Fall Ball - A Non-competitive Win

I'm not sure we are supposed to write up the non-competitive Fall Ball games. After all, we aren't keeping standings, we are just out to have "fun", and we don't care who wins.

NOT.

Take a bunch of Creakers on two teams that were both missing key players, tell them not to care, and look what happens - one of the greatest games of the year.

I may be biased - my Team Four was the one who came back from 11-0 and 14-3 and 16-5 deficits to ultimately walk off with the 23-22 win on a single to right by Randy Crase that scored the tying and winning runs.

After gifting Three some runs early on, we were almost ready to pack it in in the heat after seven innings. But we scored five in the bottom of the sixth to change 16-5 to 16-10 and suddenly it seemed within reach. They added another five in the seventh but we matched that and then miraculously held them to one and zero runs in the last two frames. The zero we put up in the top of the ninth was the only inning Team Three did not score.

You look at the box score and see Gary Namanny with a 5-6, two double, TEN RBI day, and you think he was the hero (which, of course, he was - he also made two running catches to prevent extra base gap hits). But he was set up by the bottom of the lineup. 'JP' Preston, Ken Gurgone, Bill Hoffman, and yours truly scored 15 runs between them. The bottom of the lineup hits, you win. Al Munoz batting leadoff was also 5-6, and drove in a bunch while getting the lineup around to Gary in the three hole. John Huzokowski was the other hitter with 5 hits, all line drives to left.

The quirkiest thing about this game was that two batters hit the third base bag for hits - Mike Nichols on Three, and I think it was Hoffman on our team. The latter's ball came up and hit Clay Kallam in the nose and we had a Magic Johnson moment - I hope Clay is all right.

One additional note - JP pitched all nine innings since our other three potential hurlers were missing, and he was pretty lights out. No walks, and with better defense, we may have held Team Three to way fewer runs.

I hope the rest of our games are this non-competitive!

Attention Span

It has been called to my attention that after our brutal loss two weeks ago, I was quick to take up the virtual pen, but last week, when we played a nearly flawless game and drubbed the East Bay Long Strokers senseless to the tune of 16-1, I failed to get it down on paper.

Tom's feelings were hurt.

We don't want that!

In my defense, as a senior citizen, I actually thought I had already published the praise. Better get some of that memory improving medicine.

The first story of the game was classic Transdyn/Kapsch defense. In the first inning, Pauly tied a record with all three putouts: one was a pop up, one was a line shot, but it was the third that was outstanding. One of the speedy youngsters was trying to take an extra base on a hit to right center. But Bo was having none of that, and fired a one hopper all the way to third, and Pauly made a great catch and swipe tag to wipe the guy out. Set the tone for the game; they scored one in the second and that was it.

Along the way, Cage made two nearly identical diving catches in shallow left center that were classic Nick. Throwback stuff.

And Tom had the Strokers stroking their collective beards trying to figure out his mixture or pitches. He even had a K on a foul ball strike three.

The hitting was really very encouraging - we scored every inning and built up to a seven run fifth that gave us the 15 run slaughter. D had the walkoff single for our last run, and who knows how long it would have kept going?

Bert didn't hit it out but had four straight slashing line drive singles for a perfect game. Similarly Hama had one of those games where he put it wherever he wanted and was 3-3. D had three hits too including the one that put them away. Rusty had a towering blast to left, a two run homer that provided the power. Everyone in the lineup had at least one hit, and scored a run.

We clinched the playoffs with the win, and we still could finish third. Doesn't much matter, since all we have to do is win two games in the playoffs next week. But still, a win tomorrow would keep our momentum building to the playoffs.

Milestone:
B            10 sf (#16)

Tip Your Hat, Have a Taco

I can't decide if last night was a brutal loss, or just one of those to chalk up to the gods of softball, and move on to the next game.

You can't really feel bad about it. We hit .767 as a team. I don't think we made a single error. The only times balls went off our gloves were smashes, and they were hits. Yeah we blew a 14-1 lead, but when they came roaring back, we answered, twice, with six run and five run innings. We scored 5+ runs in four straight innings. The only thing that kept us from winning were two great catches basically at the fence on balls hit by Bo and Cage. who were 6-6 plus two walks up to that point. The score stuck at 25-26.

So, you have to tip your tipsy taco hat, and move on. They earned it.

The good news is that we are still in the driver's seat to make the playoffs - Tipsy Taco is a half game behind us and we own the tiebreaker since we beat them by 12 the first time around. We have the bottom two teams in our last two games; they face the hot SOP team in their remaining game.

Not that it is a given or will be easy. All the teams in this league can hit. M.A.R.A., who hadn't scored much all season, broke out for 24 last night. Maybe the ball is juiced. It sure was carrying out last night, even though there was only one home run as part of the 51 run outburst.

But I like our chances. We are like the Giants in the early decade - all we have to do is make the playoffs. I had forgotten - we've won cotton three straight seasons.

All but two of us had at least three hits. The middle of our lineup - Bert, D, and Hama - were 12-12 with 12 RBIs evenly split. Rusty had two doubles. B, Bo, Cage, Rusty, Coop, and JT all had three hits. Even though mostly the outfielders were chasing drives and the infielders were watching hot shots in the holes after the second inning, there were a few great plays. Bo ranged far on a couple of balls for outs, as did Cage, and Pauly made a stop of a smash to the hot corner in the first.

Milestone:
Pauly        850 ab (#8)

Sweep! A Scarlet Team for the Aged (I Mean Ages)

The Scarlet Creaker team finished the playoffs and year as we started, sweeping through the playoffs with an unblemished 5-0 record to win the post-season tournament. Today we beat Green 9-3 and Maroon 8-6 with a combination of great defense and timely hitting.

In the opener we jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first, the big blow a two run blast into the LC gap by Gary Namanny. Gary was hobbled by a pulled groin he sustained in a tennis tournament over the weekend and still managed to limp into second for a double. Note: Tennis is not in your Creaker contract, Gary.

After that the defense took over. We kept the big Green hitters in check for the most part. Ray Aguilera was dealing, he walked a few today, but we call it 'effectively wild' as he had hitters reaching all day. He added a triple on offense to jump start our three run fifth that put some distance between the teams at 7-2. Art Miner (triple), Gerry Dasey (double), Tony Gorgone (double), and Mike Nichols (SF) combined to make it 9-3 in the sixth, and that was the final score.

That set up the final game against Maroon, winner take all. They had come back to win a walkoff the last time we played and won the toss to be home team.

We didn't really hit the last few weeks, and the tough Maroon team jumped out to leads of 3-1, 5-1 and then 6-2 after four. They hadn't really hit yet either, and it wasn't looking good. But then a funny thing happened - we shut them out for the last three innings and we Chipped away to make it 6-3 and 6-6, before taking a meager 8-6 lead in the top of the open seventh. But we miraculously held the strong team through the top of their lineup in the sixth and then the middle in the seventh and victory and the Championship was ours.

Defense won the game as usual. There were lots of good plays but three stood out. Miner snared a line shot blast in the first game in left field. In the third inning of that game, Paul Lisi fired the ball to Gary Booth who threw a strike home to Bob Shipley for the third out.

And in the Championship Game Chip Sharpe tore in on a line drive hit by the speedy James Del Rio, and threw him out at second by a step. It kept Maroon scoreless in the third frame.

So here we are, and I am very proud of this team - we have had one of the, if not the very best year in Creaker history to date.

Meet Scarlet:

Chip Sharpe. Speedy leadoff hitter, perfect relief pitcher. Plays all over the outfield, and even had a great game at Rover one week. A line drive hitter, once in a while he even went over the outfield, and with his speed it's all over then.

Paul Lisi. One of the best outfielders in Creaker land. The best number two hitter, as his line drives to right almost guarantee first to third no matter who is on in front of him. And - no one scouts the other team better, and then overplays their tendencies. Pisses off his manager who then has to admit when Paul is right.

Art Miner. A very speedy outfielder who can hit in any direction and is always upbeat. He is so young (relatively) that he even still works when he is not playing softball.

Gary Namanny. Personally I always thought he was, how shall I say, in the shadow of his brother a little? But playing with him, I was constantly amazed at his power, grace, and speed at bat and in the field. Of course if I had his long stride I'd be fast too! But he has it and he is a cornerstone of any team he is on.

Gerry Dasey. Perhaps the most consistent hitter in Creaker Land. Has he ever hit below .800? And his strong arm is an asset from anywhere on the infield.

Tony Gorgone. Tony can pick ground balls in his sleep. you can put him anywhere on the infield as well, and everybody around him is better. And he slaps the ball all over the place at bat, with an occasional long ball.

Charlie Uhlman. One of our sleeper hitters. Don't ever cheat in on Charlie, he will burn you! Very powerful swing. Solid outfielder.

Mike Nichols. The second third of our sleeper trio (the quiet one) as I like to think of them. Mike hit about .700 most of the year, getting clutch hits time and time again. And behind the dish, he has tremendous reflexes on foul balls which also served him well in the outfield.

Gary Booth. The best kept secret in Creaker Land (it's out now I think). Not the quiet one of the sleeper trio. His gappers were legendary all summer. And when we lost Raul, we didn't miss a beat with Gary at SS. His throws are always on the money.

The pitcher.

Raymundo Aguilera. Ray started out the season not knowing you had to release the pitch from the rubber. Thought he just had to start there. He had a rough opener. Then he went out and practiced and practiced and practiced until throwing from farther away was second nature. And then he turned into one of the best pitchers in the league. He got great hitters out time and time again, or held powerful hitters to bloop singles. And he got the big hit when we needed it, a lot of times.

The pull the ball trio.

Roc Lumley, Bob Shipway, and Helen Kostoff. How the three of them ever got a hit with the shifts that were more and more extreme as the season went on amazes me. You'd think they would try to hit the wide open spaces in center and right fields, but no, they each got huge hits at various parts in the season by honing their craft so they could hit the holes no matter how small.

The first basemen.

Bob Carver. As Gerry said they gave us a 'rotund' first baseman for Raul, when we already had one of those! Bob came in and just dominated in a couple of our games late in the season, showing power and line drive hitting like you wouldn't believe. We really missed him in this last day, his absence and Charlie's injury went a long way to explaining why we only scored 17 runs on the day.

And finally, the Coach. I got a few good hits and made a few good plays, not my best season. But I had one thing no one else in the league had. I had a team to manage that had no egos, no fighting, all pulling one direction. No blame, and confidence that built and built over the year. I think we had a talented roster but no better if at all over at least a couple of the other teams. It was our chemistry (and lights out defense) that was the difference.

Greatest Creaker Team Ever!

Towed Away

It's not a good sign when you have almost as many walks as hits in a slow pitch softball game.

Granted, when Arroyo Tow brought in their backup (really?) pitcher, and he walked four in a row at one point, it showed our veteran nature and a desperate need to get base runners to start a short lived comeback. But, the walks stopped and the last desperate rally fizzled, and Kapsch came up short 12-7.

The game was a serious pitchers' duel through three innings. Gregg had the Towheads eating out of his hand, and they had only a 1-0 lead on an unearned run. We tied it in the fourth, but in Arroyo's second or third time around the lineup they started hitting line drives all over the place. Before we knew it, it was 10-1 and Gregg had taken himself out of the game. Hama calmed them down the rest of the way but we just could not generate enough offense to catch up.

On a personal note, I will apologize in advance to the team. I am having such an abysmal season and year (0-3 with a backward K last night), there is only one thing to do. You seem I always figured softball averages are about double MLB baseball averages: .250 = .500 = average, .300+ = .600+ = good. And the Mendoza line, which is .200 in baseball, is .400.

Well I am so bad this year, I can not only stay below the softball Mendoza line but I can maybe hit the actual baseball Mendoza line (at press time I am at .229 for the year). So, I am going to put my personal goals ahead of the team goals, and not get another hit the rest of the season. It will be up to the rest of you guys to make up for this. Good luck!

See how I did that? I am sure you all feel much better about yourselves!

As for last night, B did go 3-3 and Rusty had a double but that was about it for offense besides the 11 walks. But we are still in the thick of the race, and with one or two more wins, we will make the playoffs, and we showed last season we know how to make it happen in the playoffs.

Milestone:
Gregg        10 bb (#27)

Defense Keys Another Scarlet Win

Scarlet's trademark all year has been our defense. Today, in four straight innings, we made a great  play with two outs to keep Purple from getting closer. They could only score one run in those final four frames, and the result was a 15-9 win.

In the third it was Gary Namanny running in hard to take away a hit on a sinking line drive.

In the fourth Chip Sharpe ran in full speed and caught a ball with his arm and chest before it settled in his glove.

In the fifth it was Art Miner in left. In the sixth Gerry Dasey handled a sharp grounder up the middle and beat the runner from first to the second base bag.

Purple started off on fire, scoring three in the first. But we answered with consecutive singles by Sharpe, Paul Lisi, Miner, Namanny, Dasey and Tony Gorgone, and when Mike Nichols hit a grounder, Dasey scooted home with the fifth run. Purple rebounded with five and it was game on. We scored two to answer and it was 8-7 after two. And three. And four. In the fifth, Bob Carver had perhaps the biggest hit of the game - he tripled to open the frame. Helen Kostoff brought him home by beating the "Helen Shift" for a single, and up strode the shorter first baseman. He deposited a line drive in the right center gap, and Helen's courtesy runner scampered all the way home with what proved to be the winning run. Two more scored to get us our second five run inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Dasey started a second consecutive inning with a triple. A walk, a hit, and a couple of ground outs later three had scored and time was out. The umps and the home team thought that the game was over at 75 minutes, and the correct rules were not well known; but even though Purple was denied their last chance to hit, Scarlet had momentum and the hammer. Of course we will never know for sure, but the game ended 15-9.

Dasey and Gary Booth were both 3-3 and Carver, Kostoff, and Kravin were each 2-2 at the bottom of the lineup. Everyone had a hit except Ray Aguilera but his pitching more than made up for it. Nichols made yet another great catch at catcher, taking the bat out of the hands of one of Purple's best hitters.