Here's the perfect way to start a new season:
1. Have one of your best players move out of town.
2. Have one of your best players have surgery and hang up his cleats.
3. Have a player in a tournament that is a makeup because it has been the rainiest winter in years.
4. Have a player mess up his knee playing tennis the day before (which ligament is as yet unknown but he is in a boot).
5. Have another player scheduled in another tournament makeup but it is cancelled and THEN he loses his keys so he is late.
6. Have another player with a calf problem and is two weeks into a four week recovery.
7. Have another player go out and golf 18 holes the day before and then tweak his knee in a morning game the day of our opener.
8. Have a player who needs to take his wife to the airport. At game time.
And then your opener is against the arch-rival team who went 13-1 last year (although we did beat them in the playoffs).
If we had laid down, it would have been understandable. Instead, we played a nearly flawless game and took down Advance Construction 9-3. We had a solid defense including a few web gems, great pitching, and timely hitting featuring some highlight blasts by a few of our hitters. It was a very good combination.
Gene, Sting, Lefty and Haze took turns making far-ranging catches in the outfield. Johnny took away a hit diving to his left for a ball ticketed for right field. Skip turned a double play at rover started by Randy at SS. There was a ball hit right into the sun that Gene nearly caught. When it popped out of his glove, he recovered quickly, and sent it to the infield. Randy threw a perfect relay home, and Chuck scooped up the one hop toss to nail a runner stupidly testing our arms down about seven runs at the time.
But the play of the game was a leaping catch of a hard hit liner headed to left field in the seventh inning by Randy. It wasn't the last out, but it pretty much ended any hope for a comeback by the Advance crew, and the game ended shortly after that with only one run across in the last frame.
Randy, batting leadoff, set the table every time up and went 3-3 and scored every time. Included were two gap doubles. Lefty followed him with a double and a triple of his own and drove in four of our nine runs. Gene and Charlie were nearly perfect as the former was 3-3 and the latter was 2-2 plus a sac fly. Sting, batting last after finding his keys, slashed a line drive single and another gap double, and drove in three runs.
Joe and Chuck deserve special thanks because both are hobbling and played through it. Each had a hit, and Joe even ran for himself to first! Special thanks to Skip and Charlie for filling in on short notice. They played so well there is an open invitation any time to play.
Imagine what would happen if we were even at half strength!
1. Have one of your best players move out of town.
2. Have one of your best players have surgery and hang up his cleats.
3. Have a player in a tournament that is a makeup because it has been the rainiest winter in years.
4. Have a player mess up his knee playing tennis the day before (which ligament is as yet unknown but he is in a boot).
5. Have another player scheduled in another tournament makeup but it is cancelled and THEN he loses his keys so he is late.
6. Have another player with a calf problem and is two weeks into a four week recovery.
7. Have another player go out and golf 18 holes the day before and then tweak his knee in a morning game the day of our opener.
8. Have a player who needs to take his wife to the airport. At game time.
And then your opener is against the arch-rival team who went 13-1 last year (although we did beat them in the playoffs).
If we had laid down, it would have been understandable. Instead, we played a nearly flawless game and took down Advance Construction 9-3. We had a solid defense including a few web gems, great pitching, and timely hitting featuring some highlight blasts by a few of our hitters. It was a very good combination.
Gene, Sting, Lefty and Haze took turns making far-ranging catches in the outfield. Johnny took away a hit diving to his left for a ball ticketed for right field. Skip turned a double play at rover started by Randy at SS. There was a ball hit right into the sun that Gene nearly caught. When it popped out of his glove, he recovered quickly, and sent it to the infield. Randy threw a perfect relay home, and Chuck scooped up the one hop toss to nail a runner stupidly testing our arms down about seven runs at the time.
But the play of the game was a leaping catch of a hard hit liner headed to left field in the seventh inning by Randy. It wasn't the last out, but it pretty much ended any hope for a comeback by the Advance crew, and the game ended shortly after that with only one run across in the last frame.
Randy, batting leadoff, set the table every time up and went 3-3 and scored every time. Included were two gap doubles. Lefty followed him with a double and a triple of his own and drove in four of our nine runs. Gene and Charlie were nearly perfect as the former was 3-3 and the latter was 2-2 plus a sac fly. Sting, batting last after finding his keys, slashed a line drive single and another gap double, and drove in three runs.
Joe and Chuck deserve special thanks because both are hobbling and played through it. Each had a hit, and Joe even ran for himself to first! Special thanks to Skip and Charlie for filling in on short notice. They played so well there is an open invitation any time to play.
Imagine what would happen if we were even at half strength!
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