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.

The Gold Standard

In the bottom of the ninth inning, as we desperately clung onto our one run lead, and Navy got the tying and winning runs on base, Gerry Dasey, watching the unfolding drama after his game ended on Field three, called out to me. "Hef, are you nervous?"

And you know the thing was, I wasn't nervous at all. Not tense one bit.

Because, I had learned everything I needed to understand about the Gold team. We had no quit in us. Last game we scored eight in the ninth to win a game we should have lost.

This game we played without the left half of our outfield (Steve Mastonarde and Gary Namanny). Our starting pitcher (Tom Gonzales) was in the emergency room last Friday getting his leg stitched up after taking a line drive off the worst part of his shin. He was resting comfortably in the shade behind our dugout, he could barely stand up. The three of them finished the season hitting .765, .718, and .716, respectively. Not to mention that Namanny is probably the best outfielder in the league.

So what did we have?

Steve Bedrick, who we call Bedrock, was as solid as he has been all season. He pitched all nine innings - he fell over at one point and calmly went to the sidelines and stretched his legs and caught his breath and finished the game. He struck out three, two swinging. And he went 2-4, clutch hits each, and took a big walk in the second, our first five run inning.

Our shortstop Hugh Vasquez should have been next to Gonzales, having shooting pains in his hip. He went 5-5, and threw out a runner at the plate on a relay from Rob Katzer.

Anthony Puccio (Pooch) comes all the way from the Sierra foothills to play softball. He went 4-5, and made a great catch on a pop up behind the plate. Barely got above his head straight back.

Curt Wade started the season 11-11. He developed bone on bone athritis in his hip, and his great natural hitting had dropped off. He went 5-5 including lumbering around to third on a gapper. And made a great catch of a pop up at 2B in the second.

Mike Nichols, the mildest mannered person in all Creakerdom, quietly, of course, went 4-4 including a booming double. He or his proxy scored every time up.

The Batman Steve Alvarez, pressed into duty in right center as we had to take almost everyone out for an inning, made two great catches in the sixth inning to hold Navy to two runs after they started a promising rally. And went 4-5 with an RBI on each of his hits.

And speaking of have an inning, Stan Bielecki, all eight feet of him, made all three outs on defense at rover in the eighth. First he snared a line drive no one thought he would get, especially the runner on first, who froze and Stan fired a strike to me OVER his head for the double play. I guess it's easier to do that when you are looking down on everyone. The next batter obliged by hitting a line drive that no one under Stan's eight foot frame gets. And there was a lot of ball showing as it rattled around in his glove but he hung on. The top of the Navy lineup scored one run that inning.

And Joyful Joy Dardin, who had played about two innings in the outfield all season, took over in left, and she set the tone in the first inning with a running shoestring catch. She added a clutch two out bases loaded double to finsh off our second five spot in the third.

And if Gonzales or Bill Watson on Navy is not the Rookie of the Year, it has to be Doug Carlson, he of the Creaker Carlson pedigree. The book is out on him - they play really deep on him now. He stepped into the vacated cleanup spot in our lineup and calmly went 5-5 with a triple and a double and four RBIs.

And Steady Eddies Bob Fulgham and Katzer did their usual, going 3-3 with a walk and a sac (three RBIs), and 4-5 with four RBIs, respectively. And Katzer gave us our weekly hilarity moment as he fell down going from first to second while running for someone else (Get up Rob, GET UP ROB!) while the opposition fell all over themselves trying to get off a throw to second to nail him, can you say Keystone Kops?

And me? I stopped being tense in about the fourth inning. We had already proven what we are made of. Don't get me wrong, Gerry, I would have loved the tee shirts, but somehow the pride of coming up strong in the face of adversity outshines a tee shirt.

Oh yeah, the game, we led 4-0, they led 5-4, we led 9-5, then 14-5, then 14-13, then 15-13, then they led 18-15, then 20-16, then 20-19, then 22-19, then we led 24-22, then 24-23, then we lost 25-24. Does it really matter?

Just watch out in the playoffs. We have grit.

Cardinal Sees Red, Diablos Win 25-18

After a slow start in the field and at bat, the Diablos woke up on both sides of the ball, to take a third straight victory over the WC Cardinal 25-18.

The Diablos gave themselves the potential for the Curse of the First by tallying five off of "Highball (Mike) Howard". The first few hitters couldn't seem to make solid contact off of him - Jim Krochka even struck out. But we managed a couple of thirty foot dribblers that few senior pitchers, especially an octagenarian would get, and a pop up that fell in sandwiched around a shot on the right field line by Ed Hendrickson and a couple other line drives to net five.

The Cardinal, who have a good lineup, kept up with us - although we gifted them a few extra base runners that scored. They took leads of 11-10 in the third inning, 13-12 in the fourth, and 14-12 after five. But the defense kicked in in the middle innings to keep it within reach. Clay LeChe in right center made a nice running catch in the fourth and Don Devencenzi netted a hot smash at 3B to get a force at second in the same inning. In the next inning, Bobby Vitro made probably the play of the day on a smash to his right and then the easy putout to hold the opponents to a single run.

Later, Brian Goldufsky started two double plays - to keep them scoreless in the sixth, and ultimately he took it himself to the bag at 2B and fired to first to end the game on a high note! Bang, bang!

LeChe was the recipient of the Game ball as he went 4-4 with a double and four RBIs, including the clutch two out two run double in the sixth that proved to be the Game Winner as it put us ahead to stay. 

Everybody got into the action in the 6th through the 8th as we poured on 13 runs to put the game away. Highlights included a solo blast by Krochka to start off the sixth, back to back doubles by Greg Lagomarsino and LeChe to finish the inning, a clutch two run double by Mike Daley in the seventh, and another back to back set of two baggers by Krotchka and Mark Childress to kick off the five run eighth.

LeChe and Childress were 4-4, Krotchka, Lagomarsino, Bob Carver, Devencenzi, Jeff Kravin, and Daley were all 3-4. Thirteen players had at least one RBI, and every player (or their proxy) scored a run.

Not a bad way to kick off August.