Green Marooned, 18-8

All decked out in our brand new Green and Gold, the Dark Green Creaker-A's were looking forward to making A's fans everywhere proud. After all the anticipation (and rumors of Forest Green, Silver, and what all else) of getting New Jerseys (see what I did there?), we get the Wandering A's colors. Well, at least now we know where the A's are playing, Walnut Creek, er Pleasant Hill!

And then, we went out and played like the Triple A-s on Thursday. We spotted the Maroon a 9-0 lead through three and it never got close after that. It turned out too much to overcome, and even though the game was pretty even after that, Maroon came out on top 18-8.

A few highlights: Howard Davis made a great stop in the 3-4 hole and stuck a hard grounder in his glove to get the easy out at first in the fourth inning. We turned a nice around the horn double play in the sixth - 3B Frank Coppa to Woody Whitlatch at 2B, who rushed a throw in the dirt to first where the first baseman dug it out backhanded. Likewise Dick Stanley corralled an errant throw at first in another inning.

Shel Perham led the team's meager output on offense, 3-3 plus a walk, including a triple and three RBIs. Michael Callahan, John Banker (with our other triple) and Stanley joined him with three hits. Helen Kostoff continued her torrid RBI pace with two more.

Maybe the manager should be fired. Or the team should step up next game and save his job!

It's a March Wrap! Wolfpack 24 Crows 16

In an emotional day that started with a moment of silence for our fallen teammate Anthony Paschal (very nice eulogy Don), we succumbed to the beefed up Wolfpack 24-16 to end our winter season. In many ways it resembled the season - we were short players (I won't even say how much we miss Anthony on and off the field), and we just didn't hit our best, so we came up short. You have to have your best game against the likes of the Wolfpack and the Hornets.

There were a few highlights. In the second, Howard Reese made a great catch on a little flair over his head on the mound, and when the Pack runner ran halfway home assuming the ball would drop, Howard threw to third for an easy double play. Two innings later, Don Devencenzi came in hard for a sinking line drive in right field, followed by 2B Lamont Thompson ranging far to his left to snag a grounder ticketed to right field to get the third out and keep the damage that inning to two runs.

On offense, Charlie Pastor led the team with four hits. Barry Walter hit a three run homer in our first five run inning. Reese hit a line drive beauty down the right field line with the bases loaded in the sixth and ended up standing on third base in our other five run inning. All in all not a terrible offensive game - everyone had at least two hits - but other than those two innings and the ninth when we started with five straight singles before making three straight outs - we just couldn't string together enough rallies. In five innings we scored a grand total of one run.

The good news is that this team has fun win or lose, and no one gets on each other's case. We will press on with a few new players in the summer, and the Crows will keep cawing and clawing.

Gold turns Green Green

How do you lose a game when Frank Coppa hits a ball to the next field - practically to the third base dugout, Helen Kostoff hits two doubles, John Banker goes 3-4 with a triple (and only missed his fourth hit when he was robbed by the left fielder), and makes a catch for the ages on a smash that was right at him but was dropping like a deer taking a buckshot hit. He grabbed it out of the air like a Ricky Henderson snatch catch.

And that's not counting Jeff Olsen's perfect 5-5 with a double, and yours truly turning a triple or homer over the right fielder's head into a sciatica double.

Gold played better, that's how, and came out on top 20-15.

No excuses, but when you're missing three of your top players, in this league it gives the Manager extra challenges you don't really need.

We cursed ourselves in the first, with Banker's triple and Kostoff's two run first two bagger providing the highlights. In the second, Coppa's HR led us off and Olsen clobbered a two run double. We had a 9-4 lead at that point but Gold answered with two five run innings to take the lead. They won the middle innings but in the eighth back to back doubles by Kravin and Kostoff gave us our last five as we tightened it to 19-15, but that's as close as we came.

Olsen made a couple of nice running catches in LC. Coppa snagged a hot shot at 3B, batting it in the air but recatching the ball. Pat O'Day, turned a very head's up solo double play. A Gold batter, with the bases loaded, dropped a batted ball right in front of home plate. Catcher O'Day picked it up with his foot on the plate, and smartly tagged the batter, who was too shocked by what was happening to run. O'Day could have tried for the game's second triple play (we hit into one), because the other runners were madly dashing to go back to their starting bases. But in the excitement he was worried he would throw it away and decided to hold the ball. As it turned out we got the third out without a run scoring, so smart call. The other defensive highlight was Dick Stanley making a diving catch in RC to end an inning, which he seems to do every game.

Michael Callahan, Banker, Kostoff, Woody Whitlatch and O'Day all had three hits, Every Green batter had at least one. We will get back on the winning track next week.

ND: Unknown Shade of Green 31, Purple 20

For the second year, I am managing a team that has only the promise of new shirts as the season begins. Forest Green, Dark Green, or as the Handbook says, Silver - the color doesn't matter if we hit the ball the way we did today, winning going away 31-20 over a feisty Purple team.

It didn't look good in the first couple of innings, as Green threw the ball away and misjudged fly balls. We spotted Purple a curse of the first five - their hitters looked like Goliaths next to ours. But in the second, on a grounder to second, with Frank Coppa yelling "throw to second", Pat O'Day made a savvy veteran play, chased the runner down going by, and flipped to first for the DP. Suddenly we discovered defense and when Brian Connell took over 2B in the third, we turned a 4-11-3 double play with Helen Kostoff in the middle for another shutdown inning.

In the meantime our bats came alive. In the fourth, with two outs and nobody on, Bill Jeha's triple started a string of six consecutive hits by Dick Stanley, Jeff Olsen, Connell, Heffe, Howard Davis, and Kostoff, sandwiched around a walk to Coppa and we had five runs. In the fourth, more of the same, hits by O'Day, Michael Callahan (his second triple), John Banker, Shel Perham, Jeha and Stanley again, plated five more.

Suspect defense and the strong Purple lineup kept it close - it was a seesaw battle that saw six lead changes. Again in the seventh we scored five (Jeha had a three run triple), but we led just 22-19 going into the ninth.

Mike Howard, closer extraordinaire, took a flat pitch ball four that wasn't called with two strikes leading off the top of the ninth. After a walk and a flyout, we had nothing going. Then once again the two out heroics started. The next ten batters reached safely. After we scored a comfortable six runs, Kostoff strode up to the plate with the bases loaded and still two outs. She deposited a slicing line drive to right center, beating the Purple shift, and by the time she landed on second base three more had scored as we made it 31-20. All that was left was Howard shutting  Purple out in the bottom half and the celebration began.

Callahan with his two triples was 4-4 plus a walk. Kravin was also 4-4+BB. Coppa was 3-3 with two walks. Perham, Olsen, and Connell were 4-5. Jeha was 3-5 and all his hits were three baggers. "Superman" Davis had two doubles out of his three hits, and Banker, Stanley and Kostoff also all had three hits. Kostoff and Jeha led the team with six RBIs.

Not a bad start at all!

Practice Makes Imperfect

Well, since Team Green had a practice game, I thought I should do a practice writeup.

The final score was 18-15. It's too bad we couldn't pull it out - Howard (Superman) Davis would have been quite the hero. All he did was go 5-5 with a couple of clutch RBI hits and pitched well enough in the middle innings to have won if we didn't stop hitting while he was at the mound.

We built a lead of 10-6 through four innings, thanks to a five run fourth that featured back to back two run doubles by Leo Kay and Michael Callahan after the bottom of the order loaded the bases with no outs.

But Team Gold kept getting three run innings when we couldn't quite shut the door - in all they had six such innings to account for all their runs.

After falling behind, we closed to 15-14 with a four run seventh that featured seven straight hits by Dick Stanley, Heffe, John Banker, Frank Coppa, Helen Kostoff, Woody Whitlatch, and Davis.

In a good start defensively, we turned three double plays in the first few innings - Rover Kostoff was in the middle of all of them including one she took herself to the bag and then fired to first. Kay made a diving catch in the first - it may or may not have been worth it as he had sore ribs the rest of the game - we hope he is ok. In the second we prevented a run from scoring on a throw in from Stanley to SS Shel Perham to Whitlatch at the plate.

In the eighth, even though Gold scored three, the outs were loud. Callahan made a sliding catch for the first out. Later, Coppa snagged a hot shot at the hot corner, and Perham snared a shot at SS that seemed headed to LF to keep Gold from getting five.

Davis had the five hits, and Callahan had four, including a double and a homer good for a team leading four RBIs. Kay (two doubles), Stanley, John Banker, and Kostoff contributed three. Kravin had two and also walked three times - the starting pitcher wanted nothing to do with him.

We were missing some components, so it was a good start all in all. We will see next week when the games start to count.

BS Redemption in the Last Winter League Game, Wins 23-21 Thriller.

In one of the best games of the season, Team BS wouldn't be denied and rallied back from deficits of 5-1 and 10-5 and ultimately with a six run ninth and good pitching and defense toppled Team Blue 23-21.

There were many heroes. David Peterson thwacked the ball around for four hits, His blast in the first went to never never land in left field in the first but found a misplaced soccer goal so he was held to a ground rule double. After that shot, the other team played him deep so he put three liners into the outfield and drove in three runs.

Fill in Curt Wade also hit four crisp line drive hits. But it was the unlikely pair of Sandy Camp and David Thompson, also each with four hits, that made the difference. Camp had four clean hits, and to top things off, drew a bases loaded walk in the ninth to kick start the winning rally. She also pitched a couple of shutdown innings in the middle of the game to allow us to get back in the game when we were down 10-5.

All Thompson did was drive in six runs on four hits. His bases clearing, bases loaded triple in the fourth brought us back into the game right when Sandy came in to pitch. His two run single in the ninth, again up with the bases loaded, proved to be the game winner as he gave us a 22-20 lead.

Johnny G doled out his usual three hits and made a great falling down catch in left field in the second. Mike Nichols joined him with three hits and followed Johnny's catch with an equally difficult catch in right field for the third out that inning but didn't fall down!

Finally Steve Sloat and Chuck Corich filled in from the Green team and each also contributed three hits. Corich, in six innings minimized the damage done by the potent Blue lineup, getting the good hitters several times on lazy flies and easy grounders. Thanks go to the pair and Wade for helping us out.

Art Minor and Helen Kostoff were on each end of a deep flyout to center to second base double play (with Peterson as the cutoff/pivot in the middle) in the fourth.

Ken Gurgone had a rough day at the plate but came up in the ninth and drove in the last run with a line drive single to end the BS scoring.

And finally, yours truly finally got in some game action (for the first time since December) as I pinch hit in the eighth and played first in the ninth after Thompson's leg stiffened up. You see, I had had a dream the night before that I took BP and just whiffed and whiffed over and over again. I had to prove at least I could make contact! I went 0-1 but at least I hit a hard grounder!

Can't wait til next year. BS forever!

Nine Shades of Gray, BS Toppled 30-25

We've all been there, a close game where you are the home team, and you just keep saying, keep it close, we have the hammer. Well, Team BS did everything right, coming back from an initial 7-2 deficit to take early 11-8 and 16-11 leads, then answering two straight late five run innings with a five of our own in the eighth to send it into the ninth as a one inning game knotted at 21.

And then the roof fell in. Team Gray ran nine across the plate, and even though we gave it our best shot in the bottom of the ninth, we ended up on the wrong side of a 30-25 defeat.

Despite the high score, there were some strong defensive performances. Steve Rousso made a bunch of plays at rover, chasing pop ups in the sun, catching a liner headed to center field and getting a force out on a tough shot in the fourth. Dave DeWitt made his once a game putout from right center on a 'single' to get a force out at second. Ken Gurgone had a nice game behind the plate, lunging far to his left to catch a pop up in the sixth, and scooping a one hopper from Dan May at SS on a bases loaded grounder. Johnny Gutierrez made a fine catch on a sun fly in the third. And Mike Nichols did likewise in the sixth in right field.

For a while, we owned Gray's big hitter Mike Herrera. Sandy Camp got him out twice, by pitching just close enough to the strike zone that he lost his discipline. But then he put one over Brian Black's head in deep right center that ended up beyond the foul line fence on Field 2 - quite impressive.

We had enough offense that on another day would have been enough. Gutierrez led the way with a 6-6 day, and drove in six runs with those hits. DeWitt and May each went 5-6 and scored 10 runs between them at the top of the lineup. Art Minor hit a triple and a home run and led the team with seven RBIs. Frank Coppa showed extreme patience at the plate, walking four times in five plate appearances. I guess they were afraid of him. Black also showed a good eye, walking three times and scoring five times altogether. David Thompson got the last hit in our first five run inning in the fourth when we had six singles, a walk and then his hit.

I guess all things must end and there goes my one game winning streak as fill in manager. Come back Dave Rose!