The Top Ten List

Remember David Letterman? Here's my Top Ten List of Positives from tonight's Conehead game...

10. No one struck out.
9. No one got hurt.
8. Along the same lines, that nasty hop in front of Ol' G did NOT rise up and hit him in his teeth or between his eyes.
7. Even though we were NO HIT through four innings, we BUSTED out for all of SEVEN hits in the last three innings.
6. Even though we did not have a hit in the first time through the line up, Randy at the top and Larry at the bottom did coax walks out of Pat's Bats' pitcher. Now those are team players.
5. Even though we hit into two double plays, wiping out two of those hits, we did not hit into ANY triple plays.
4. Despite Chopper's imploring Joe to give a coach's speech to inspire us, Joe held off, saying he would give it next week - so we still have that to look forward to.
3. The ground caused Pope to drop what would have been a great catch, and similarly, Reggie's knee knocked the ball out of his glove on what would have been another difficult catch - these things can't happen two weeks in a row.
2. Chopper had an off game - he looked lost out there. But we identified the reason, namely that Lisa missed the game.As long as we get her out there for the playoffs, he'll be himself.

And the number one positive that came out of the game tonight, a 10-3 loss to Pat's Bats, was that we still had beer after the game, and even though we talked politics over beers, Derek and I did not come to blows over Trump and Clinton. He still has not come to his senses, however.

Next week off to give out candy on Halloween. Then the playoffs, and we are still the team to beat, and we got our bad game out of our collective systems.

Milestones:
10/10
Johnny        100 ab (#32)

10/24
Larry          140 bb (#2)

The Engine That Could

A couple of weeks ago, Reggie cracked me up in the Conehead dugout as we watched Chopper chugging and huffing and puffing around the bases on a home run, when he said, "He's like the Little Engine that Could...I think I can, I think I can (first base), I think I can, I think I can, (second base), I think I can, I think I can (third base), I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could (home)." I was rolling off the bench with laughter.

That was the big blow, a three run bomb that put Pat's Bats away in our eight run Conehead fifth inning. We ended up trouncing the Bats that night 16-5, putting them further in our rear view mirror.

While the team was knocking on Good Wood (and Larry presented the win in a much more timely fashion), I had a couple of days off softball doing the 'Wild Hog' thing. Here is proof:

...although you can't even see my bike... (it's off to the right)

Last week's game was a Wally Pipp Special - Johnny took G's place, and had a stellar game at the plate and in the field. He was part of two DPs, and his turn and throw on a feed from Randy at short looked very professional. Like they had been doing it for years - wait they have, only against us on the Old Scouts in Orinda.

Plus Johnny had the hit of the game - a two run triple in the second inning that put us ahead to stay as we had the first of three mini-Conehead  innings, in the 2nd, 6th, and 7th.

Other Pipp moments - Knight takes Randy's place for an inning and makes a tough play. Greg had a season high seven RBIs on four hits.

After Larry pitches a great game through 6 innings (one run), D shuts down the Dusty Nuts in the seventh, final score 20-1.

And of course - Joe who? With Joe enjoying honey cake and other treats of Rosh Hashanah, I filled in as Coach for a day. Looks like I will finish the season 1-0 as we won by our largest margin in a while. We made no, as in zero errors, I take full credit for putting the right guys in the right positions.

Ok, granted it was against the weakest team in the league by far, and I had nothing to do with our team playing such good defense, or three hit games from Randy and Pope (minicycle) and Gene and Johnny and Larry, and Larry had them hitting almost all routine flies and grounders.

But no Stink Eye, 20-1. Just the facts.

We are the Engine that Could, once again. It starts tomorrow as we face Cream and Clear for bragging rights and first place seed for the playoffs. Should be fun.

Milestones:
9/19
Larry       1350 ab (#3)
Lefty        20 sf (#14)

9/26
Knight      40 2b (#18)
Knight      300 ab (#21)
Randy      100 r (#23)

10/3
Chuck      450 g (#1)
Lefty        400 ab (#19)
Bruce       200 ab (#24)