Kirkland Time, not Coronas

Who would have thought that Kirkland beer from Costco could be so good. This has become the JFT team beer, which Joseph picks up at Costco for us. After a game like tonight's, winning by one run, 12-11, against a dangerous opponent, it tasted especially good.

Corona Crushers has improved this year by adding a great fielding (he robbed G of an extra base hit down the line), good hitting third baseman, and one or two other decent hitters to a lineup that, although shorter in talent than us, always gives us trouble. If memory serves, the first and only time they beat us was in 2010, and it eliminated us from the playoffs. In 2008, they tied us to put an asterisk in our first of two undefeated seasons. Last year they did not win a single game, but two of our victories over them were by scores of 11-7 and 4-3. So tonight's game being a tight one was no surprise.
They started in the first with a solid rally to go up 6-0. Where we go from there depends on your perspective: One of our teammates said he overheard them feeling pretty good about their chances at that point. At the same time, one of our fans in the stands turned to our newest fan and said "Oh they always start slow."

So we tied it up in the bottom of the first. It was a classic JFT rally: a walk, four straight singles, playing it conservative on the bases, and then G, first pitch swinging, hits it over the outfield for a bases clearing triple. Later Gene brings him home for the tying run.

We won the next two innings to take a precarious 12-9 lead. The biggest blow was Big D's patented laser shot that rocketed past the right fielder to plate 2 runs to re-tie the game at 8, temporarily. Add to that clutch 2 out RBI hits by Chuck, Reg and Greg in the 3rd.

After that our defense took over. It was a good thing, because we didn't score again. There was the line drive G almost made a leaping grab on, but Gene hustled in from the outfield to fire to second to get a force out. We turned three double plays altogether, a 6-4-3, 4-6-3 and to end the game dramatically with the tying run on base, a hard grounder to Greg up the middle, step on second and fire to first. He does that better than anyone in senior softball.

Trivia question. Who was involved tonight in what has to be a record 5 double plays in one game? Hint: Winner gets a new monocle. And I get a fat lip. And if questioned, I will have to give up the name of the player that thought of this.

We passed Corona in the standings by virtue of the tiebreaker win. No matter what else happened tonight, we are probably looking up at only Pinky's 40 and Advanced Construction in the early season.


I have to say, I was not sure I was at the right field tonight; Chopper walked twice. Has that ever happened? Who was that inhabiting his body?

And special "we were rained out of our annual preseason practice this year, and I am sure we would have practiced the rundown play" award to the whole team for our best Keystone Kops moment to this point in the season for our botched rundown.

More later.

Gone But Not Forgotten

There was no post about last week's JFT game. This is because the previous blogger had a conniption fit over a play that happened in the game. The last I heard of him, he was running off screaming that he was fast, and a better runner than half the team anyway. Rumor is he went crazy, and cut himself, and went off somewhere to die. All I know is I found a scrap of paper with some game notes; luckily the scorebook account of the game itself was intact, aside from some blood smears and a little dried drool. We may never see him again; we will miss his competitive zeal, but not his fits of anger. I am here to take up the slack; I will do everything in my power to entertain and inform as well. I ask for your indulgence.

Like I said there were a lot of missing pieces. Here is what I found:

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the second, Heffe led off with a shot that nearly tore off the pitcher's glove. The pitcher was crying it was hit so hard. Heffe was on first, studying the pitcher's move, ready to steal second. Never mind this was slow pitch softball. He was gonna go on the first pitch anyway. The pitcher stared him down at first, daring him to go. When SUDDENLY, there was a chorus erupting from the home team bench. I didn't even know there was such a song and dance. "Runner, runner, we need a runner, oh Heffe is so slow we need a runner." It was off key, but the message was clear. Our hero couldn't believe it. He capitulated, and even though no one else on the team is smart enough to even know that word, they continued the game.

Eventually that inning (Which Heffe Started) plated 9 runs, and the game had little drama after that, ending in an 18-4 victory (although they credited us with an extra run to make it officially a 19-4 slaughter rule win*). I think there were a couple of extra base hits in the inning - the notes say something about that M$%$#% Reggie getting a two run triple and G the inglorious B#$%$#^#% hitting a clutch two out double. But I can't quite make it out between the drool and the blood. Seems everyone else is mentioned like Chuck with 3 hits and Randy with a two run triple and Gene 2 for 2 with a Sac Fly and 4 RBIs, but every name has an MF or a GD in front of it. Some even have CkSkMF. Except one. For some reason every time Joe is mentioned it has a MFGDStEye in front of his name.

If anyone has any idea where he is please let me know. His family is worried. I will do my best to take his place; the plastic surgery was nearly perfect, although I have to say I look a great deal better than he did when he escaped us. I will post about tonight's game in a few minutes, but again I beg your indulgence. I have neither his talent nor am I as fleet afoot as he. But we do the best we can with who we have, right?

* the extra run, btw, 'scored' when Heffe later hit into a double play. He was so slow to first, that the scorekeeper got confused and must have counted the runner coming home from third base. What a team player he was...

O fer

I may just go hitless the rest of the season on Tuesday nights. Because, apparently when I do, we crush the opponent.

Poor Chopper - he goes 3 for 4, a double and two triples, and nary an RBI in sight. Bases empty every time he came up.

But it's all OK, because we scored 14 in the second inning and never looked back to see Just Screw It in our rear view mirror. By the time Derek came in to pitch, it was a 26-3 bloodbath.

RB followed up his monster 3 run shot in the third with a tape measure shot for a grand slam in the 7 run 4th, which helped him toward a game high 8 RBIs. We asked him at the pub how he felt about his game - he shrugged his shoulders and said he is still working on things. He is Clark Kent.

He was one of four that had 4 hits, which also included Cage, Hammer, and Jason, who set the two triple pace that Chopper went and tied. Woody chipped in his usual 3 hits and 4 RBIs, and Big D and Mario also had 3 hits.

Highlight catch from RB too, but Nick stole the show at the end. I think he just got sick of continuing this game after JSI rallied in a meaningless 8 run 5th. He made an all out sprint and full extension dive to catch the last ball an inch off the ground to keep them off the board in the 6th, and it ended at 25-11 on the scoreboard. Incidentally, the score should have been 26-11, and we didn't need have played the 6th inning, but I didn't have the heart to argue with them over it.

Undefeated, and we really are playing BASBHAT for early possession of first place this week. Rumor is that they are a renamed team that was known as Fish Taco two years ago that took our league. They moved up to the C league and weren't satisfied with being middle of the pack, and managed to make their way back to our league. Let's get out the hot sauce and pour it all over them.

Milestones:

Jason        20 3b (#3)Woody     850 ab (#4)
Sir Guy     700 ab (6)
Cage        600 ab (#8)
Hammer   50 ab (#45)

The Gods must be...

Did you ever see the movie the Gods Must Be Crazy? One of my all time favorites. It's about a coke bottle that falls out of the sky in the Kalahari Desert and causes mayhem in the tribe, so the protagonist must carry it to the ends of the earth to destroy it.

That scenario is about as likely as anyone beating Boomer's Bangers, the team that has won the Wednesday night Legends league since Time Began. They have only lost one or two games since I have been playing in the league (just a couple of years). Basically they are an amalgam of the best 50 and over tournament players in the East Bay...and when they are missing a player, coach E just plugs in another great player and the beat goes on. I have played a lot of morning games with these guys, with and against them since I have been prematurely 'retired' and consider most of them friends, as they do me. E is, shall we say, very competitive, and there are many who wish him ill, at least on the field.

Let me tell you about our team, which is semi-sponsored by a local pub. We are a rag-tag collection, and on any given Wednesday we could get shut out, or once in a while we click and can put 20 runs up, and surprise ourselves and others. We are the ones who rose up and beat them a couple of falls ago.

Last night we were scheduled to play Boomers at 6:30. Rain was forecast, but it was only listed as 10% chance until 8:00, and our game would be over at 7:45. The stars were aligning for a big upset. There is a big Seniors tournament in Las Vegas this week. Their lineup was decimated by missing players. But, as I said, E has a wide array of players that can fill in.

But then - I saw an email from E to the morning players asking one to come fill in. He told him the game was at 7:45. I didn't have the heart to correct the mistake. I have no scruples either. They ended up showing up with 9 players. In senior ball you usually have 11 players on the field - a rover and four outfielders. They had no rover and only 3 outfielders. The middle was open. The outfield had huge gaps.

Well we came up and put up four runs in the first. - bloopers and bleeders and everything fell in. We even hit into a double play, but put up two two-out runs. In the bottom of the first, the lead off hitter got on. The next hitter is a good guy, a very solid hitter. He hit it sharply up the middle, and our rover flipped to our left handed shortstop, coming across the bag, and he fired to first to double up fast Johnny.

No one scored in the second. In the third our best hitter hit a popup to lead off, that fell between the second baseman and the shortstop. We put up three more, largely due to a monster triple by our latest addition, my friend Woody.

At this point it started to drizzle. What were the gods doing? E went into stall mode; if we completed 5 innings it counted. We shut them down in the third. Another grounder up the middle, only this time our rover
scooped it, stepped on the bag, and fired to first.

Our ups in the fourth. And E was having trouble with his shin guards. I've never seen anyone have that much trouble putting on shin guards. The rain increased. The infield was wet now, and the ump declared in the interest of safety, the 'vicinity' rule was in effect on the bases for runners and fielders. E was deliberate on the mound. Our first hitter grounded out. Then the ump called the game.

The teams on the other fields were still playing at first. We were ready to go ballistic. But they did eventually call off all the games, and some of the others were already in the fifth inning. Of course with E stalling, we were only in the 4th. The game was wiped out.

But we had these guys and E knew it. It was 7-0 and it might have been 40-0 on this night. Now when we make up the game, they will have their full squad, and we will be hitting dribblers and popups that don't fall, and they will be turning the double plays.

The softball gods are not crazy...they are cruel.

Break Up the Red

Yes I heard it as we were coming off the field: Break Up the Red!

Our Creaker game was a little closer than that. Red did win 23-20, and only a late top of the ninth rally made it close, but we had a steady lead after about the 5th.

We are learning to play defense. Our new MO is only give up the unearned runs in the first inning to put ourselves in a hole, and and save a few for the ninth to give the opponent a thought that they have a chance to catch us. It worked to perfection today. Red Defense bled 4 unearned runs in the first. Moral victory to keep it at 4.

The Red bats woke up in the 2nd and 3rd. Brian Black had a couple of hustle doubles. Pete D'Alonzo had a huge two out two run triple in the 2nd, and we got to watch him hobble all the way to third. Mel Burman got the big hit in the 3rd, a two run double, and Howard Davis put the exclamation point in it with what would have been a triple or home run had the 5th run not scored on it. In our second 5 run inning in the 5th, Steve Alvarez had a clutch two run double. And in the 8th the leadoff hitter got a big two out two run single to give us the 8 run cushion we needed going into the 9th.


The early defense included nice running catches by outfielders Hank McDermott and Steve Alvarez, who each had 4 hits, and the Heffinator.

However, the difference in this game was that we turned some killer defensive gems in the middle to late innings that killed Gray rallies. The biggest was on a grounder to D'Alonzo playing first with Murray Herriman on first and one out in the fifth. We know Murray runs like a deer. From the outfield when Pete fielded the grounder, it looked like he didn't know where to go. But he had the idea all along. It was Murray that was the deer in the headlights, and Peter niftily tagged him and then got the batter by stepping on first.

The next inning Bob Eddy, who also had 4 hits, fielded a ball backhanded that was by him. I mean he got down on it, and whirled and threw first to nail the runner. He looked 27 years old...well ok...47...well you know what I mean.

And the killer was in the 8th when Gray had closed to 17-15, and had the tying runs on base. Mike Fragoso, Eddy and D'Alonzo turned a 6-4-3 DP to kill the last real hope for the Grays.

Sluggerrfest

There is Oktoberfest; there are a variety of Beerfests and Brewfests and a Seafood Fest. In music there is a Country Fest and for the green crowd an Earthfest. Tuesday night we had the Sluggerrfest.

The Blue Dots have some impressive hitters. They are an offensive juggernaut. They trot out a fearsome lineup. Rusty, the former Tuesday night umpire turned Blue Dot pitcher, who also hits a ton, is now full time. Tuesday night they were the first to get to the two over the fence limit. They hit three altogether. We can argue whether their bats are shaved or not - but the last few times we played them it became a secondary point, and Tuesday was no different as we trounced them 27-18. We have now beaten them four times in a row, and if I weren't superstitious I would say it is approaching ownage. We have to face them once more in the regular season, so I don't want to go that far - they are talented enough that it's anyone's game whenever we play.

But we have something they don't. We didn't have our best defensive game, but we made almost all the routine plays and they gifted us several runs by playing lackadaisical defense. Rusty was unexpectedly wild. In the critical bottom of the second, after Blue Dots had taken an 8-4 lead, the bottom of our order stared things with a walk to Coop, a double play ball turned E1, and a walk to Monty. This set the table for six straight hits and a nine run rally from which we never looked back. I always say, if the bottom of the order hits, we win, but the corollary is if the bottom of the order loads the bases with no outs, we win. Coop was a big factor - including his leadoff walk he was on three times including a hustle triple. And Monty played his first game in months and went 2 for 3 with the key walk and a double.

The big blow in that inning was game MVP Woody's three run HR, a line shot over the right fielder and then over the fence in a hurry. Woody had three hits and five RBIs all told. Not to be outdone, RB blasted a shot that seemed to clear the trees in right and must have hit the street beyond for his own three run HR in the eight run inning that followed in the third. RB ended the game with six RBIs.

The whole team was hot - Jason, Timmy, D, and Hammer were all on three times or more. Mario also hit a blast over the fence, but unfortunately it was our third so was only a single. We will take that any time though. In fact there was only one o-fer, but I won't mention any names. I'll just say it eases the pain of going hitless when your team shellacs a quality opponent.

We out hammered them and outpitched them too. The game started ominously as they plated four before there were two outs. But Sir Guy induced two foul ball strike outs, and it led to our comeback and subsequent thrashing. and he started the 1-6-3 double play to end the game.

Pleasanton kills me. They only mow the grass on Wednesdays, so we always get a jungle where balls roll to a stop when they get through the infield. This week was even worse - it rained last Wednesday and onward in the week, so not only was there more growth but they neglected to mow it at all. I am sure Jason's socks were soaked after chasing balls into the outfield.

Fifty six runs in two games, not a bad start. Twenty six more than anyone else. And imagine what happens when I start to hit.

BASBHAT, the other 2-0 team on deck. Time to take control of the league.

Milestones:

Monty        300 g (#2)
D               100 rbi (#14)

Equal Time

Now I have gone and done it. I publicized the blog to the Walnut Creakers. And they like it. I play on another related team. We have a quaint little league on Thursday mornings called the MDSSL (Mount Diablo Senior Softball League). The Creakers have an entry in it called Walnut Creek Blue. Suddenly everyone wants to see their name in the lights, and want equal time. I think there is a reality show here: Old Guys Run for Glory.

So this is for you Mikey and Don and everyone else. No holds barred, you may someday regret it.

And, you should pass the hat, perhaps your name will be featured more prominently.

Today's was a good game to start with, however. I had no book, so it will have to come from my somewhat faulty memory. We played possibly the most complete game we have had in the three years I have been on the team. We thumped the Concord Red team solidly, 22-4 (or 5). We played great defense, and got some great hits and rallies when we needed them to take control of the game from the first inning.

A little background on the league: It is dominated by a team from Antioch called East County, and there are two teams from Concord, named Red and Blue, and then us. Today we played in Concord, against Concord Red. Now I have to figure out how to say it delicately...Concord Red has some, shall we say player attitude challenges. Let me just say this: Their pitcher/SS has a GOLD GLOVE; I mean a real glove, painted gold. Who does this?

On to the game but first, I have to say I have a reputation on this team for showing up at the last moment before game time. OK not a reputation, facts are facts. Normally not a problem if a guy does this, but I lead off, so this is a constant source of abuse and joy on my team, especially when we are on the road like today.

Well today I got there not only before game time but in time to take batting practice with the rest of the clowns (Seniors always have BP before the game - takes a while for those old bones to get moving). And then it was game time - but no, first we had to have a conference to discuss courtesy runner rules for ten minutes. Cause Seniors love to talk. I think some of the players were already ready for lunch, but then we still had a game to play.

I started with a base hit and then Tom O came up. He blasted one dead down the right field line, over the head of the opposing coach Tom T. I was standing on first, ready to tag up if Tom caught it; I clearly saw that it was fair by at least five and maybe ten feet. The umpire, who is of course from our team, called it fair, but so did the Red catcher (he is new and probably will be ex-communicated); it was a no doubter. But Red couldn't, wouldn't let it go and it was in their heads after we scored a couple runs in the first inning. Tom T is also their lead-off hitter. He hit one into a tree on the other line, a nice shot but that tree is almost all in foul territory and it hit on the outside part of the tree. There had to be bitterness about that one too. And so it went.

We kept adding runs and between them Scott S. and Don C. had the Red hitters mostly popping up and hitting hard grounders. This is where our defense came to play today. Ray M., made a great backhanded stop on a hot shot down the third base line and turned it into a 5-11-3 double play. And Mikey C. snared a one hop smash to get an out in another inning. Finally Tom O, who owned the first inning homer that set the tone, made a fine running catch coming in on a flare in the ninth to rob one of the Red power hitters. He was playing extremely deep, and his catch put the exclamation point on the victory.

Power came from an unlikely source. John H blasted one over the left center fielder's head, and had a single and a double. He came up his last time up needing only the triple to get a cycle. I take full responsibility for him not getting it, cause I told him that's all he needed. He flew out but had an awesome day at the plate. And Murray H hit a laser that found its way into the RC gap, and he loped all the way home with his long strides; he needed oxygen when he got to the dugout.

If we played like this every week, we wouldn't lose many games. But - believe this if you dare - we are human, and have our good games and our bad. I hope this one starts a trend.

Distracted

Today at Heather Farm Field Three, there was a new distraction at the Walnut Creaker game between Green and Red.

No it wasn't Mark Pitzlin's Grand Slam in the first that wasn't. Nor was it the pitchers' duel that developed between Red's Bob Muegge and Green's Don Clay.

There was a reporter named Elizabeth Rusiecki covering the game for the Walnut Creek Magazine. Her business card reads, "Let me put words in your mouth," I am not making this up. Well, that's all you need to say to a bunch of old guys playing softball on a Tuesday morning. The bleachers had more guys lined up than the batting team's bench at times. They were pouring out their life stories to Elizabeth, and some of it was even true. She ate it all up and took it all down in her notes, I can't wait to see what she writes.

Oh, and there was a ball game played too. Green loaded the bases with no outs in the first and that brought up Pitzlin. He promptly crushed a ball over the fence...and sadly it counts as an out, because this is Senior ball, and then we got out of the inning with two more outs and no runs scored. A new type of curse of the first.

And then a funny thing happened, a pitcher's duel broke out. The game was scoreless through two, and then Red won three straight innings to go up 12-4, in this game a commanding lead. Muegge and Clay were dealing, and getting just enough help from the defenses to keep it a low scoring affair. Sliding catches in the outfield by Pitzlin for the green-eyed Green (twice), and a great catch by Ray Maradiaga kept us at bay. But we managed 4 straight hits with two outs in the 3rd and 3 in the 4th and 5th to give us what proved to be the insurmountable lead. Green came back with 3 in the 6th and shut us down for two straight innings to make it close but in the end our pitching and defense closed the door, and the game finished 13-7.

George Sayatovich had a great sliding catch early, as did Hank McDermott on a ball headed for Steve Alvarez, that Steve graciously gave to Hank so he could look good making the dive. It was a huge out. Steve did make a nice catch on a ball headed for the gap in the ninth as Green tried to make a run, and getting that first out proved crucial and took the wind out of their sails.

There were no real hitting stars. Everyone contributed - in fact all but one in our 15 man lineup got at least one hit. Bob Eddy, Mike Fragoso, Alvarez, and McDermott had three hits. I had the only hit that scored more than one run, a two RBI single that was one of the two out hits in the 3rd.

The most exciting moment was on a foul ball that our umpire called fair. Green started complaining, causing our runners to return to their bases in the confusion, and then they turned and claimed a 'force out' at third base. Pandemonium ensued. In the end Creakers got to argue, which is at least their second favorite activity, and then the consensus was it should be a do-over, since no one could remember what happened any more. I am just glad that Elizabeth was gone by then, having left to meet her deadline...or maybe not...what else could have been better to report on?

Paradise Lost

Last week Bay Area softball sluts were just pining for a game, any game. Yeah, yeah, we need the rain, but does it have to come in the first week of April? Don't the softball gods know the winter rains stop when winter is over, officially March 21st or whatever?

At any rate, the weekend gave us glorious edenic weather to start the Walnut Creek Over 40 season. This year there is not an upper (or competitive) division and a lower division. Thanks in part by the fact that a very competitive tournament team has invaded the league, taking the best from last year's champion Rocco's and combining it with their buddies to form a 'super' team, to come out and toy with us mere mortals. There just weren't enough teams willing to be in the upper division with us and Pinky's 40 (the new team) and Advanced Construction, the other remaining 'competitive' team, so we are all combined in one 12 team division.

Of course then we had to draw Pinky's as our first opponent. And we had our chances to beat them. We could have taken them, if we had had some of our patented hot innings. But we stayed cold, and after they tired of getting shut down by Derek's pitching and our defense, they won going away 13-7.

This game is certainly a game of inches, and once again it was proven today. Lefty makes a couple of sliding attempts at great catches, and same with Chuck leaping on a ball, and they just tick off the edges of gloves, today, anyway. Other times it goes our way. There must have been a half dozen plays like that on their hits, including some bloopers that fell in, and on ours they make miracle grabs. And I won't even address the strike three the moronic ump called on Chuck, except to say that summed up how the breaks were going against us today.

We will get another chance to take down the juggernaut in the regular season, and I have a feeling even this early that we will see them in the playoffs. Next time we bring slingshots to the game to slay the mighty Goliath. It's hard to say if they were toying with us; many of them showed up in tennis shoes. Regardless, at the top of our game we can hang with them.

There were some good performances and nice plays to highlight the day for us. Reggie made a couple of fine running catches to cut off gappers. There was a nice 6-11-3 double play, with Greg doing his patented 270 degree lefty turn to complete the dp.The Heffinator went down to bail out a low throw from G after G stopped a smash to his right and had to turn and wheel to make the throw. I got down and scooped it, and then found out as usual I was too short to stay on the bag, but managed to get my toe back before the runner came.

The best defender was on the mound and Derek shut out the Pinkstars for three innings before they erupted for 5 in the 6th to take control of the game. He helped his cause by snaring a hot shot up the middle (I thought they were supposed to be your friends, D). On another one, D managed to get a glove on it and it ricocheted to Greg backing him up, who turned to third in a heads up play to get the lead runner at third. Randy did a great job of getting back there to field the throw.

Lost in the 2011 Giants-like offense was Lefty's 3 for 3 with a double and a couple knocked in. Throw in a couple of hits from G and Heffe, and a grand gapper by Reg, and that was pretty much our offense. Not enough, today. But it's early. We get to do this 13 more times before the playoffs.

Fame and Fortune

It finally happened. After a lifetime of softball games, innumerable comebacks, upsets, big hits and yes even some blunders in the field and failures in the clutch, I am finally Famous.

That's right, my picture was in the newspaper. Just this last weekend. Playing second base of all places, and turning a double play. It was a tremendous action photo. There was dust from the runner sliding and trying to take me out. Never mind it looks like I am about to unleash a candy-ass throw to first. Pay no attention to that at all. It just turns out that the world finally discovered me.

OK it wasn't Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, or the Chronicle. It was the Jweekly.com (the community Jewish newspaper) online edition, in an article about the Sunday morning Jewish league starting the season now. OK, I only played one season in that league, last year, and gave it up this year because with my sore shoulders I had to give up a league. And I wasn't that good at getting up at 7 on a Sunday to play ball with a bunch of my (hopefully very) distant relatives. Insert ethnic joke here.

But still there it was staring at me, making a play captured for posterity in a public forum.

Except.

Except, they had someone else's name and team identified in the caption. WHAT???

They had Michael somebody, playing for the league champion whose-its. No one ever called me Michael, or Mike or even Mikey before. So I concluded that it must be someone else. But damn it sure looked like me.

Then my friend Gerry sent a note to another teammate and me saying it was me in the picture. Ah - corroboration! I looked again and damn if I wasn't still labeled as someone else. A normal person would just let this go, but could the heffinator? No Way. I did what every journalist with any integrity would do. I signed up as a member of jweekly.com, so I could leave a comment in the Forum. I told them that indeed it was me in the photo. In a matter of hours I got an email reply from the Managing Editor of the jweekly, telling me it has been corrected and even a thank you.

Now however there are two problems: 1) I still am listed on the wrong team. Journalistic integrity demands a correction for that too, so I just had to write back. I haven't heard back on it yet.2) Now that they have corrected it, it looks pretty damn nerdy that I commented on the name being wrong, under a picture with me correctly identified. Should I retract my comment? Should I comment on my comment and thank them for correcting it? And by now every last one of you says, under your breath or not, "this guy has wayyyy too much time on his hands."

Getting your 15 minutes of fame can be a very complicated process. Now that Fame has come my way, I am awaiting Fortune with bated breath. It can't be far behind.

Jinxes and Superstitions

Intelligent people are not superstitious.

Like they don't care if they step on the foul line or on a bag on the way into the dugout.

And they don't worry about mama's back if they step on a crack.

And they change their underwear every day, no matter how many games in a row they have won.

As a first baseman, I always try to rotate who gets the first practice grounder between innings. 3rd baseman before the first inning, shortstop before the second, and so on. I do this so it evens up the number of throws they all get between innings to stay warm. This is what I tell myself. Then I tell myself that it is not a superstition. But I hate it when the damned 3rd baseman is not there before the first inning, or the shortstop the second etc. Don't they know what is at stake here?

I also take three practice swings before every at bat. One as if to pull the ball, one hitting it up the middle, and one going to the opposite field. No more, no less. I tell myself it is to remind myself to go with the pitch. But NO MORE, NO LESS.

And jinxes, there ain't no such thing. Mere coincidence.

Well yesterday, on the way to my night game, I heard on sports talk that Kyle Lohse of the St. Louis Cardinals had a no-hitter going through 5 1/3 innings. Now I was born and raised in St. Louis, and I am still a die-hard Cardinal fan (who BTW are defending yet another World Series win, Albert or no Albert). I immediately started texting a good friend about it. I typed "Lohse no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings", and was about to add "No Jinx" when I received an incoming text. It was from my best friend growing up Scott, who was watching the game in Albany, NY, and he said simply, "No hits, No Jinx". Now Scott and I often have the same thought at the same time across thousands of miles - this was not that extraordinary. And of course Lohse lost the no-hitter the next inning. Mere coincidence.

There there is the matter of the post I wrote on Monday March 5th. About bad base running, and in particular getting hit with a batted ball. I wrote, "I vowed to never let that happen to me again after that streak, and to date it has not. And that is over something like 1000 games ago." Kiss of death. Today I was standing on first after hitting a single, and Tom, who bats behind me and is a righty who loves to hit to the opposite (right) field to get me to third or beyond, hits a screamer at my feet. Deer in the headlights, and it was bright morning sun. I took it smack on the leg between my tibia and fibula, about two inches from where I broke my leg in a motorcycle accident almost exactly 18 years ago. I thought it might be serious but it appears not, now, so the main thing that was hurt was my ego for being so slow to react and apparently because I did jump to get out of the way, so I was off the bag and out to end the inning. JINX!

But as I said, I am not superstitious. Much. I am just worried - they say things happen in threes....WHAT'S NEXT????

It could have gone either way - NOT

The first week of April - when all of baseball (and softball) is reborn.The Transdyn Pleasanton team started the season today.

And how. We played a team called Green Lava - complete with neon yellow-green shirts. I expected to see them pull out some lava lamps at any moment. We had played them last year in a rather nondescript game we won 13-7.

The first ball of the game is a line drive that Rams, our starting left fielder on this night, had a bead on. Except he slipped on the hayfield that is the outfield (apparently Pleasanton hasn't started mowing the grass yet), and now I channel John Madden: He made a stumbling, tumbling, fumbling catch as he landed on his backside but he hung onto the ball.


If he drops that ball, they might put up a few runs and the game goes an entirely different way. As it was, we made a couple of errors and gave them one run. And then the deluge began.

It started when their starting pitcher couldn't find the plate. Jason and Rams walked to set up what was really the only hit we needed the whole night. Cage came up and just crushed a ball over the fence and it's 3-0 and the game was pretty much over. We ended up with a couple more walks, a bases loaded two run single by Heffe, and we batted around for a 6-1 lead.

In the second it got ugly. The brought in a lefty who really couldn't find the plate.I can't remember that many balls thrown behind guys. Looking at the scorebook, it amazes me that there were only 5 walks that inning - we already started swinging at anything.

In between, and through the rest of the game, we had some pretty impressive hits. Laser shots by Big D (6 RBIs) and new addition RB, line shots by the Hammer, an opposite field moon shot by Jason, a deep gap shot by Mario, and four straight run scoring hits by Heffe and Woody.

However the awkward swing award goes to Jason. He was determined to get his swings in after walking twice around his triple. The first time he practiced and hit a liner up the middle that the SS somehow snagged for a force out. But the next time, he took an entire step backward to swing at a very deep pitch, and muscled it over the first baseman's head for a single to lead off our last inning. Very impressive, although if we had it on YouTube it would have been so 17 seconds ago.

It was grim for Green Lava - in our 17 run second we put 19 guys on base before an out was recorded. We got generous in the last inning and we let them have a few hits with an...er...modified defense, and the final score settled at 31-7. At least they had some fun.

You couldn't help but think what would have happened if Rams hadn't corralled the ball as he was falling...but I think with our loaded lineup this night, it wouldn't have mattered.

Milestones:

Woody       400 rbi (#1)
Heffe          600 h (#1)
Mario         20 bb (#9)

Battle of the Titanic

The Walnut Creaker season started today, after a rain out in week one.

There were pregame ceremonies honoring past and passed Creakers, Maroon defeated Red 33-27. It was a titanic battle between two good hitting teams, as the final score showed. Unfortunately, Red's ship sunk like the HMS Titanic, due to some leaky defense in the middle innings. And base runners that ran like icebergs.

Red brought our bats, but we forgot our gloves. They were last sighted on Ygnacio Valley Road, in need of oiling.

There were many hitting highlights: 4 hits apiece from Heffe, Mike, Bob E and Brian at the top of the lineup, and Hank and Bob M further down. Bob had a great day at the plate - he burned the Maroon outfield twice, even though on his rebuilt knees they show up in the box score as only singles. He also pitched extremely well - not many of his runs allowed were earned. One inning we gave them 7 outs, although their own ump's bad call gave one back at 2B.

Hank, Mike and Heffe did not make an out between them, except for a SF by Mike. Heffe hit a gapper for the team's only home run, and Mike and Brian hit thunderous triples. Others contributed as well, including 4 RBIs from Mel on 3 hits.

But we played catchup from the beginning, and were behind every inning after a 10-10 tie after two. It finally proved to be too much for us, as the Maroon outfield kept making the plays, and our defense didn't. It's a long season, and now we know what part of our game needs work.