Too Hot to Play Nine So Let's Pour it on in Four and Melt the Gold, 19-6

The Crows started the season alarmingly with three hits in eight at bats with the only highlight being newcomer Al Banisch's solo home run in the second inning with two outs.

In the first inning, Dan May, being the gentleman he is, volunteered to play SS for shorthanded Danville Gold and made a play to end the inning. Well, I had to put an end to that. Pronto. I refuse to lose our opener to ourselves. I forced the issue - Gold had to put an outfielder in right field and we would only supply a catcher, as it should be. Returning former Crow Ed Cook generously said he would play for the other team so he played first base the rest of the game.

In the mean time, our own good defense limited Gold to four runs over two innings. In the second, they loaded the bases with no outs, but we held them to two runs. Could have been worse.

In the third, the bottom of our order came to the rescue. Consecutive singles by Tom Wagenseller, Lew Altman, Bob Fulgham (also his first Crow AB), Don Devencenzi, and Jeff Kravin brought in three runs to tie it and set up leadoff hitter Clay LeChe who hit a double that provided the last two runs of the inning and the ultimate game winner.

Charlie Pastor came in and shut Gold down in his three innings, literally shut them out. Starter and closer Tom Gonzales pitched well too, and the two may just be the best pitching duo in the league.

In the fourth the top of the lineup made sure they weren't left behind. Pastor's single and Joe Silva's double set up a two run hit by Bob Gatehouse and eventually May and Wagenseller drove in runs to give us our second five spot. Next inning more of the same, the bottom set up the top but we did leave the fifth run on second.

It was getting out of hand at 15-4, but Gonzales provided the proverbial icing on the cake. Singles by Dave Balfour and Banisch and a walk to May set up Gonzales with a bases loaded no out situation. He slashed a line drive to left that managed to elude the left fielder's glove and it was off to the races, ultimately ending in a grand slam to finish our scoring.

Gold wanted to flip flop and despite a two run home run, they went out meekly after that and the final score was 19-6.

Pastor and Fulgham were 3-3, May and Kravin were 2-2, and LeChe, Silva, Gatehouse, Banisch, Gonzales, Wagenseller, and Devencenzi were all 2-3. Gatehouse tied Gonzales for the team leading four RBIs.

There were several good plays but the highlight was a pop up on the infield that 2B May chased down and lunged for to catch and easily doubled off the runner at first, who rightly (but not smartly) assumed no way would Dan get to it. Ah ye of little faith.

Good start against an overmatched opponent. Don't tell anyone, but the brilliant schedulers in this league accidentally gave us an extra game against Danville Gold and one fewer against the Hornets. Oh well.

TC You Take It, No You Take it, CC Diablos over WC Cardinal 13-12

In an appropriate end of the TriCity season, the Diablos tried to gift wrap the season finale by playing generous defense throughout, and trailed after a five run Cardinal top of the seventh, 12-11. But the Cardinal, said, no, thank you, you are the hosts, so here, load the bases and let's see what happens.

What happened was that Bill Hoffman stepped up with the bases loaded and one out, and earned the game ball by slapping a clutch line drive into left field to tie it up. But then the hitting star of the game, Mark Childress, who already had a home run and a single came to bat. All he had to do was put it over the heads of the drawn in outfield, which of course he is quite capable. Instead he hit one of those floating bloopers over shortstop and the Cardinal fielders just couldn't reach it and it was walk off, game over, 13-12.

In the first inning, the Diablos started off with three excellent plays: A fine running catch in right by Mike Daley, and back handed grab on a smash to second baseman Greg Lagomarsino's right to get a force at second base, and an acrobatic play on one of those balls that is almost always a hit in Senior ball. A little pop up between the pitcher, SS and third baseman that takes a funny hop and usually eludes everyone and they pray it will go foul. Instead, Bob Carver snagged the high hop and fired to first to end the inning.

Then we pretty much took the rest of the game off on defense. Well, except SS Jim Krochka did take care of two hard liners. One went off his glove into the air but he had the presence of mind to find it and grab it and flip to second for a force out. The other he got at least two credit cards off the ground between short and third to snare a hard line drive ticketed for left field.

The lineup was very balanced. Besides Childress 3-3, everyone else was either 2-3 or 1-3. Jimbo Wilcox hit a clutch two run single in the first to become the only player besides Childress (3 RBI) to have a multiple RBI game.

The after game BBQ was fun, and even though it was not the best played game of the season, it is always fun to win a walk off, and end a fantastic season for the Diablos.

David Beats Goliath, 12-8

The wind was howling, almost biblically. The Diablos were being bedeviled by Nick Iocabitti, three hits in two innings. Tom Gonzales was keeping us in there, only allowing two runs through three. But it looked like we would never score against Iocabitti.

Then our own David, Mike Daley, stood up tall to the Goliath that is the Clipper team, and grabbed his slingshot, and boom! Sent a pea over the right fielder's head and went flying around the bases. The spell was broken. 

Dan Roach and Brian Goldufsky followed with hits setting up Jim Krochka, our own giant, to blast a two run triple into the gap in right center. Mark Childress followed with a single and Jimbo Wilcox brought him home with a double for the fifth score, and the Clippers were the ones on the run.

The pitchers' duel lasted into the sixth - their fourth inning featured some excellent Diablo defense - Roach made a Willie Mays basket catch in right, and Krochka somehow lunged toward right field from SS on a hard grounder, reversed direction to get to second base in time to step on it and fire the ball to first for an inning ending double play.

Being generous, we had one defensive breakdown in the top of the sixth, but held them to three runs on six outs. They took their last lead but on hits from Goldufsky, Krochka, Childress, Greg Lagomarsino, and Bob Carver, we answered with four to win the inning, and it was starting to look good for the Devils. We held the top of their vaunted order to two in the seventh, and despite two strikeouts looking, answered with two of our own in the bottom half. Somewhere in there was another double play where second baseman Lagomarsino fired his own pivot slingshot to complete the play. We added an insurance run in the eighth, and Goliath was already on the ground wailing away, and they went meekly in the ninth to finish the 12-8 win.

Kudos to Gonzales for not walking anyone in that gale force gusty wind, not to mention keeping the big hitters in the park. Goldufsky and Krochka were 4-4, the latter with team leading three RBIs. Carver had three hits and the rest were spread around. Not our greatest offensive game, but we faced a great pitcher for about six innings, and we scored just enough for a comfortable win.

Next week, of course is the last game of the season. With Goliath dead, not much more to achieve, except an exclamation point to finish a great season. I don't know about you, but I don't want it to end. I wonder if it is too late to quit all our Danville winter league teams and just enter it together?

Profile of Jeff Kravin, new Hall of Famer

Jeff Kravin was born and raised in the St. Louis, Missouri area. As a result, he has been a life-long Cardinals fan. This is surprising because he had two extended opportunities to join Red Sox Nation. The first was while he attended MIT and later drove a cab in Boston. The second was long after he moved to California, when he worked on the Big Dig project in Boston.

Those of us who read Jeff’s Creaker game writeups should appreciate that he had extensive journalism experience during his education, including the sixth grade (editor in Chief), junior high (sports editor), MIT (arts editor), and extensive work on the Daily Cal at UC Berkeley, where he was a member of the board of directors.

After two years at MIT, Jeff dropped out to drive a cab in Boston during the school bussing riots of 1974. He then moved to California and enrolled as a junior transfer at UC Berkeley in 1975. With course work mixed in with taking time off to work, Jeff got his degree in applied mathematics from UC in 1981.

Those who know Jeff won’t be surprised to learn that at various times in his life he has strolled off the beaten path. During his time at Berkeley, he built a teepee in the Sierra foothills, lived in it for a summer, and had it for a couple more years as a weekend retreat.

He owned at various times nine motorcycles., and had a dog named Sam that rode with him (without a sidecar) for 14 years including a cross-country trip of 11,000 miles in ten weeks in 1979. Jeff’s favorite activity was loading up a street bike with camping gear and then going off on dirt roads and camping in the forest or desert or wherever.

According to Jeff, he “finally grew up (sort of)” in 1981-2. He got married and began working at Chevron where he started playing softball with company friends. That team stayed together for 25 years. One softball team led to another and Jeff eventually played on three different teams for 20+ years, and another for 16 years. He eventually managed them all while keeping state of the art stats. Some years he played on up to five teams.

In order to pay for all that softball, he worked for Chevron as a geophysical analyst, programmer and system manager for nine years. He then worked in control and data acquisition systems and water, energy, traffic, and building management systems for various companies for 28 years as a software engineer, software engineering manager, project manager and product manager.

Having burned out on these demanding jobs, he decided to take time off to play more softball. He first joined the Creakers in 2009 as a 54- year- old. Gerald Henderson placed him in the ND and, although he had never been a power hitter, he hit about 8 triples, a bunch of home runs and played shortstop that year. Around this time, he also played in the old MDSSL, and in Danville winter leagues. This phase of his softball career ended when he had to go back to work.

Jeff returned to the Creakers and other senior softball leagues for good in 2017. His first time managing in the Creakers was under Larry Rafferty as his assistant in 2017; that team finished the year winning the last 11 games (but was shocked in the playoffs by the Navy team managed by Van Akkeren/Dasey). In 2019, he managed the AD Scarlet team which set a Creaker record of 19-2-1, which may never be broken. The Scarlet players appreciated his work as manager so much that they invented the Creaker Manager of the Year Award and gave it to Jeff. He has managed a Creaker team every year since 2019.

In addition to managing, Jeff has contributed to our program in a number of ways. In 2024 he took on the job of compiling standings and scores for all games in our three divisions. He developed a one-page document for each division showing standings, schedules and all game scores. This has been one of the better improvements in Creaker operations. He has co-directed the winter ball season (with Dave Kinkead) and has primary responsibility for the AD/ND winter ball division including team creation and scheduling. He has worked on our season ending cookouts buying food, marinating chicken, and recruiting and coordinating the cooks. He has recently added to his resume volunteer CD umpire.

Jeff helped raise two great daughters in Oakland before separating from their mother in 2010. He met Julia Wiersema in 2012 and they have been inseparable ever since. When her work schedule permits, Julia cheers Jeff on at all his games. Jeff and Julia married on July 21, 2025 after moving to Martinez where both are very happy. Word is that their home is largely filled with boxes of scorebooks recording every game Jeff has played on his many teams during the last 45 years. If you ever need to know his composite batting average for all games played on Tuesdays in the 1990s, he can get you that number.

Jeff Kravin came to California to finish his degree in 1975, and never left. How can you leave the Bay Area when you can play softball in good weather all year round?

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some, Diablos Over Gray, 15-12

I came home from the Giant-Cardinal game yesterday afternoon, and I asked my wife, "which is the better combination, a come from behind win by your own softball team while the MLB team you root for (Cardinals) loses a come from ahead game, or vice versa?

Without hesitation, she says, of course your own team winning!

And she's right.

The highlight of the MLB outing was that I was able to park only about three blocks away from Oracle Park, and we made it to the game by the second inning - Mr. Hopalong Sciatica (me) and Mr. Limpalong Hip Arthritis (Don Devencenzi) - slowly making our way to the ballpark, and it seemed like about two miles in the heat.

The Cardinals got a three run homer early on, and turned their 4-1 lead into 5-1 and then 6-1, and it stayed that way until the bottom of the eighth when the woebegone Giants rallied and came all the way back to win, 7-6. Surrounded by Giants fans, I sat glumly in my seat. Don? I swear he was dancing in front of his. Woohoo. Where's that limp now, Don?

Now the Diablos - we were down 11-1 after three and a half innings. We couldn't throw the ball, we couldn't catch the ball, and we couldn't hit the ball - that's a bad combination - and it looked like a long day, even though the game was shortened to seven innings.

But Tom Caldwell had returned to action in this game, and he lit the match with a two run shot in the fourth. Jimbo Wilcox followed with a double and Tom Gonzales' single brought him home. 11-4. Scratch back.

Howard Davis, who had gotten torched for five the previous inning, settled down and held the Grays scoreless in the fifth. That was our signal - we can do this. We didn't come all the way back when we came to the plate, but it was close as we scored six, leaving the tying run on second, and at 10-11, this was now a game. In the comeback, Dan Roach had a clutch two run two out single with the bases loaded and then Mark Childress split the outfielders on a three run bomb.

Gonzales then came in to shut down the opposition again, aided by a slick Roach to rover Greg Lagomarsino to Jeff Kravin double play. 

All that was left was to keep the momentum going, put up a few and continue the defensive turnaround.

The middle and bottom of the order provided the offensive momentum. Bob Carver led off with a double, and singles by Bob Vitro, and Davis, tied it up and Mike Daley sent a deep sac fly to right to put us ahead to stay. Steve Shapiro and Bill Hoffman turned the lineup over with hits, and Mark Childress knocked a double for some insurance runs that gave us our final 15.

Gonzales held Gray in check, and got weak pop ups and grounders to end the game. Gray never knew what hit them with the 11-1 onslaught in the final three innings.

The hitting was very balanced. Roach continued his onslaught in finishing with an .800+ average as he went 3-3. Childress, Caldwell, Lagomarsino, Wilcox, Gonzales, Kravin and Davis all were 2-3, and everyone else had a hit.

Vitro made a great backanded play in the first at SS and Caldwell ran in hard to snag a falling blooper in left in the second. There was the doubleplay in the sixth, but the defensive sequence of the game came in the fifth. We threw out two runners at home to keep Gray off the board. One from Wilcox to Lagomarsino to Shapiro at home, and one from Childress all the way to home. Those plays were definitely momentum shifters.

Two games left and hopefully we can give the Clippers all they can handle next week.

Diablos Laser Sharp 21-5

The Diablos were a little concerned after the Commander, Ed Hendrickson wrapped his truck around a tree, and left fielder Tom Caldwell had a family emergency back east, and SS Jim Krochka was at a family event in Ohio. That's only our 2, 3, and 5 hitters, but who's counting?

In addition, super addition Clay LeChe was unavailable, still nursing sore legs from the end of the AD season.

It helped that the two best power hitting Lasers would also miss the game. That leveled the playing field.

So we went out and gave the Lasers a drubbing, 21-5. Everyone stepped up, and Creaker rookie and emergency injury replacement for Hendrickson Tom Gonzales and the reliable Howard Davis pretty much shut the Lasers down.

Stepped up as in Bobby Vitro moving over to shortstop, so we could leave Mark Childress in left center where he shines - and he shone today, once on a surprisingly deep ball off of the bat of Roy Gilbert and once coming in for a shoestring catch. Vitro didn't get much action but handled everything but one throw he put in the dirt when the first baseman bailed him out.

And Jim Wilcox in left and right center and Bob Carver also in right center made some good catches.

Carver had the best game at the plate - 3-3 with a double and triple and team leading four RBIS. Greg Lagomarsino joined him at 3-3. Leadoff hitter Dan Roach was 3-4. Newcomer Gonzales was 2-2 plus a walk. Brian Goldufsky (who brought a posse of women from his coed bocce team to show off for) was 2-3 and treated the team to pizza that we scarfed up.

Most everyone else was 2-3 or 2-4, inlcuding Childress, Wilcox, Don Devencenzi, Jeff Kravin, Davis, Steve Shapiro, and Mike Daley. Bill Hoffman had bad luck - two balls he hit were line shots but one was right at the third baseman and then at the left fielder in Blue.Vitro was just 1-2 but also had a sac fly.

It was 'just the Lasers' but it felt good after we played our worst game of the season last week. Next week is the big test - it is doubtful any of Hendrickson, Caldwell, or Krochka will be back on the field for their various reasons, and we play WC Gray, who have a combination of savvy veterans and some fast outfielders. We'll see. In the mean time, enjoy this one.

I Wish Oranges Stayed In Florida and SoCal

My therapist finally said I can write about Team Gold's loss last week, 33-28 to Team Orange. She said if I can refrain from crying when I think about it for ten minutes, I am on the road to recovery and can take pen in hand.

It really wasn't that bad. It was a tight fun game for six innings. Team Orange's largest lead was 4-0 in the middle of the first and ours was three runs a couple of times. It was going to go down to the wire, and we had to feel good because we were the home team.

Even when they took their fifth lead of the game at 22-20 after seven complete and added five in the top of the eighth, Team Gold had no quit. We rallied for seven to tie it up on the strength of seven hits and a walk by the top nine in our lineup, combined with a clutch two out tying RBI single by Joy Dardin to knot it up 27-27 going into the ninth.

But our defense the last four innings finally did us in, as we gave up 21 runs in the last four innings. Including six in the open ninth, and we could only muster one in response.

It was disappointing to end the season just like that. Team Gold had great chemistry, and many players said it was the most fun team they have been on in the Creakers. We were in first place alone for eight weeks, and tied for first six others. That was a lot of fun. But the most fun was the chemistry part. In the end, injuries and absences caught up with us, just like most other good Creaker teams. But it's all good. At least that's what she said to me over and over again.

Gary Namanny and Rob Katzer made some fabulous catches in the middle outfield. I would not trade the top two in our lineup, Hugh Vasquez and Bob Fulgham for any team's duo. They were a collective 12-12 with a double each. Nammany behind them had a triple and four RBIs. Katzer and Curt Wade each also drove in four. Wade and my pick for rookie of the year Doug Carlson each went 4-5 as did Stan Bielecki, who popped a booming double up the middle. Steve Alvarez (a monster triple), Anthony Puccio, Dardin, Steve Bedrick, and I all had three hits. That meant that all but one Gold batter had three or more hits. Of particular note were Pooch and Bedrock, who came through in unexpected ways throughout the last two games. And even though Orange scored 33 runs, Bedrock stood tall in the adversity of missing our starting pitcher Tom Gonzales. Tip your cap to the Orange hitters, they hit when they needed to and then some and took advantage of every mistake we made in the field.

And now? I get to spend an extra day on the couch singing nursery rhymes to my therapist. She says I have an excellent voice.