Monday night the Coneheads took care of business with very little drama, and cooled the Gang, 18-8. Johnny's Gang, and I am not talking about our Walnut Creek teammate Johnny.
In fact Former and Future Old Scout (he defected for one game, that is my story and I am sticking with it) Randy carried us with his defense at SS, making play after play on the turf field. And Joe was dealing - he had three Ks, one foul out, one swinging K and one backward K. He likes variety. The other webgem worthy highlight was a great catch in LC by Sting.
We started the game with a run scoring double by D, followed quickly by an Ol' G turf gap home run. All in all we had 8 hits and a walk after two lead off outs, and it was quickly 6-0. We added five in the second, punctuated by Chopper's two run triple, and four in the third, starring a solo homer by Sting. That gave us a 17-6 lead and we were on cruise control the rest of the way.
I neglected Milestones up to now so here you go:
6/10:
Heffe 700 r (#2)
Gene 350 g (#5)
Bruce 300 ab (#23)
6/17:
Chopper 50 hr (#3)
6/24:
Chuck 500 g (#1)
Heffe 1750 ab (#2)
Heffe 1100 h (#2)
Larry 1500 ab (#3)
Joe 90 bb (#6)
Chopper 30 3b (#12)
Chopper 60 2b (#14)
The Coneheads took a page out of past history, playing excellent defense to overcome a sluggish offense and beat the Masterbatters 5-1. On a night when (in our league) the losing team scored three or fewer and two won with five runs including us, we held the line at the fewest, one.
The game's defensive highlight was a sharp grounder to Randy, who tagged a runner going from second to third and flipped the ball to Skip covering second for a double play. I was begging Skip to send it my way at first base to try for the triple play, but he decided to play it safe. Other highlights included Randy going out for a shallow outfield pop up, and in the 5th, Gene, Sting and Lefty took turns making good catches to retire the side.
We incrementally built a massive 5-0 lead, and even though the Masterbatters got one to avoid the shutout, we were never under any serious threat.
Ol' G was hot, going 3-3 and a bunch of us had a pair of hits. But we left two on in five of the six innings, and that kept us from blowing them away. Still, a win is a win.
I realized I have neglected to send out the milestones this season, so here we go:
3/31:
None
4/7:
Heffe 60 bb (#1)
4/14:
None
5/5:
Joe 150 r (#6)
Bruce 150 ab (#19)
6/2:
Chopper 250 h (#6)
Sting 201 h (#10)
Sting 350 ab (#11)
Johnny 50 rbi (#18)
Bruce 50 g (#20)
6/9 Game 1:
Chuck 400 h (#1)
Chopper 200 rbi (#3)
Ol' G 450 ab (#7)
Sing with me...Ooh ah Ooh ah Ooh ah Ooh ah Ooh ah Ooh ah
Speed of Lightning! Roar of Thunder!
Well we certainly Kapsched off a challenging season last night. On April 30th we stood at 0-3-2, the arguably worst start in the 20 years we have played in Pleasanton. Then we totally screwed the pooch - and I am not talking about Underdog yet - by winning three of the last four to greatly reduce the odds of moving down for fall season.
There was only one thing to do. Blow a 13 run lead in our last game, sneak into the last playoff spot (and only by tiebreaker), and then take out the first place and second place teams. And get Cotton, or whatever Polyester they are passing for Cotton these days.
And so it came to pass. Never fear, Underdog is here.
In the first game, we were playing ho-hum, looking like a fourth place team just happy to be here. But the East Bay Long Strokers never took advantage and were only up 7-3 after four innings. And then - The Spark Plug came into the game. Yours truly got a hit! to start the top of the fifth and then eight more guys got singles sandwiched around a Gregg Sac fly and a walk to Rusty and a pop-up, and before you knew it I was up again, and this time I took a bases loaded walk. The other RBIs went to Bert, Pauly, JT, and two to Hama. B followed my walk with a two run single and we were in double digits for the inning. When the smoke cleared we were up 13-8 and never looked back. Up two in the bottom of the seventh, Tom induced a bases loaded pop up to the catcher to end the game.
The defensive highlight of the game was Coop laying out to take away a hit in the first. It held them to one run and kept it from getting away early.
In the Championship round. Tom owned SOP. He was squeezed by ump Ron all night long - the strike zone was about 8-10 feet. Very dangerous with a team like SOP, but somehow Tom kept them from scoring until the fifth inning.
He was greatly aided by our defense, which found its way to reverting to our former stellar defense. B was a vacuum, including ranging far to get three assists in the bottom of the second - he might deserve 'Finals MVP' even without consideration of his 7-8 hitting performance.
Cage turned a potential tag up and go to third fly out into a double play, throwing behind the indecisive runner, and Hama got a quick tag on him. JT turned one way and then adjusted to turn the other way on a twisting blast to right to end the fourth. Tom even got Donny M to strike out when he induced him to yank strike three foul by a mile.
We knew SOP would eventually score, and they put up five in the sixth to make it a one run game. It is our usual nightmare with those guys - they come storming back late and rally fiercely to smother us.
But not last night. Coop started the seventh with a ten foot 'bunt' hit - Donny tried to pounce in it from behind the plate but he had no chance to get the speedy Coop. And then up strode our secret weapon, JT. He blasted a gapper to left center, and Coop flew around the bases and JT ended up on third. The the top of the lineup took over and we added four more runs on hits by B, Gregg and a two run single by Rusty.
In the bottom of the seventh now down six again, SOP had no answer. Tom got a comebacker for out number one, Gregg came in hard to catch a pop fly to shallow left. And even though Donny got on when his ball took a no-hop on Hama, the next batter obliged by giving Hama a do over. This time he fielded it and fire to D at first and it was ballgame, season and thank you for the Maroon shirts!
There were two other keys to success. Albert took over the catching chores in the last inning and was a calming influence on Tom after he had had a wild streak (mostly due to the fucked up strike zone) in the sixth.
The other was Rusty - he came riding in on his white horse and saved the day (night) with his solid defense in right center and outstanding hitting. He only had five official times at bat, but he added two walks and a sac fly, and two of his hits were a double and a triple at key times. The triple led off the second and when he scored it provided the only run in the first three innings by either team. The double kicked off scoring in the five run fourth that allowed us to take control of the game. Without him, missing Bo in the playoffs would have been a much larger burden.
And special thanks to Hama and Pauly - Hama wanted to bag it because of his "KD" calf injury but allowed me to guilt him into playing, and played great defense and hit like, well like Hama. Pauly had a pretty severe limp from a base running injury but gutted it out to the end.
Very rewarding to win like this - I don't think we ever have before as the four seed, and it was totally unexpected, which makes it twice as sweet. And we sent SOP off into oblivion as they are expected to fold up their tent after this season.
See you in a few weeks. Maybe our next uniforms should be a cape with a "U" on it!
Believe it or not, this game was close until the last inning.
There were six lead changes through the first six innings, and Scarlet was up 17-15. We scored five to take a decent lead and shut down Navy in the bottom of the seventh. So, 22-15. We agreed that the eighth would be the open inning.
And then.
In the eighth, we batted around, TWICE. Eighteen runs. With one out on a fielder's choice, our second run scored. Then we scored sixteen more runs with two outs. And Navy didn't really play bad defense, almost every hit was clean and only a few were pop ups. We were just Scarlet-hot. When the smoke cleared, we were at an even 40 runs in eight innings, and each player had six plate appearances. We hit .779 as a team.
I thought I had a pretty good game. 4-5 with a bases loaded triple (should have been a grand slam, this runner is just too slow), a double and a walk, and five RBIs.
But look at this:
Paul Lisi, 6-6, six runs, five RBIs
Ray Aguilera, 6-6, four RBIs
Gary Namanny, 4-4, two HRs, seven RBIs, two sac flies
Gerry Dasey, 5-6, hit for the CYCLE
Chip Sharpe, 4-6, two doubles and a triple while jetlagged
And it goes on: Art Miner, Charlie Uhlman, Helen Kostoff all 5-6.
Mike Nichols, 4-6, triple
Bob Shipway, 3-6 including a clutch two out two run triple early when it was close
Tony Gorgone was the only player who had a bad (for him) game and he still was 2-5 plus a sac fly. And one of his outs was a line shot right at the left fielder.
I'm still out of breath, so I will leave the defense out this game. We had a few good plays and a few bad ones, as usual.
The ultimate backing into the playoffs. We blew a 13 run lead, made a comeback, and then allowed them to make a final comeback. Then watched as Sons of Pitches took Livermore out of the last playoff spot.
Just like we drew it up!
Well the way we look at it, we probably have to beat first place East Bay Long Strokers anyway, so it might as well be in the first game. It life imitated art, we would beat them and SOP would beat the Ultimate Warriors to set up a final playoff battle with SOP (rumor is they are folding). We'll see.
Hopefully we have enough bats. The lowlight of the game was the all powerful Heffe striking a blow for all 64 year old weak ass hitters by hitting the pitcher and losing my bat for the rest of my Pleasanton career, however long that lasts. I must say that it looked to me like the guy was trying to make a play on it, but they are changing the definition of 'helpless pitcher' by the hour, so how can you argue with the call?
And Tom lost his bat but at least he recovered it. The guy is getting old.
The best moments of the game came in our seven run rally in the top of the fifth that turned a 6-0 lead into 13-0. Starting with Gregg, we had eight straight singles and then a walk, and when Bo drove in the last run with a sac fly, we were sitting pretty.
Then came the bottom half and entering the Twilight Zone. The Warriors, who had hit seemingly nothing but fly ball outs to that point, adjusted and started hitting line drive singles here there and everywhere, and before we could blink or the manager yanked Tom, they roared all the way back to take a one run lead 14-13. We weren't done; we showed some grit and again stringing a bunch of hits, took back a four run lead. But the Warriors continued their onslaught in the last inning, Ultimately walking off with the 19-18 win.
Bo, Bert, Rusty (two doubles), Paul, and Rene led the way with three hits apiece. Gregg had the only home run, a well timed two run blast in the third.
We will miss our lead off hitter, the youth movement of Bo, but most everyone else will be in, and we can compete with all these teams. Time for a Cotton drive!
It was arch-rival week for the Coneheads. First there was Advance Construction in a game for the ages Sunday, then an early season match-up with the Old Scouts in Orinda Monday.
After the heartbreak Sunday, the Heads were vulnerable but instead turned in a classic Conehead win.: Stay close early, then have a big inning and blow it open. The score was only 17-10, but the eight run top of the sixth assured the win and that time would run out on the Old Scouts.
We scored four off the bat, but the Scouts countered with four in the first. Charley had a two run double. In the third Chopper hit yet another bomb for three runs and a 7-5 lead. Then the Scouts crept back and by the sixth they had a 10-9 lead.
But in the sixth, pinch hitter Chauncey, Heffe, and Gene loaded the bases at the bottom of the order with singles, and the table was set. Six hits sandwiched around a sac fly and the damage was done. Chauncey got his hit with sandals on - I made him put on shoes when he came up a second time in the inning and he proved he could hit with or without shoes on.
Bruce plead that he isn't a three hitter, and then went out and went 4-4 with two doubles. Sorry dude, looks like you might be stuck there. Charley was also 4-4 with three RBIs batting behind him. And Lefty ("I'm not a leadoff hitter") joined the 4-4 club. Chopper was the bomber with 3-4 and a homer and a double and five RBIs to lead the team. Haze continued his hot year with three hits, and late arriving Gene was also perfect at 3-3 and the perfect 'second leadoff' batting last.
We were lucky Randy was missing from the Scouts lineup, and we know it really only matters in the playoffs against those guys but it still feels good to get a rival game win.
A close battle between Scarlet and Green turned in our favor due to great defense and timely hitting late as Scarlet beat Green 20-12.
Good things seemed to come our way when we got the tough top of the Green line up out with no runs. The play of the game occurred with two outs. The Green hitter got just a piece and the ball went rising straight back. Catcher Mike Nichols managed to bat the ball in the air, juggle it and finally put it away in his glove for out number three.
Then in the bottom Scarlet crushed four extra base hits (Paul Lisi, Gary Namanny, Tony Gorgone, and Charlie Uhlman) to score five with no outs. Things looked good.
Then of course the Green Machine got five right back, and when we didn't answer they tacked on five more. Things were looking good for them now.
Uhlman came in to pitch the fourth, and retired Green on five pitches. The man knows how to seize the moment.We did answer after that and took advantage of some gifts, and it stood at 15-12 after five.
Then a funny thing happened - both teams stopped hitting for 2 1/2 innings. We tacked on three in the eighth and that was all she wrote.
Much of why Green stopped scoring had to do with some great defense. SS Gary Booth had a great game. Early he caught a tough pop up in no man's land in shallow left. In the seventh, he took a relay from Lisi, and fired home to get the first out. Then he started a SS-R-1B double play to end the inning. In the eighth, Lisi again got a runner trying to test his arm - this time he fired a one hop bullet to third and Gorgone made a great catch while hanging on to the base. Bob Shipway at 2B and the first baseman made some good stops too. On one, I showed my great range (not one but TWO steps) and fielded a grounder hit by Wilbur Williams. Then I looked to Raymond Aguilera to see if he was going to cover first, then I made and drank a cup of coffee, and then when I decided neither Ray nor Wilbur were going to get to first, I figured I might as well get the out myself. The other one ended the game.
Hitting was pretty spread out. Namanny, Lisi and Gorgone were all 3-3 with various walks and sac flies thrown in. Art Miner and Nichols joined the three hit club. Eleven of the thirteen players scored at least one run, and eleven also drove in at least one. A true team win.
I hate losing. The only thing that keeps me from going overboard on it is that I play so many games, it's always time to move on the the next one, so there is no sulking.
But once in a while you play in a game so great, and so much fun, that if you lose by a run or so, you don't mind. Yeah you could second guess all you want but in the end in a great competitive game it doesn't matter so much in the big picture.
Such was the game yesterday against arch-rival Advance Construction. They overcame a 14-2 early hole with a 22 run onslaught over two innings, but we buckled down and came back from eight down to take a precarious one run lead going into the bottom of the last inning (fourth!). When Charley snagged the hard grounder up the middle with a man on first and no outs, and turned it into a double play, it looked like we just might pull it off. But Advance proved to be resilient as well and pushed across two more with two outs to win it 26-25.
One of their hits was a line drive just over Chris' outstretched glove at SS - that proved the cliche that it truly is a game of inches - a couple of inches lower and it's game over we win. Another was a blooper in shallow center between four guys trying their upmost to get to it.
Chris, D and Chopper had the big blows of the day. Chris hit two monster home runs, which accounted for four if his game high five RBIs. D turned his gappers into two triples - his last one was a beautiful shot to the opposite field to score two. Chopper like Chris was perfect 4-4 including a double and he was good for three RBIs. Gene, Haze and Heffe stayed hot with 3-3 days, the former two included a double three RBIs each as well. Skip joined them in the three hit club. Chauncey managed to go 2-3 on one leg. Chuck had his usual clutch pinch hit in the late rally - he is 3-3 in the last three games pinch hitting for Joe in the late innings.
There wasn't much defense this game - about the only play I remember (besides Charley's last inning heroics) is I dug one out of the dirt early on. We made a couple of unusual mistakes on defense, and they didn't, and ultimately that was the difference.
The good news is we are still only a game and a half out of first and everyone makes the playoffs. This year is lining up to be exciting.
Have a game Bo. Bo went 4-5 with two triples and a double to lead the way past Livermore again, putting us in a position to make the playoffs anywhere from a two to four seed. He roamed left field making great catches as well.
He then got greedy to hit for the cycle trying to blast one over the right center fence that fell a little short. But that came in the seventh when we were enjoying our comfortable 16-6 lead which ended up being the final score.
We turned two double plays (started by Pauly and B) including in the seventh to stifle any thought of a comeback by the Livermore guys.
The rest of the hitting was spread around. Tom and JT had perfect 3-3 days plus a walk and a sac fly, respectively. Hama joined them in the three hit club, lacing line drives to all fields. B had RBIs his first three times up to lead the team in that category. Heffe provided the comic relief when he lined a ball right at the pitcher, who then got out two more balls and performed a juggling act before roping it in. Although Coop might have won that prize by hitting a dribbler five feet that ended up bringing home two runs.
This sets up the season finale - we can end up anywhere from second to out of the playoffs, so we might as well win to assure ourselves a spot.
It was Father's Day. It was also move in day, my Dad was moving in with us in his dotage.
Julia and I had bought a huge house on a good sized lot. There was a ton of room, plenty for us all to have space. The only thing was, it didn't have a garage. Instead, it had this humongous carport area, big enough to have like half a basketball court on it, and that was besides a covered area where we could park our cars. On the outside edge of the three lane driveway, there was a two story concrete wall, and in fact it was pointed in the middle so it was pretty tall.
Well, Dad shows up and he has a moving crew, and they start constructing a huge piece of plastic shelving, like we had in the basement of our house when I was growing up. When they are done we find out why - he has like tens of old beat up suitcases, the kind they had in the '50s all the way up to the more modern rolling ones. All different kinds. And the thing is, they are all empty.
We start to object. This is a hideous display, and we try to explain to him they are ugly and useless and will get destroyed anyway in the weather, so now we are going to have to cover the whole area. He gets agitated and upset. "It's all I have of her (my mom). Each of those suitcases is from a trip I took with her, and those memories are what I have."
We calmed down and let the crew pile all those pieces up high. You just can't sweat the small (well, large) things.
This is the dream I just had, so I guess my Dad visited me on Fathers' Day.
I'm driving delivering food for Doordash yesterday, my 'retirement' job where I still don't know if I make any money, and I get an idea for the blog for the Conehead game.
Now, being old I am likely to forget the idea before I get home, so I want to save it while it is fresh, at least enough to jog my memory when I get back to it.
The light bulb goes off - I can voice text it in an email to myself, and then it will be close enough that I can refresh my memory later! Modern technology at its best!
So I perform the modern form of dictation. Here is what I meant to record:
"Wilder gap used to be a pristine part of the country between the Oakland hills and Orinda. Now it’s filled with luxury homes which (not sure, block the view?). But, to the Coneheads' benefit, Orinda got two beautiful softball fields, that is, beautiful when not full of young soccer players.
Paragraph
Well, I dedicate this post to the Wilder gap because we used it X times Monday to defeat the dangerous St. Mo's who always give us a good game. Chopper lead the way with two gap home runs although one of them was a squiggly turf hop over the right fielder's head but he had two (not sure) and one by Reggie and I forget who else."
Here is how it came out:
"Wilder gap used to be a pristine of the country between the Oakland hills and Orinda. Now it’s filled with luxury home which from my bank blotches of you. But, to the coneheads benefit, Orinda got two beautiful softball field, that is beautiful Wayne not Paul young soccer players. Paragraph well, I dedicate this post to the wilder gap because we used it X time Monday to defeat the dangerous Moz game. Chopper lead the way with two gap homerun although one of them what is a squigglyTurf cock over the right fielders head but he had to and drove in at the man of Ron would you mind by Reggie and I forget who else."
I can only say two things:
1) They want to have driverless cars?
2) Chopper's got to leave those squiggly turf cocks alone. And Beautiful Wayne the young soccer player.
At the top of the Oakland hills in Sibley Regional Park lies Round Top, the volcano that spewed out the material that forms the East Bay Hills. If you hike to the top and look northeast, you get a view that used to be a pristine valley that I called the Wilder Gap. It was EBMUD watershed or something, that somehow was connected to the San Pablo and Upper San Leandro and Chabot and Lafayette reservoirs and drainage, beautiful open land.
Now of course there is a subdivision of upscale houses littering the Gap. Maybe someone thought this was a good idea, and after all, development is progress.
The good news for the Coneheads is that the City of Orinda, in order to appease whomever needed to be appeased for approving this project, had to build sports fields so we can think of this as a community asset. And now we get to play most of our games on these beautiful turf fields tucked in along the freeway.
In Monday night's game we redefined the Wilder Gap and that won the game over St. Mo's 18-14. Because if you hit a gap on those fields, the ball rolls forever and it is pretty much an automatic home run. Chopper led the way with two shots, although truth be told one of them was a springy bounce that went over the head of the right fielder, same effect. He was joined by Sting (solo shot) and Charley who brought in three runs with his. Sting's was a hard shot that was really a line drive that was hit so hard the outfielders had no chance of cutting it off. Charley's was more of a classic majestic gap fly over everyone.
Even though these hits accounted for only seven of our 18 runs, they came at key moments that propelled us to victory. Charley's and Chopper's first one came in the third inning and turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead from which we never looked back. Sting's started off the fifth inning, and sparked us to a nine run Conehead inning that pretty much salted the victory; Even though St. Mo's rallied late to make the final score seem close, there was never really a threat that they would overtake us.
That was because every time they thought they had the monster shot themselves, they would hit a drive into left center and somehow Bruce would track it down and make one of his patented basket catches. There were some other highlights - Joe got a backward K, and Ol' G and Heffe made some nice grabs of popups behind the infield - but none compared with Bruce's rangy tracking.
Bruce and Sting led the way with four hits each, and Chopper, Haze, Gene and Heffe pitched in three apiece. The three big boppers (Sting, Chopper, and Charley) accounted for 11 RBIs altogether.
Good start to the season against a team that usually gives us fits. Think I'll go up to Round Top and cogitate on that.
Scarlet started the second season right where we left off the first with another good defensive battle, overcoming Orange 14-9.
Missing Scarlet's starting pitcher Chip Sharpe, Raymond Aguilera pitched a gem (including a backward K), going seven of the eight innings for the win. Charlie Uhlman came in for the middle inning to spell Ray and between them did not allow a run by Orange in the last four innings.
The first half of the game was seesaw, Orange up 1-0, Scarlet up 6-2, Orange 9-7 and then finally tied 9-9 after six. But Scarlet put up five in the top of the seventh and never looked back.
The pitchers were helped along the way with some stalwart defense. Helen Kostoff set the tone in the first with a snag off a hot corner shot, stepped on third and threw a strike to first for the DP. Art Miner closed the inning with a running catch in left.
In the fifth Gary Booth took a hard grounder and turned it into a force out, and made all three outs in the inning. In the sixth he started a double play where Gerry Dasey turned it and made yours truly actually bend over to scoop his dirty errant throw toward Field 3. And I held the base. In the last inning Kostoff snagged a line drive headed toward the dangerous foul ground outside the left field line where balls go to scoot to field five.
Speaking of which, our only home run came when Charlie Uhlman slammed a line shot just fair and it found the dirt and rolled all the way to field 5. He admired it for a moment (actually was thinking it was hooking foul) and then had to hustle around the bases.
Other than that we only had a couple of doubles for extra base hits; instead it was the three for four brigade that accounted for our 14 tun offense. The list included Miner, Dasey, Gary Namanny, Uhlman, Mike Nichols, Bob Shipway, and Gary Booth. Uhlman and Dasey led the way with 3 RBIs each, and Dasey getting the game winning knock in the five run seventh inning.
I think I saw the traded Raul Delgado (always Scarlet in his heart) shedding a tear as he prepped to play the following game against Green. Then while we enjoyed our post game refreshments, we watched him make the play of the year at second base, and sighed a sigh.
Haze has been hot. How hot is he? He swept into the team lead in bases on balls in the nightcap tonight, with three straight walks. They just don't want to pitch to him, that's what it is. As it is he is hitting .647 for the season so far.
And Joe caught looking caught D for the team lead in Ks at one. Guess who's bringing beer next week?
And Chuck that old dog hobbled out there and got the save in both games and was the only perfect hitter, going 2-2.
But these weren't really the stories of the games. The story in the headlines is we rode Corona into the ground, shutting them out 14-0. Joe was masterful, and Chuck protected the shutout, and the defense was stout.
And in the daycap (it was still well over 90 degrees), the score ended up 17-13 over Who's On First, but it wasn't that close. We jumped on them for a 3-0 lead in the first but they answered with four. It looked like we might be in for a rough ride. But then the walking fools took over. Heffe, Haze and Joe all walked to start the winning rally, turning the lineup over and the top of the lineup did the rest, as Lefty, Sting, Chris and D all had RBI at bats after that. I always say, if the bottom of the order walks, we win!
Who's On First had a mini-rally in the last inning to close the gap but never really threatened to catch us. A Lefty to Chris to Chopper throw out ended the game on a play when they got their last two runs.
That's the sweep part. We had a lot of contributions from hitters but a few were really hot, and got mini-cycles. Haze in the first game hit the mini-cycle before the trifecta of walks in the second. And Ol' G and Chris replicated the feat in the second game.
Chris and G put on a hitting clinic, hitting gappers this way and that. Chris had four RBIs in the second game and G and Chopper were the two hitters with three hits in each game. Derek had an odd game two - he went 1-3 but had five RBIs. His hit was a bases loaded and bases clearing double (off the top of the fence to the opposite field), and he hit a sac fly that plated two runs. Sting and Charlie seemed to hit line drives every time up and ended up with five hits each for the day.
The defense was solid all day long. Chris was a vacuum sweeper at SS as was Charlie at rover. Heffe made a nice snag on a hot line drive. And each of the outfielders - Gene, Skip, Sting, Lefty, and Chopper all had at least one good grab. Gene, Skip and Sting in particular did well fighting off the tough Field 3 sun.
And then the Throw that ended it, the runner had no business testing Chris' gun still trailing by four runs. But he did and Chris did not disappoint, and Chopper stood his ground to end it.
We came within one half game of the division lead with the sweep, but Advance also swept their doubleheader to stay even with us. So next week goes a long way to determining who's in first and will settle tiebreaker issues with Advance. Should be fun.
Well, now we've done it. We worked so hard to get into a position to get to the lower division, and now this.
We played an all around solid game with a somewhat depleted lineup (Warriors take note), and beat arch-rivals SOP 15-12.
The game had a little of everything. The defensive gem highlight, Nick gunning down a runner by inches at the plate with a laser throw (and Ump Hamilton actually got it right, unlike his high and low pitch calls), that was old school. And Rene did a great job picking the one hopper up.
Solid D all around. Gregg made a galloping catch in short left on a blooper. Bo and Nick made some running catches in the center fields. B placed himself perfectly on one batter in short left - and the hitter obliged by hitting the ball right to him. Bert and Coop made plays at third and second, not their normal positions. Heffe dropped a hard liner right in his glove but had the presence of mind to get a force at second for the all important first out with the bases loaded in the last inning. And even Tom got a putout at first without throwing the ball away.
The impressive thing about our hitting was we beat SOP without going to the long ball. There were a lot of sharp line drives. Bert, Cage and Bo each had four, and Bo's double was our only extra base hit. Nick drove in five with his hits and Bert four, and Bo and Nick led the way in scoring, three times each.
We even had some comic relief (some might say bonehead), with B "I can score from anywhere, any time" trying to steal home when the first baseman already had an overthrow in his glove. Out by six feet. At least.
But the difference may have been the bottom of the order. Coop, JT and Heffe all had two hit games (6 for 10), and my mantra is, "the bottom of the order hits, we win." And Rene had the base running highlight, somehow getting safely to second on my shallow liner to center with the center fielder practically standing next to second base. Even though we had just taken the lead, it opened the flood gates for the top of the order, who did their job and we never looked back, going up 12-5 at the time, after the eight run inning.
Finally, give Tom credit for keeping the formidable SOP lineup somewhat off balance. He walked a couple uncharacteristically, but it was because he was mixing his pitches up enough that they took a lot of awkward swings. And don't forget he was dealing with Mark Hamilton's 8-10 feet strike zone.
Oh well. Now we might as well keep playing better and get into the playoffs and win some cotton. If you insist. Maybe we will have a full squad one of these games too. One can dream.
You're 0-2 with a walk, albeit it was a bases loaded walk for an RBI. Everyone around you is hitting the crap out of the ball, or getting bloopers that fall in and bounders that bleed through, or getting a Conehead double on an error.
You could just keep doing what you're doing, the odds are that you'll get a line drive or something.
Instead if you're lefty Bruce, you go out of the box, literally in this case, to bat in the other box, right handed. And you smash the ball all the way to the left center fence.
That's how this game went from beginning to end, and the final score was 28-7, in four innings. We just ran out of time to do even more damage.
After taking a commanding 13-4 lead after three we nearly batted around twice in the fourth as we plated 15 runs. It kind of took out whatever drama there was to that point, he wrote understatedly.
WE HAD 18 STRAIGHT HITS in the frame. Is that how you spell RUST?
Haze had two doubles his first three times up and didn't even lead the team in doubles, because Randy had four in his first four ABs, 5-5 altogether and lead the team with 4 RBIs. Chris wasn't satisfied with his swing tonight. He was only 3-4 plus a sac fly. Sting was 4-4 with a double and a sac fly and only missed a second double or maybe a triple because we were going base to base in his last at bat when he split the center fielders. Chopper, Lefty, Haze were also all 4-4, Gene, Heffe and Johnny were all 3-4, and Charlie had a couple of hits and pitched a great game. Bruce was oh Bruce with his one lonely right handed hit, but he gave me my lead, so thanks!
Along the way there was some stellar defense. Gene set the tone with a great catch on a blast in the first inning, preventing the Polar Bears from denting the 5-0 lead we took our first time up. Charlie got a swinging K in the third inning. Randy hard charged a slow bouncer in the last inning and fired a bullet that nearly crossed up Heffe at first but he managed to hang on. Earlier someone had thrown a ball into foul territory over the first base bag and Heffe managed to drag his foot on the bag as he crossed into foul territory to catch it. And perhaps the play of the game was the last one - Johnny getting a great jump on a smash ticketed for right center and leaping to snag it for the last out.
And so we reversed the slowest start in the JFT version of the Coneheads that I can remember. We are now in a three way tie for second place, believe it or not, at 2-3. On the website it has us in second because thanks to this game we have the best run differential. In my tallying we are actually in third by tie-breakers but it doesn't matter - the league site states in plain English that all four teams will be in the playoffs. We can relax and just enjoy the games like we did tonight, and look what happens, because WE ARE THE CONEHEADS.
