Now Don't Go Contaminating The Field!

 They say things happen in threes (who says?). Sadly, there have been three things for the BS Team that have come together.

1. A month off due to a rainout, the holidays, a bye, and
2. Finally, when it’s time to play, another rainout, and
3. I have none of your antics, er I mean heroics to write about.

The upshot us you (voluntarily, up to you of course) may read on for yet another of my longwinded stories.

David inspired it with his tale of the City’s attitude toward the fields, so here goes:

In the ancient days of the last century, as I am sure I told many of you, my original team, the Lyons, practiced at Rudgear. We practiced every Thursday from about 1982-1997, from early spring to late September when it would get dark too early. We had a deal with the City of Walnut Creek, whereby we could reserve the field every week for free, but had to come to the office two weeks in advance to sign up in case they wanted to give it to the Little League or whatnot group that was more important than us (i.e. they paid). They gave us access to the water in the shed (although for some reason we had to supply the hose and the connector), and we built a drag out of two by fours and chicken wire which we scraped around the infield (it is still behind the third base dugout down the hill 40 years later). The field was pristine due to our efforts.

Along the way, each year we would like to have an early spring practice to start the year. But at times in non-drought years, the field was too wet. So, we made the practice earlier and earlier to make sure we got one in, until somehow, we started having practice on Super Bowl Sunday. This was of course during the Montana-Rice years, and it was all the better to then go to one of our houses after practice to watch the game. Fun times.

This one year, the field was in terrible shape. But by then we were experienced manicurists, and had our rakes and shovels and we got to work. There were great puddles at shortstop and on the first base side and it seemed hopeless but that didn’t stop us. We started to move the mud around and got out the drag, and then one of our guys had the brilliant idea to shovel off some dirt from against the fence on the third base side and dump it in the lake at SS. He had a lot of enthusiasm but didn’t really think things through necessarily and he went to work. It was seemingly successful and we had a great practice.

Well, a couple weeks passed and it was time to hold another practice, this time on our regular Thursday time slot. So, I called up Leo in the Rec Department to make sure we still had the deal. He said, “We can’t rent you the field.” I said, “Why not?” (curious because we technically weren’t renting the field). He said that we “contaminated” the field. Well, I had no memory of spraying any foreign substance on the field at Rudgear. And said so. We LOVED that field. I would not want to harm it. He said, “You spread weeds all over the infield.” So, Eric (who we called O.Z.) in his enthusiasm wasn’t all that careful about what he was digging along the side to put into Lake Shortstop.

Ironically, there were weeds all over the infield every year at the beginning and we were the ones that turned it over by spring time to get rid of them. It took some time but to the City’s credit, they eventually forgave us and let us continue to use the field for free for the remaining years we played together.

We still get together every year for the Super Bowl. I am the only one left still on the field, however. We used to gather for a toast at Rudgear before the game but that ritual has faded as the years pass by. But sometime during the day, someone will invariably say, “Now don’t go contaminating the field!”