the off season. That made it 5-0 and we never looked back. Bruce made the play of the game with a dive in the outfield, and a few others that would have been ordinary except they were on Field 3 with the brutal sun for the left center fielder. With his five RBIs overall, you'd have to name him Player of the Game.

He wasn't alone though. We started the nine run fifth with nine straight hits, and they all scored. D provided the comic relief. After going 'yard' and thus on Field 3 being called out his previous at bat, his next time up he swung and missed on purpose to avoid a walk. And then really worked the count until he hit a foul out strikeout that you can only do in softball. We were cracking up at his expense. Very cruel. You know it's just cause we respect you D. Really. As a man and as a hitter. Really.

Pope had an all double game with three, and Randy had two two baggers and four RBIs from the lead off spot, and Chopper continued his late season heat up with three more hits.

Part II

And now for something completely different, the Bleep - The Orinda Coneheads. We had two challenging games that could have defined the race for first - first against the second place old rival Old Scouts, and then versus the Carpetbagger...I mean the 12 Angry Men. Next year we are going to build a wall around San Francisco and make 12 Angry Men pay for it so they can't come over to play in our precious former hidden gem of a league in Orinda. We will dedicate it to Donald Trump after he fails in the election and fails in his bid for his proposed wall to block Mexican illegal immigrants.

Somehow our age and injuries and missing players seem to make more of a difference in Orinda. Or maybe it's just that the Scouts and Angries are just really good teams and we need to be at full strength to take them on. Let's face it, we were down four regular outfielders last night.

We were in both games late - down 6-5 to the Scouts going into the bottom of the fifth, and we had come back to tie it 8-8 last night after four.

But in each case the opponents came on late and squashed us like a bug. Very humbling. In Scout game, they won going away with 5, then 8 runs to close it out. To top all in last night's game, 12 Angry scored 26 in one inning, the top of the fifth. I can't remember many whole games the Heads have allowed that many runs, even when we played nine inning games. So I had to looked it up. In the ten years since I started keeping box scores, we have allowed 30+ runs in a game just a handful of times. The biggest inning I found was the Waitlisters once scoring 17. Not even close.

And HAH you carpetbagging lowlife scumbag bottom feeding predators-on-the-injury-depleted, we once scored THIRTY ONE in an inning. So there.

We had only one major highlight - Joe getting a home run when he sent Larry around the bases on a turf gapper to the deep outfield. Joe Bonds!

The other recognition is we have to call out Poor Chopper in right field last night. He gave it his best shot, and they just kept picking on him again and again the more tired he became. I blame the coach, who was slow to move the outfielders around to give him some relief - although let the record show that the first batter up after we moved him to right center hit it to right center.

But a word about Chopper the hitter - he is heating up just as the weather is, and just in time for the playoffs. He is 12 for his last 12, including a homer (no goose), a triple and four doubles.

Playoffs this weekend, we should all hit like Chopper, and Cotton will be ours.

Milestones Walnut Creek:
7/17 Game 1
Chopper    20 3b (#1)
Chuck       20 2b (#6)
Chopper    20 2b (#7)
Ol' G         350 ab (#8)

7/17 Game 2

Haze         150 g (#5)

Joe           30 bb (#6)

7/24 Game

Randy       20 2b (#8)

Bruce        50 rbi (#15)

Bruce        10 2b (#17)

Bruce       100 ab(#21)

Milestones Orinda:
7/18 Game: None
7/25 Game
D              150 g (#14)

D              500 ab (#16)

Softball My Way

I've always wanted to write a book. Just never had the discipline to follow through on the hundred times I started one. Now though, thanks to the Knight, I know what to do.

We need to chronicle the life and times of one Mike Callanan, a.k.a. Chopper. The title will be Softball My Way, as told to Heffe Kravin, and the subtitle will be The Chopper School of Baserunning and the Other Skills of Softball.

The reason this came up was that in an otherwise hohum opener of our double header Sunday, Chopper was running for Joe and went to third on a double by Randy. He did the most incredible flop and landed with a thud on the bag. And in the third base dugout we had very good seats for the performance! If there were a pool under him, the cannonball he created would have emptied the entire pool. It was impressive.

We pretty much owned the Holy Sox and made the game batting practice for the nightcap. Except Haze. He showed up, walked twice, and then had to go to some other commitment instead of playing the next game. A perfect day of softball - 0-0, 2 walks, 1 run scored.

Randy was the hitting hero, doubling twice and singling in three at bats, while driving in three runs in the leadoff spot. Aaron and Big D smoked doubles while going 2-2, and they were joined by Heffe with 2-2 games, and Lefty had three RBIs.

Big D had the defensive play of the game snaring a hot one hopper back-handed. When he realized to get the out at first it had to be Joe covering or his hamstrings lugging him there, instead he fired it to second to get a force out. Of course I don't give him enough credit - you're supposed to get the lead runner. but just let's say Necessity is the Mother of Invention. We also turned a 6-11-3 nifty double play - the Knight doing the lefty 270 turn so common in baseball and softball.

The second game turned out to be much more exciting for the fans. It didn't start that way - we were up 6-1 when we came into the dugout going into the top of the fourth. At that point someone said let's get five runs and go up by 10, and I turned to Randy and said forget that let's go up 15-1. And so, we actually got one more and were on our way to the slaughter rule with a 16-1 lead.

We started the Conehead inning with a bunch of singles by the last half of the order, and when Randy knocked in a run on a fielder's choice for the second out, we had three in and a tidy 9-1 lead. Then we got six straight two out hits, including back to back doubles by Sting and Pope, and a lumbering triple to the hinterlands by Big D.

Just needed six outs to get to our well deserved beer after the minimum five innings. But the Big Feet had other ideas, and blooped and bled their way to match our ten in the bottom of the fourth. It was a bit of a nightmare inning and luckily we had the Conehead inning to lean on.

I guess it drove Joe to drink - he let D come in to pitch, and went to get the cooler for our after game refreshments. In actuality it was a brilliant move -  D's pitching style is pretty much opposite Joe's and the opponent got their Big Feet all tangled up trying to hit him, and came up with a Big Zero in the last two innings. With one insurance run added, we ended the game up 17-11.

Pope was a perfect 4-4 with the mini-cycle, just missing a home run. Knight drove in runs with three straight singles to pace us with three RBIs. Sting was also one short of a cycle but he was missing the triple. Heffe had another 2-2 (as did Chuck) to finish off a perfect day, 4-4 with a walk and a Conehead triple. On a single to shallow center, Gene took a very wide turn around third and got into a run down. Heffe kept motoring on, and when the pickle throw home to nail Gene hit him and skittered off toward first base, Heffe kept on keeping on. It was mighty tempting to go for a little league home run, but reason prevailed, and he settled for the CH triple.

Another double header this weekend. Our magic number is Two to clinch top seed for the playoffs, and we play the second place Polar Bears in the opener. Win that and it's settled. Whether or not we win that one Big Feet get another crack at us in the nightcap.

Milestones, Game 1
Lefty        150 g (#4)
D             30 bb (#5)

Milestones, Game 2

Chuck      250 r (#1)

Chuck      50 bb (#1)

Heffe        500 ab (#2)

DS Electrocuted

There's nothing new under the sun.

The headline should read, "Transdyn Wins Cotton!". And while it is good to get the first championship of the year, and 11-1 is a fine regular season, go ask the Warriors. You want to go all the way and this week is playoff crunch time. We will have our hands full (or slightly empty) missing the killer B's, Brian with his defense and speed on the bases, and Bert with his line drive and soaring homers.

And it was a little anticlimactic - we clinched Regular Season Cotton last week anyway with our squeaker over the Sons of Pitches. And, DS Electric, our opponent had scored 36 runs in dispatching the Alabama Tuna Melts last week (What a Melt down! ouch, couldn't help myself)

We were due for a letdown. 

So what did we do? We went out and shocked the Electricians, 21-2.

Didn't help that they were late in arriving for the game. After all, they came in hopelessly out of the playoff race. Doesn't help that at least some of their players, maybe most, are the remnants of the Big Kahuna club, who we just haven't liked over the last few years. Mediocre players with bad attitudes, bad combination.

After they finally arrived just short of the ten minute forfeit grace period, we got to start with two hitting innings before they stepped to the plate, due to one of Pleasanton's cooler rules. Punish the offender but let the game go on. Gotta love that one for both teams.

And by the time they did hit it was 11-0, and all but over. We had just two in the first but batted around plus one in the second. The big blow was a hooking line shot by Albert for a three run homer. That ball was clearly headed foul but Bert hit it so hard, it straightened itself out to go over in fair territory. That was the fifth of six consecutive two out hits, including two run hits by Rene and Rusty.

In the third it was more of the same but we spotted the opponent two outs to start the inning. Then poured out seven straight hits interspersed with two walks to plate six. Rene and Rusty repeated two out two run hits.

Tom did give up a two run homer in the fourth, but that was all DS Electric could muster against him and the defense. Jas made a leaping catch for an out and Rene tracked down two shallow fly balls for defensive highlights.

Rusty and Hama led the way with perfect 4-4 games, with Jas, Rene, and D just behind with three each. Rene, Rusty, D, and Bert all had four RBIs.

One week to go for Cotton II. Missing our B&B, who will step up?

Milestone:

Albert        100 rbi (#18)

Bringing Home the Bacon

Bacon. Just reading the word evokes the enticing aroma of breakfast cooking in the kitchen, the sizzling sound of splattering grease, the promise of a great breakfast, whether you cook it yourself, or it's done by your lover or your mother, or whether it's at a truck stop or diner, or a fancy brunch restaurant. You may say it's full of fat or it ain't Kosher, but let's face it, we all love it.

And where does bacon come from - that's right, your hog farm somewhere in the hinterland. We don't like to think of those putrid places producing such a delectable delight, but once it's in front of you, you don't care in the least.

But then, what the hell is a warthog? Is it literally a hog with warts? If so, could you get infectious diseases from eating bacon from a warthog? Could you get warts of you are on a field full of Warthogs? Should they be teaching about the evils of hanging out with Warthogs in ninth grade biology?

I had to do a little research because the Coneheads were playing the Warthogs on Thursday. Just in case you haven't been to the Zoo (except the Conehead Zoo), here is what I found:

It sure is a hideous beast. Look closely, zoom in on the face of yon warthog - notice the two growths hanging down its snout - those are the warts! They're not really warts at all! We are safe! We can still eat bacon!

But then the question leaps out at you - who in the world would name their softball team after such an ugly creature?

And then you remember, oh yeah, Coneheads. If you think about Jane Curtain and Dan Ackroyd back in the skit, it might give you pause. There is no accounting for taste in names.

And so, on Thursday we faced the ugly beast, and slayed him, to the tune of 29-8. We spotted them a 6-3 lead and then our Fan arrived. She takes full credit by the way. She carefully notes that the score was 26-2 after she arrived. We had Conehead rallies of nine and 13 runs in successive innings.

Mark moved the leadoff spot and the Hog pitcher wouldn't or wouldn't give him a pitch to hit, so he did his job and took two walks. He managed to go 3-3 anyway. Sting slashed a bunch of line drives and drove in five with four hits. Pope had the big bomb of the evening (at last until Chopper unloaded later on) and also had five RBIs. Chuck had nothing but clutch hits and tied them with five RBIs on just three hits. And made a fine catch of a line drive at third in the fifth. In the third Chopper put the exclamation point on our 13 run rally - he was the 11th straight Conehead to reach via hit or walk that inning. It was a great goose ball, but the geese had remained in Walnut Creek.

After a couple of innings of shoddy defense early we settled down and backed up Joe with good defense. Even with the game out of reach, when we had an outfield of Chopper and Haz and Heffe and Pope. Let the record show we only allowed one run in the last two innings with that alignment. Never mind most of the balls went to the infield. I said never mind!

In a strange quirk of scheduling, we have 11 days off in the middle of July. How un-Conehead is that? But I will leave you with this: 

When we come back, go out and bring home the Bacon.

Freight Train

For musical accompaniment click here:

Freight Train Boogie

Among hundreds of others there is a cliche in the NBA that in the playoffs there is no carry-over from game to game. That each game is its own drama and story to be told. So you could lose by 30 and then win the next game. This years's playoffs were full of those stories.

You would think that rec league softball followed the same pattern, if for no other reason than we only play once a week. There is plenty of time for momentum to change, or perhaps it wouldn't even exist.

But you can look at the last three weeks of Transdyn's season for evidence to the contrary.

Three weeks ago we had that great two out walk-off rally to upend the Brews Bros. 9-8 on Rene's gapper.

The Brews Bros responded to their frustration by going out and playing a solid game against the (then) first place Sons of Pitches 14-6. You wonder if the crushing defeat gave them more resolve.

We took our momentum and confidence generated by the dramatic win, and just cruised in crushing the Alabama Tuna Melts 30-5.We had separate rallies of nine and ten runs. Jason broke out with a 4-4 and four RBIs from the leadoff spot. Coop had nearly the same game, 3-3 with a walk and four RBIs from the 'second leadoff' spot. Albert combined the pair's output for seven RBIs - including a bases loaded three run single in the first for the game winning RBIs. A side show was him deciding to take second on the play - when he was thrown out 'stretching' the hit - by about three steps. Maybe he should stretch before the game instead.

Hama was also a perfect 4-4 with a double and a walk and everyone in the lineup had a hit and a run scored and at least one RBI. The Tuna starter couldn't find the plate - there were ten walks altogether. We are the wrong team to not throw strikes to - we have too many veterans who are not too proud to take a walk for the team, in order to avoid swinging at bad pitches.

This set up the Rematch - we were now a half game ahead of the Sons going into our showdown last week. The winner pretty much would lock down regular season Cotton. If they won the best we could do was tie them and they would hold the tie breaker. Vice versa, except with their upset loss last week, it meant we could clinch regular season Cotton with a win.

The game was tight from the get go. No one could really square up the ball against either pitcher. Tom was dealing, holding them to a single run through four innings including a K. He even had them talking about having a no-hitter through two or three innings. They kept trying to un-jinx it by talking about it, I think they were getting nervous and jinxing themselves.

After taking a 2-0 lead in the first via run scoring singles from Bert and Hama, we came up in the fourth with what turned out to be our best rally of the game. Bert and Hama set the table this time and in a gapper reminiscent of the game winner a couple weeks earlier, Rene drove in both runners. I've never seen Hama run so hard as he scored from first again. We weren't done, and hits by Heffe, Tom and Coop brought in a couple of more.

Even though it was getting late and the way things were going 6-1 seemed like a large lead, we knew with the Sons of Pitches it could evaporate just like that.  And sure enough they rallied to tie it up in the top of the fifth.

We answered - but with just one run scratched across with a hit, a walk, a fielder's choice and one more hit. It was like a National League baseball rally. The tension mounted as neither team scored in the sixth. The highlight was Brian ranging far into center field to rope in a blooper that could have opened up their half.

We knew we had the hammer and the top of the lineup set  to come up in the bottom of the seventh should we need it. One run seemed like a very slim margin for error going into the seventh with such a prolific team in the other dugout.

Who knew the drama we were setting up?

They put a runner on first with one out. The next hitter smashed it up the middle - and Tom not only got a glove one it, he had it IN his glove. He had ALL day to at least get the lead runner and then the double play to end it. It was hit that hard. The batter was not even out of the box.

And then he rushed it. We've all done it. He threw behind Jas coming up to second base and it clanked off the tip of his glove into shallow right. Luckily he did slow the ball down so that no one could advance further, which proved to be important.

Give Tom credit for not panicking - he just went after the next batter and threw strikes. The guy hit a sinking liner to right, it looked like the game tying hit or at least the bases would be loaded. Or it could have bounced in front of and by Coop who went into a full lunge...and then they could have run amok.

But not this night. Coop, extended to the max, caught the ball. The runner on second was so sure it would drop he was already past third. And there was no panic in Coop. He flipped it to second, game over, COTTON!

We have a roll going on down the tracks.

Hopefully will continue it through the playoffs. Tomorrow's game is, of course, meaningless, but I always expect that we will try to win. Note that DS Electric is the Old Kahunas, who we never liked, and they scored 36 runs last week. Time to show them what good defense and pitching will do to them.

Milestones:

6/21
Heffe      130 bb (#1)
Bert        10 bb (#22)

6/28

Jas          350 h (#8)

Roller-Conester

My girlfriend says I am spoiled. My teams are 24-8-3 this year. The Coneheads, now in Walnut Creek and Orinda flavors, are 8-2-2. Near the top in both leagues. The best 'finishing' team in both leagues the last five years.

And yet...tied the Corona Crushers in WC. Tied St. Mo's in Orinda. Both of these opponents have been our respective nemeses in the two leagues.

We once went 13-0-1 in Walnut Creek, the only blemish being a tie with Corona. We are clearly better than these guys but we always play down to them, it seems. We spotted them a 9-2 lead this time, and then came roaring back with five in the fourth and seven in the sixth only to lose defensive focus in the bottom half and give up three to tie. Sometimes a tie feels like a loss and we had the third out in our hands.

On the other hand, for a while over the years St. Mo's had our number - they beat us three times in a row in the regular season (2012-14) and even once in the playoffs. We kind of took care of that in 2013 in the playoffs and after that year's first round loss, won seven in a row from the loser's bracket, the key win being getting our retribution against them late Saturday to get to Sunday to win it all.

Last Thursday we had the opposite experience as the Corona game, a tie felt like a win. We had a lead that we coughed up, yet it was only 13-9 at the widest and it was anyone's game. When they took a only a one run lead though in the bottom of the sixth we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. But though we had the first two batters on in the top of the seventh, we could only manage one run to tie.

In the bottom of the seventh, St. Mo's had second and third with no outs. Joe made a great call to load the bases by intentionally walking the next batter. It could be debated - they had the big hitters up only needing a fly ball to win it. The manager couldn't decide and Joe made the call himself. The next batter hit a grounder to Randy at SS and he threw out the potential winning run at home, and the last batter tried too hard and hit a double play grounder that we handled. We felt like we escaped a disaster.

In the middle of the game we hit some bombs, with Sting, Pope and Bruce going yard in one inning. Bruce hit for the cycle, a first for our teams this year. Randy (3 doubles), Ol' G, and Heffe had three hits each.

After Chuck got hit on the wrist and his hand blew up, Haze was thrown into the infield at third base. He had a dream defensive inning, snagging a tall line drive and two hot one hoppers that he turned into outs. There was an assist from yours truly on the first one. He threw high and into the runner and I had to drag my foot across the bag. Or so the ump thought. I won't say too much, but let's just say that I quickly smoothed out my foot print along the bag. At any rate Haze had one of the best defensive innings this year in the 5th.

Since the last post for the two teams, both teams also lost a game. In Walnut Creek we were just flat against Who's On First, losing 10-8. We beat them 99 out of 100.

In Orinda, we played the defending champ/everyone's most hated team, the Waitlisters, to a tie at 8-8. But we had time left and got greedy, and played an extra inning when we had the bottom of our order coming up and they had the top of theirs. Not that we couldn't win in that scenario but we couldn't score and they pushed one across. They also had the bases loaded with their big hitters up, and Joe had owned them to that point. But the five hole hitter just crushed one to win it with the outfield drawn in with just one out.

In between these fiascos, we did manage to get wins over the Masterbatters in WC and the Reds in Orinda. Against the Masterbatters, Gene and Sting had three hits each including a triple, but the play of the game came from Sting in left center. In his first game in the field after getting the green light for throwing again, he caught a fly ball in medium deep left center, and noticed the old guy on first was straying too close to second. He fired a strike to me at first and all I had to do was wait for the runner to come back into my glove for the double play. I guess we all should rest our arms for a year and a half!

In both leagues our destiny is in our own hands, especially Walnut Creek, where we are closing in on the end of the season, and have double headers the next two Sundays. Included is the team we are tied for first with - the Polar Bears have played an extra game but we have a tie so we are both six games over .500. the winner of our game with them pretty much sews it up, but there are still four other games we need to win.

Milestones Walnut Creek:
6/5
D                200 ab (#14)
Johnny        100 ab (#19)

6/12
Lefty           30 bb (#4)
Knight         250 h (#5)

6/26
Lefty            450 ab (#3)
Sting            100 g (#11)
Randy          200 ab (#15)

Milestones Orinda:
6/13
Heffe          1550 ab (#2)
Stink Eye    750 h (#4)
Haze           250 ab (#23)

6/20
Ol' G           500 h (#12)

6/27
Chopper      300 h (#17)