You've Been Chopped!!!

Joe was in a quandary...Randy, Lefty, our leadoff hitters this year were missing from Sunday's lineup. What to do?

In a moment of what was dubbed managerial savantism, Rain Man Joe came up with the idea of our own Chopper as lead off extraordinaire. Because look at him, he just looks like someone that will kill on the base paths. In fact, we have a whole name for his adventures on the bases - the Chopper School of Base Running.

And, to make it complete he starts him at third base, a position Randy normally holds down. 

So, what does our Chopman do? He goes four for four, scoring all four times, drives in a run, and is even taking extra bases on hits behind him, And he makes the defensive play of the game, on a hot shot with a fast runner at the plate. He nailed him with a quick release and a perfect throw by a couple of feet.

Notg, You've Been Chopped!*

Joe pretty much had Notg off balance the whole game. He gave up nothing after the first inning, and the final score was 16-1, which we closed by slaughter rule when Joe himself hit a grounder base hit into the 5-6 hole with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth, with the 16th run on third.

Other defensive charms were a tough high bouncer to short that Chuck made look routine. And Knight ranged far to his left for a hard grounder up the middle. He couldn't safely make the play on the force at second, but had the instincts to fling the ball to first to get an out. That rally died shortly afterwards. He also turned a 11U-3 double play with a strong throw. Glad to have the Knight back!

In fact Knight was one of two others with Ol' G that also had four knocks. His were no-doubt liners over shortstop mostly, and produced three RBIs. G had one of only two extra base hits - a double with no outs and Chopper on first in the first. When Knight and Chuck followed up with RBI base hits, the victory was sealed at 2-1, even though we did not know it at the time. Chuck also had three hits to produce a game high four RBIs. Heffe rounded out the three hit brigade, although his included the ultimate Conehead hit - a double play grounder bobbled and then tossed and dropped several times at first base. Speed kills.

Happy Mothers' Day, you mothers.

Milestones:

Knight      200 rbi (#2)

Heffe        300 h (#2)

Chuck      10 gw (#5)

Stink Eye 400 ab (#7)

Ol' G        20 2b (#9)

*For those who don't watch Foodie shows on the Food Channel, Chopped is a reality contest show where four chefs compete by creating an appetizer, main course and dessert from weird ingredients in three rounds to crown a "Chopped Champion". After each round, the weakest entry is "chopped", on the proverbial chopping block, symbolizing its chef being chopped from the competition.