Not the Best is Good Enough

They say (who knows who they are) a good team will scratch out a win when they do not play their best. Yesterday's game is living proof of that. Leo's would have liked nothing better than beating us to get into the pennant race while we were off but succumbed to some timely hitting, generally good defense and very good pitching to fall 13-8 to the Crows.

Several of us had off games at the plate as we hit almost a hundred points below our previous season low. But Anthony, Charlie, and Lamont with assists from Clay, Ed and Dandy Don D carried us to victory. Anthony was 4-4  and scored every time up. After we let them take a first inning 4-1 lead, Clay hit a two run blast to get us close in the second, and then Charlie hit the Big Bombiggedy Grand Slam in the third to give us the lead for good. LT followed with a solo shot down the left field line, and later added a two run ninth inning triple that gave us the breathing room we needed heading into the bottom of the last. In the middle Ed had a run scoring triple and Don D started our game winning rally with a double.

With the exception of two dropped third out fly balls by unnamed fielders, we played a really good defensive game. Charlie made a nice catch in left field, and he and Ed made a couple of stops at the bump. And the two of them kept Leo's from getting comfortable at the plate all game.

Good to get the win against a decent team, but we will need to step it up next week against the Hornets in Battle Deuce for first place. The weather forecast does not look good but we'll see.

Another Tuesday, Another BS Win

The SF Forty Niners appear to be by far the most talented team in the NFL this year. Even after a midseason slump when they lost three in a row, they have taken their rightful spot atop the conference standings for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They are currently considered the team with the best chance to win it all this year.

Likewise Team BS sits atop the non-existent standings in the Creaker Winter League. It could be argued that we have the most talented team in the league. It could also be argued that our talent is no better than some or all of the other teams, but we have players that show up, which has been a problem for at least a couple of the other teams. Plus personally I think we have better chemistry. My new mantra - better softball through chemistry.

We were shut out in the first but roared back with 14 runs in the second through fourth, and the outcome was never in doubt, despite giving up a nine run seventh to temporarily allow Team Gray back into the game at 21-16. The final tally was 25-16.

It didn't help that Gray's second and third pitchers walked five in those three innings. Even though it is slow pitch softball, good teams take advantage of the free pass - it is called being unselfish, let the next man or woman be the hero with an additional baserunner to try to get home and runners moved up. Case in point, in the third, Darren Bobrosky took a bases loaded walk and Art Miner followed with a bases clearing triple.

David Peterson was the hero in those innings with two two run doubles, and Leo Kay closed out the second with a two run single, as we scored five with no outs. In the seventh we again plated five, this time with seven straight hits with one out, the big blow again delivered by who else, Miner with a two run triple. It was a good thing too, as Gray followed with their nine run inning which drew them temporarily close.

We salted away the game with four runs added on in the eighth, featuring clutch two run hits by Kay and Captain Dave Rose.

There were several defensive plays of note. Miner fired a bullet to rover Gerry Dasey to nail a runner at second on a clean 'hit' in the second. 2B Curt Wade got dirty to corral a grounder and flipped to second for the third out in the fourth. Dave DeWitt stopped a rocket off the bat of the new Creaker Glen Shipley and fired to first in the fifth, and his partner in crime 2B Sandy Camp followed with a nice stop for the subsequent out. In the sixth, Dasey made a nice stop on a ball up the middle, and Camp caught a liner in right field to keep Gray scoreless that inning.

The other theme of the game was that Gray's baserunning and third base coaching kept gifting us outs. The game highlight play occurred when a runner ill advisedly tested 2B and cutoff Wade's arm on a hit to right. Curt fired to third to get the guy by two steps. And of course followed that up by snaring a line drive to his right for the last out.

Miner of course led us with six RBIs on three hits, but Kay was right behind with five also on three hits. Peterson was a perfect 4-4 and leadoff batter Brian Black also had four hits. Dan May was welcomed back (even though he nearly suffered the same hand injury on an identical ball hit his way at 3b) with his three hits, and Camp broke out of her slump with three hits as well.

One more to go to close out the 2023 part of the schedule undefeated!

The Crows Muddy the Cats, 18-8

Check out this sequence. $5 to the one who can tell me what it is:

0,1,0,2,1,3,2.

No, it is not a complicated Fibonacci sequence. No, it is not a sophisticated combination to code state secrets. As far as I know, it has never appeared in a puzzle book.

Do you give up? It is the number of strikeouts we have had in our first seven games. Good to see we got our quota Wednesday, Charlie joining the ranks of the whiffers and Clay tying Mark for first place with two for the season so far. This race is more exciting than watching the other teams flailing at trying to score runs against us after the third inning. Still in site (no jinx), the first team in slow pitch softball history to win a title averaging more than 1 K per game (1.29 right now).

We toyed with the Mudcats, letting take a brief lead 4-3 in the first after Barry hit a three run absolute bomb in the top half. The next homer, a slicing gapper to right center leading off the third by Dave B put us up again but it wasn't until the fifth that we went ahead to stay. It again was started by Barry with another gapper, this time for a triple, and it was punctuated by my slice down the third base line past an old man who couldn't bend over to make it 9-7.

The Mudcats were having trouble throwing strikes - both pitchers, and we are the kind of patient hitters to take advantage, well, some of us. In the decisive sixth, three of four of our walks scored. But in between there was a two run triple by Randy, a backward K to Charlie, and a two run double by Dave B. We never looked back, although we also added on with a four spot in the eighth on six singles.

Clay had a couple of nice catches including racing out after being initially fooled by a blast in the middle innings when it was still close. Charlie had a number of nice plays as a last minute replacement for the missing Lee at SS.

But the defensive player of the game was the venerable Don Clay on the mound. It was I think the third or fourth inning. He speared a hot shot line drive going at his head, which completely messed up the runner at first, who had taken off instantly knowing the ball was headed to the center field gap. He hadn't even stopped to turn around when Don got the ball to first. After that, I told him he could tie a major league record making all three outs, and sure enough he induced a dribbler off the mound, that he pounced on like the proverbial cat, and tossed to me at first for the last out. Technically, a putout and two assists, but who's counting.

Randy and Dave B led the way with four hits, and Barry and Dave split the RBI honors with five apiece.

Next up is Leo's, who aren't dead yet. They came from behind to beat the Wolfpack on the other field. My sources tell me the Pack were ahead until the ninth inning when one of my former teammates made an egregious error to open the floodgates. Let's be like the 49ers and just take them one at a time. It's worked pretty well so far!

Black Blasts Purple in the Heart, 24-16

There are several story lines to Team BS' 24-16 victory over Purple Tuesday. The game started with Purple missing four of their top hitters including a couple of starting outfielders. We could hardly tell because of the thick fog - who could see who was out there?

After a shutdown top of the first, Brian Black made them pay on the leadoff Black Shirt AB. He sent a ball over the left fielder for a round tripper, and the race was on (in his second AB, Black hit a triple, causing this writer to wonder if anyone had ever hit for the cycle in reverse order).

The first half could be called the Roger Gawne Game. He came up in the third and the fifth with three runs already in, and sent all four remaining runs home with a single and a double. He also started a 5-11-3 double play in the second that Gerry Dasey at rover was in the middle of and yours truly picked the quick throw out of the dirt.

The score was but 8-6 after Purple put up six in the fourth, and then Black (the pitcher) got a strike three looking. And this welcomed in the Sandy Camp Show. In the sixth Camp moved to rover and turned a rover unassisted to first double play. She moved to catcher in the seventh, and snared a foul tip just over the batter's head for one out and then received a throw from the outfield from Art Miner to SS Steve Rousso to home to nail a would be scorer. In the next inning she moved to first base and finished the run off by corralling a foul pop up. The curtain was dropping on Team Purple.

This was because Team Black Shirts put up five spots in the fifth, seventh, and eighth. In the fifth it was the top of the order, Black, Dave DeWitt, Darren Bobrosky, Miner, and Dasey with consecutive hits. In the seventh, the big blow was a Miner home run, and in the eighth it was doubles by Curt Wade, Greg Mathers, Rousso, and Leo Kay. Kay also had a home run and tied Gawne with a team leading four RBIs.

Purple made a valiant rally in the ninth, putting up a touchdown to close to the final score but it came up short by another touchdown and a two point conversion. All in all, three BS players had four hits and six more had three and everyone had at least one.