Crowing Out Loud

Don D gave me the honor of leading off in the first game of the Winter Season for the Crows. We were playing the Wolfpack, my former team that has bulked up to chase the Hornets. I promptly hit a line shot down the right field line, I knew it was a double for sure, even for me. Then the right fielder was kind of lollygagging after the ball and so I took off for third. I stopped and looked around, and then I saw it - they were still barely getting to the ball. I could hit my first home run in years! But I remembered whose body I was in, and after all it was a runner on third with no outs and Anthony coming up and Tony Camilo had the ball by then, so I stayed.

And then I knew I was dreaming.

Instead I have to write about how we came up short against the Knights on the first round of the playoffs and got an extra week or two off and avoided the 100 degree heat (the playoff final was postponed this week due to heat).

The score ended up at 13-10 - we really made it close. But this was after a furious rally in two of the last three innings - if only we hadn't waited until the seventh inning to get serious about hitting the ball.

Down 13-1 in the seventh, Clay singled and Dave doubled and Howard singled in our second run. Don D followed with our biggest hit of the game, a line shot that found a gap for a two run triple. Ultimately we rallied for four in the seventh and four in the ninth while shutting the Knights down, but it wasn't enough.

There were just a couple of defensive highlights - SS Howard and R Randy and 1B Heffe turned a slick double play in the first to prevent a five run inning. And 2B LT made a great backhanded stop to get a force out at second in the third. He has been making a habit of this lately.

Howard and Barry and Brian led the way with three hit games, and Dave had a double and a triple. Everyone had at least one hit, it just wasn't enough.

And one final note. Howard made an out (!)  in his last at bat. It was a line shot at the third baseman. You may not think this was significant, but it ended a streak of thirteen straight hits (with a walk thrown in). He will start a new streak when the new season starts, no doubt.

Well, new beginnings October 23rd (or 30th). It is going to be in interesting season. Three teams have added new players to try to chase the Hornets, including the Crows, so we should be in the mix!

Welcome Back, Black

Even though we have to open our season without our spirit leader Sandy Camp, Team BS managed to prevail over Team Green, 25-15 in the Creaker Fall/Winter 2024 AD/ND season opener on Heather Farm Field 4, which rumor has it is Manager Dave Rose's favorite field.

BS took an early lead at 4-1 in the first. The strong top of the lineup pounded four straight hits to start us off, and we were off to the races. Although we allowed Team Green to tie us in the second, the game was never in doubt once we put up nine runs in the next three innings.

Team Green has a green manager, and it showed. They had two pitchers who had maybe never pitched in a game before, pitch most of the rest of the game, and the patient BS hitters drew nine walks. He had some players in questionable positions, but I think he was experimenting. I am sure they will be more competitive next time we play them.

In the mean time there was hitting up and down the BS lineup. Art Miner led the way as usual, going 3-3, with two doubles and five RBIs plus two of the walks. Brian Black and Greg Mathers were 4-4, Dave DeWitt and Dan May were 4-5, Mike Nichols was 3-3 plus a walk, Darren Bobrosky and Jeff Kravin joined the group with three hits each. Eight players had two or three RBIs. They say it's a team game and that's how you make it so. There were only two other extra base hits, doubles by Rose and Mathers.

RC DeWitt had a great defensive game, making multiple running catches and gunning down a runner at second on a single/force out. LC Miner threw out a runner at home with a one hop bullet to Nichols, who made a nice pickup. The catch of the game though was by SS Steve Rousso ranging into shallow left to grab a pop fly in the fifth almost all the way to the foul line.

The Bloody Mary's at the Greenery on our bye week will taste better after this game.

What a Team! Raiders Sweep to Double Championship, 23-19!

The season couldn't have ended more appropriately. Our MVP and League Batting Champion and spiritual leader Don Ott dove flat out to grab a grounder headed to center field, and flipped it to the stalwart rover Todd Evans standing on second base, to get the force and third out, and thus we swept the Playoffs (2-0) and the season series against the Rovers (5-0), and of course we had already won the League Championship (10-5).

We always knew it was the Rovers that stood in our way for the sweep, even though we seemed to own them throughout the season. They lost eight games total, and five were to us. They even took a lead in the top of the seventh. As was our MO most of the season, we started fast (leads of 7-1 and 12-5), let the opposition creep back, and even take a lead at 16-15, but then the Relentless Raiders, never say die, rallied in the bottom of the seventh to take back the lead we would not give away, and came out on top 23-19.

Before I get to the individual performances and highlights, I just want to say that playing on this team this season was like a novel or a movie that you love and can't wait until the next chapter or scene, such  that when it is over, you are a little sad, because there is no more to he had. Maybe we will be lucky and next season many of us will end up playing together; but sadly, the nature of the senior softball leagues is that you can't keep a team together from year to year.

Defensive highlights, besides the game ending force out: Jay Sankey and Mike Mooney with their usual assortment of running catches in the first (both) and the fourth (Sankey). But the best ones were Mike Smith coming up big on two hard liners that could easily been misjudged in the eighth, when the game was definitely on the line.

On the infield, Heffe lumbered over into foul territory to nab a floater off the dangerous bat of Dan Burbank in the first. There was a double play in the fourth when Rover Evans stepped on second and had to hurry and fire a throw to first, and Heffe dug it out.

On the offensive side, the true marker of the team was that nine players had either two or three RBIs. Barry Walter led the way with a 4-4 game including a two run triple in the seventh, which turned out to be the game winning RBI. Mooney also had a triple among his 3-3 plus a walk game. He had to be the MVP of the post-season - all he did was end the year with ten straight hits. Joining him with three hits were Ott with all doubles, because, really who can stop him, the steady Sankey, and Steve Brown and Don Devencenzi. In the eighth, when the Rovers had again closed within a run, Mooney led off with a walk, Devencenzi doubled, and Heffe, M Smith, and Gino Ilacqua all singled to pad the lead back to three runs going into the ninth. Bottom of the order hits, we win.

Just to round it out, we must mention Pitcher Chili Hernandez, who got several of the toughest Rover hitters to pop up or ground into easy outs. And let's not forget the irrepressible Gordon Smith, who although he didn't have his greatest game, practically carried us in a couple of wins. And Jim Dietrich, ever steady behind the plate, who it seemed like all of his hits were clutch hits all year. Everyone on the team had at least one hit, except for the missing Gidget Blaquera, who did not heroically come straight from the airport to join the festivities. I'm still mad at her for that (kidding - I hope you won your tournament).

All in all it was just a typical Raider win, only this was for the penultimate Championship of 2024. Great job boys (and girl)! See ya next year!

Flash! It's Clutch Gordon!

In a game that was full of heroic moments, it came down to this: Bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth, score of 19-19, winning run on third. Clutch Gordon Smith up. He smashed a hard shot off the third baseman's glove, it squibbed into left field, the winning run scored, and it's off to the Championship Game next week.

Yes there were moments. The first was in the first, when the top of the Wolfpack lineup got a three run homer over the fence and five runs altogether. In Walnut Creek, we call that the Curse of the First, and in fact it proved to be true today, but this was Hayward, and the Raiders were not happy about that start. Alas, we went at them with one on the first, three in the second, and one in the third to tie it. In the mean time, Gino Ilacqua shut down the Pack without another run until the sixth.

In the second it was Don Devencenzi, aka the Vacuum who sucked up two grounders at 2B, followed by Gino stabbing a ball at the mound that seemed targeted for center field. In the fourth, it was Rover Todd Evans and SS Don Ott making tough plays and then Evans catching a blooper falling on his behind into shallow center field. In the fifth it was Barry Walter firing a strike to a stretching Ott to nail a runner trying to stretch a single into a double. In the sixth, it was Ilacqua to Evans to first for a double play. Finally in the seventh, the Pack was on the comeback trail, and they had one in with two outs and the bases loaded. Devencenzi ranged far to his right to snag a knuckling line drive to shut down the rally.

All this set the stage for an almost great comeback in the last two innings by the Wolfpack. They scored five in the eighth to close to 18-14, and the Raiders answered with just one as we hit into our third double play of the game. But it was ok, because they had the bottom of the order coming up in the ninth. Right?

Well all those characters did was score one, load the bases, and get the tying run to second with no outs. Then Evans made a call I will never forget. He brought Ray Oducayen in to face the top of the Wolfpack lineup. I was screaming on the inside - they hadn't hit the ball hard off Ilacqua to get those runs in, they just found holes. Now Oducayen was coming in cold - we couldn't afford a walk, not to mention that the top four hitters had at least one homer and two triples and much more combined.

So, first pitch, Oducayen induces a hard grounder to second, where Ilacqua had moved, and being a lefty, he could fire to second in rhythm, and just like that we had two outs on a double play. Genius, I tell you! They managed to tie it, but they could not even force another run across and it stood 19-19.

Mike Mooney, who was the actual hitting star of the game (4-4, HR, triple, five RBIs), led off with a single and Devencenzi moved him to third with a sharp hit. Then something happened that I don't think has ever happened before in my forty plus years of softball - they walked me intentionally. I am not sure of the strategy - load the bases to set up a triple play? Or as I prefer to think of it they were afraid of me getting the game winning hit, or at least a fly ball. Respect, I finally earned it!!! All we needed was that fly ball, next man up, but the drama was not over. We got the fly ball, but it was not deep enough to get the run home. And then - a strikeout! How much more drama could we take? We couldn't survive another inning, and so luckily Clutch Gordon won the game.

In the end, it was as I said - If Jeff Kravin and Gino Ilacqua both get doubles in the same game, the Raiders have to come out on top.

Mooney, as I said, was the hitting star, He had company though, Kravin was 3-3 with a double plus the intentional walk. Manager Jay Sankey, Evans (triple) and Walter were 3-4. Ott had a rough day for him, only two hits, but he had our other home run, a two run shot. Everyone else had at least one hit, and six players had two RBIs.

So it comes down to one more Tuesday to try to sweep the season accolades. Good Luck to the Do Over Rovers, but MORE TO THE RAIDERS!

Nothing Could Be Finer...

There's an old Al Jolson song that goes "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina...in the morrrrning" made famous by Bing Crosby:

Carolina In The Morning · Bing Crosby

When we were in college, we turned it into "Nothing could be finer than to be at Doggie Diner...in the morrrning".

My college friend Mark was a writer and was writing his ultimate Great American Novel, about a pimp (and three-card monte expert) that he met in Oakland. I forget his name but Mark hung out at Hy's restaurant at the corner of Telegraph and MacArthur in Oakland all hours of the night to talk to him. Across the street was one of those iconic giant Dogs of the Doggie Diner fame. Any of you that are locals must know about this bygone chain. The women of the night would play their trade in front of Hy's and the Diner. I don't know if Mark ever finished his novel. We were close but sometimes friends just drift away, and I guess I will never know.

But I digress...

What I really meant to say (or sing) is the Danville version of same - "Nothing could be finer that to smash the Hornet...whiners". Yeah that's it.

Smash the Hornets

Yesterday the Crows lived up to our potential once again and even though we let the Hornets tie the game halfway through, we dominated at the beginning and at the end to run away with a 24-18 convincing win.

Everyone contributed. Brian Black made his Crow debut and it was a beaut. He held the Hornets scoreless for the first three innings as we piled up a 9-0 lead. Lamont Thompson hit a two run triple in the first and Heffe had a two run single in the second. We scored our first five run inning in the fourth on consecutive RBI singles by Howard Reeves, Don DeVencenzi, Randy Cobb, Anthony Paschal, and Charlie Pastor. Even though we allowed five in the bottom half, we sat pretty at 12-5 when we added on three in the next inning. But then the Hornets did what they do, hit after hit after hit, and before we looked up it was 12-12. 

In the sixth, LT had another two run hit to put us ahead. Then with the bases loaded and two outs, Clay LeChé stepped to the plate, and promptly unloaded them with a shot that was still rolling to field four when he stopped at second base because the fifth run of the inning had scored. Even though it only made it 17-12, it felt like he broke the Hornets' buzz.

Just to prove the point, we shut them out in the bottom of the seventh, and put up five more in the eighth with no outs. Cobb had the big blow, a line shot double that plated two. 

Don Clay came out of retirement once again (a weekly event), and even though the Hornets had another five run inning, held them to six over the last four innings to pick up the save. Of note: Reeves gets the win for getting the last out of the seven run fifth inning!

Our defense shone from beginning to end. but for some reason I have no notes on it. LeChé had a couple of nice catches in left field. Dave Balfour and LT had a heads up 8-4-3 putout on a hit in the ninth that put the stake in the heart of the opposition. The first baseman woke up just in time to take the throw.

But - the key was we turned three or maybe four double plays. Cobb and Thompson were in the middle of all of them.

Reeves was 5-5 and 4 RBIs and three of them came with two outs. Paschal was 5-6. Balfour, Pastor, and Barry Walter had four hits each, and Cobb, Thompson, and Heffe had three.

By winning we clinched third place and avoid playing the Hornets three weeks in a row. After next week's makeup game against them, we will play the Knights in the first round of the playoffs. Our goal is to finish against the Hornets with a similar result as yesterday's game.

When Third Place Looks Not So Bad

Well, the Crows have an off day, a forfeit win over Leo's which puts us up one game over them plus the tiebreaker with two games left. Without going into too much detail, it is very possible, nay likely that we may end up in third place in the four team league. This would mean we could get the Knights in our first playoff game, and as described below, we could very well beat them.

So as long as I should have been playing in Danville today, I might as well review our win last week over said Knights, as unlikely as it was.

We have had a rough season. Losing a couple of players unexpectedly. Losing Randy for most of the season with his adventures playing hardball on Wednesdays. Losing Clay and Lamont and now Charlie for stretches to injury. It was tough all season to get 11 players on the field at once. But we are still a good team, and last week proved it.

It was a microcosm of the season. We scored five in the first. And then we set about to prove the Curse of the First is real. The Knights caught up and took their first lead in the third, 9-7. By the fifth it was 16-12, and going into the bottom of the seventh 19-12.

It was hot on the turf. LT and I were ready to phone it in. Coach Don convinced us to finish the seventh. He made us a deal - if we rallied and got close we would finish nine innings. If we went out meekly, we would call it a game. So what did we do?

Six singles and four walks later Randy drove in the tying run as we batted around, and it was 19-19. We would have to stay. Both teams went out quietly in the eighth, and the Knights could only push one across in the ninth. The game was ours to grab. Lead off walks to Heffe and Howard, and singles by Steve and Ed tied it, and it set up the penultimate at bat for Coach Don. When he took ball four, the Knight pitcher's meltdown was complete and we had ourselves a Walk Off Walk, 21-20.

It wasn't pretty, taking seven walks in the last three innings, but a win's a win, and this one tied us with Leo's for third place, and we hold the tiebreaker, and third place is ours for the taking. And that would give us an easier path to dare I say it, win the playoffs!

Not unusually, Anthony led the way with 4-4 game, including two doubles and a homer plus a walk. Why didn't he just go for third base to get the cycle? Barry was 4-5 with a triple and led the team with four RBIs. LT and Ed were 2-3 plus had two walks each. Howard and Dave had three hits apiece. Everyone had a hit and all but one drove in a run.

Now, if we can just get more than ten players to a game...

Champs! Raiders over Rovers 22-19

In the end it was the unsung heroes, the Smith Brothers (no cough drops), Mike and Gordon, that did in the Rovers for the fourth time, and earned the League Championship for the Raiders.

The Raiders led all the way though 7 1/2 innings, up by as many as ten runs, but a few defensive gaffs and many runners left on base allowed the Rovers to finally tie it at 19 in the eighth, and they had the hammer. In the top of the ninth after a leadoff walk, Big Mike strode up to the plate. Mike hits the ball hard, but too many times he has the bad luck to hit it right at someone. This time, though, he slammed it down the left field line fair by about a foot, and then it was gone, by the left fielder. Mike galloped all the way around the bases chasing the runner in front of him with the game winner. That left it up to the bottom of the order to add on. After a single by Gino Ilacqua, Gordon Smith blasted a run scoring double (although as you can't stop Gordon, and he was thrown out trying to stretch it to third). All Gordon did in the game was go 4-4 tying the team lead with 3 RBIs, including a triple and a double. And as the catcher he made a great play on a dribbler in front of home plate - the kind of play that almost always results in a man on first.

All that remained was pitcher Chris (Chili) Hernandez to get through the bottom half of the Rovers' order with a three run lead. Todd Evans made a tough catch roving to shallow left center for out number one. After a couple of hits, Chili induced a hard grounder to Evans, and he got the sure out at second, but the throw was late to get a speedy runner at first. Two down. The tough top of the Rover order waited on deck with the tying run at the plate. But then, as often happened during the season, the opponent tested Mike Mooney in left field and he ended the game with a running backhanded catch as the ball was trying to get over his head.

Champions!

There were others that made major contributions. Manager Jay Sankey joined G Smith with four hits, 4-5. Don Ott was only kept from a four hit game because he was walked once. His 3-3 continued an assault on the record books. Since July 30th, he has been 21-21, plus a walk and a sac fly. And he had two hits in his last two ABs on July 23rd. I don't know what the record is for consecutive hits and whether the sac fly counts against you, but 23 is a pretty good number!

Evans, Hernandez, Mooney, Ilacqua, and Don Devencenzi were all 3-4. Ott, Evans and Hernandez joined G Smith with three RBIs.

Jim Dietrich hit the ball hard and contributed to the bottom of the order starting the only five run innings in the third and fifth with a walk and a hit. Jeff Kravin was the only o-fer, but drew the leadoff walk in the ninth that ultimately became the winning run.

Barry Walter contributed a great shoe top catch in the fifth inning. M Smith made a couple of nice grabs in RF in the first two innings. Steve Brown made a nice catch in his belly on the other end of G Smith's play in front of the plate in the eighth when the throw was a high one-hopper.

Did I say Champions?

On to the playoffs.