The number of softball players and teams may be shrinking across the land as the Millennials take to their soccer and lacrosse fields and skateboard parks, not forgetting because they never knew that we are a nation of beer guzzling ball players, at least those of us above 40.
But within the shrunken softball slut culture, we seem to all play more than we used to, and we play with each other and against each other on different teams in different leagues and tournaments at different times. Be careful who you pick an argument with; he may be throwing to you to complete the game ending double play on a different night.
And so it was perfect that the Conehead game Monday night ended with the Buddha, the tying run, popping up in the bottom of the last inning. On Sunday he was our teammate, going 3-3 and contributing greatly to our win in Walnut Creek. Monday, when he made the last out, he preserved our 11-9 tight win over one of our arch-rivals, his Cal Broncos.
The Buddha has always had a lot of respect and just a little fear of the Coneheads - I think it was in his head when he popped up because he is just too good a hitter to do that. If he doesn't seem to remember the times the Broncos have just waxed us, especially in the playoffs, I say so be it!
(Actually, sick as I am, I compiled our record against all our arch rivals and we are 10-4 against the Broncos in the regular season and 3-2 in the playoffs the last several years. They put us out in 2010 and 2015 and we put them out in 2011, 2014 and 2016).
That was the game within the game. The game itself started out like gangbusters - we put together nine hits and a walk in the first and took an 8-0 lead, starting with a run scoring double by Pope and cemented by new Head Hoge's two run single. The artificial turf was hopping with Conehead hits of all kinds.
The Broncos answered with three in the bottom and four in the second. A game that we threatened to run away with became tight at 9-7. Amazingly, both team scored only two more runs the rest of the way. After we failed to add on in our last two innings, things looked ominous going into the bottom of the sixth, proclaimed the last inning. They had slugger Brady coming up as the tying run with one out. Our right side outfielders were playing in Lafayette. All he had to was place a base hit to right, and it would have scored one and put him in scoring position with the tying run. Instead, he was determined to punch it down the left field line, and he hit a hot shot that Mark (who had a great defensive game) snared and turned into a 5-4 force, tearing into what momentum they had created. Up came Buddha and before you knew it, it was over.
It was a big win, as we moved the Broncos out of the undefeated list, and passed them in the standings, plus hold the head to head tie-breaker. The new Orinda administration has not kept up on the scores online, so who knows where we stand. But we all know who will be in the top five or six, and the seeding may be important in the playoffs.
Lefty (who made a great running catch and had one of our two extra base hits) and Larry were perfect 3-3s. Pope had two hits including the other double, and scored and plated two. Hoge led the team with three RBIs.
Big games continue with the Waitlisters Monday. It is not such a frendly rivalry, and should be good. I hope Chris pops up to end it.
Milestone:
Ol' G 900 ab (#9)
But within the shrunken softball slut culture, we seem to all play more than we used to, and we play with each other and against each other on different teams in different leagues and tournaments at different times. Be careful who you pick an argument with; he may be throwing to you to complete the game ending double play on a different night.
And so it was perfect that the Conehead game Monday night ended with the Buddha, the tying run, popping up in the bottom of the last inning. On Sunday he was our teammate, going 3-3 and contributing greatly to our win in Walnut Creek. Monday, when he made the last out, he preserved our 11-9 tight win over one of our arch-rivals, his Cal Broncos.
The Buddha has always had a lot of respect and just a little fear of the Coneheads - I think it was in his head when he popped up because he is just too good a hitter to do that. If he doesn't seem to remember the times the Broncos have just waxed us, especially in the playoffs, I say so be it!
(Actually, sick as I am, I compiled our record against all our arch rivals and we are 10-4 against the Broncos in the regular season and 3-2 in the playoffs the last several years. They put us out in 2010 and 2015 and we put them out in 2011, 2014 and 2016).
That was the game within the game. The game itself started out like gangbusters - we put together nine hits and a walk in the first and took an 8-0 lead, starting with a run scoring double by Pope and cemented by new Head Hoge's two run single. The artificial turf was hopping with Conehead hits of all kinds.
The Broncos answered with three in the bottom and four in the second. A game that we threatened to run away with became tight at 9-7. Amazingly, both team scored only two more runs the rest of the way. After we failed to add on in our last two innings, things looked ominous going into the bottom of the sixth, proclaimed the last inning. They had slugger Brady coming up as the tying run with one out. Our right side outfielders were playing in Lafayette. All he had to was place a base hit to right, and it would have scored one and put him in scoring position with the tying run. Instead, he was determined to punch it down the left field line, and he hit a hot shot that Mark (who had a great defensive game) snared and turned into a 5-4 force, tearing into what momentum they had created. Up came Buddha and before you knew it, it was over.
It was a big win, as we moved the Broncos out of the undefeated list, and passed them in the standings, plus hold the head to head tie-breaker. The new Orinda administration has not kept up on the scores online, so who knows where we stand. But we all know who will be in the top five or six, and the seeding may be important in the playoffs.
Lefty (who made a great running catch and had one of our two extra base hits) and Larry were perfect 3-3s. Pope had two hits including the other double, and scored and plated two. Hoge led the team with three RBIs.
Big games continue with the Waitlisters Monday. It is not such a frendly rivalry, and should be good. I hope Chris pops up to end it.
Milestone:
Ol' G 900 ab (#9)
No comments:
Post a Comment