And I Thought It Was Greek Comedy, ND Gold Walks Off Green, 25-24

Clay Kallam is a great writer, literally a professional, and he went to college!

But he got this one wrong. This was not Greek Tragedy. It was the highest form of Greek Comedy.

When I was an English major (I did not finish that degree) I took a class in Satire, and there was a famous Greek Comedy titled the Birds by Aristophanes. My professor was the absolutely typical of the genre - buttoned down, probably patches on the elbows of his jacket. Monotone.

Well, in the final class of the quarter, he shows up in a giant Bird costume. Think Sesame Street's Big Bird, only slightly phallic. I didn't pay much attention in class up to that point, but that got all of our collective attention. What a hoot it was. He was running around on the stage, prancing, preening and cracking us all up.

And today, it appeared that Gold players were running around in Bird costumes, as though their arms were appendages that just couldn't catch a ball or throw a ball and their birdbrains kept having mental lapses, time after time.

And yet.

This team has no give up. We hung in there even when we had the middle and bottom of the lineup up facing a seven run deficit in the bottom of the ninth.

And a funny thing happened. The birdbrains got transferred into the other team. Poor Green - they never had a chance after that. I started it with a forty foot popup between the pitcher, shortstop and third baseman - you know in ND senior softball no one is getting that. Curt Wade got a hit, after a ground out, Stan Bielecki, Anthony Puccio, and Steve Bedrick all got on. I can't remember which were clean and which were senior moments, but they turned it over to the top of the order with the bases loaded and four runs in. Hugh Vasquez smartly drew a bases loaded RBI walk, and up strode Bob Fulgham. He was 4-4 up to that point. He hit a routine grounder to third and (not mentioning any names) probably the best fielding third baseman in all of Creakerland fields it, and gets ready to start a game ending double play, and...falls down. He just never does that. He can't even get up to beat Steve Mastronarde, pinch running at second, to third base to get even one out. The Greek Gods were with us.

After that, it was a Gary Namanny single and a Rob Katzer line drive to left center and speedie Doug Carlson ran home from second with the winning run.

So Clay, it may have seemed a Greek Tragedy to you, but in the other dugout is seemed much more like High Comedy.

There wasn't much defense in this game for us. I dug one out of the dirt in the first to hold the strong top of the Green lineup to two runs. Pooch snagged a smashed one-hopper at second base and got an easy out at first in the fourth - immediately following the previous batter smashing one off his glove. How he calmly hung in there on the second one, I will never know. Later, pitcher Tom Gonzales got a swinging strikeout in the seventh to keep that inning from getting out of hand. Or wing. Or beak.

The top five in our lineup hit .913: Fulgham, Katzer, 5-5 (5 RBIs), Vasquez 4-4+BB, Namanny 3-5, Gonzales 4-4 (4 RBIs).

The middle, not bad either, Carlson 2-3+SF, Mastronarde 2-4, Kravin 2-3+BB, Steve Alvarez 4-4 (including the only real extra base hits, two doubles), Curt Wade 3-4.

And the bottom held up their end of the bargain, remember they got the hits that turned over the lineup in the ninth. Collectively, Joy Dardin, Bielecki, Pooch, and Bedrock were 7-15 with five RBIs.

A true team game, whether it was the botched birdbrained earlybird comedy of errors or the tremendous back to the wall rally to win it.

Gold may or may not go all the way, but just for today at least, we are back in first place!

Tragedy? I think not!

The Gold Rush Fell Short, 31-27 to Light Blue

The good news is hope is not lost despite losing three in a row as Team Gold fell to the relentless Light Blue team, 31-27.

All is not lost because after playing listless softball for two games and six innings (as we fell behind 26-7), the Gold Rush finally let loose and we almost, almost came all the way back. We outscored Lt. Blue 20-5 in the last two and a half innings, making it a game. If we can channel that energy into the last two games and win out, we can still reclaim first place.

It must be said that two of our players played out of their mind today. It was the emergence of what is likely to be a long and great career for Joy Dardin. She was 4-4 with a double and five RBIs, and played all over the infield and even an inning in  left field and one on the mound - she can play everywhere well.

She was tied with Doug Carlson for today's team lead in RBIs. Doug is a lock for Creaker Rookie of the Year (I say that and I am sure there are other candidates, but Doug is hitting a cool .731 with almost a 1.000 slugging percentage). Doug was 5-5 with a double and a grand slam home run to produce those five RBIs. The Slam came in the five run ninth inning folowing our ten run eighth as we were beginning to believe - it came with two outs and brought us to what ultimately and unfortunately was the final four run deficit. But for that one moment, we truly thought we could make a miraculous comeback.

Others with good games:

Gary Namanny, 4-4 with a home run and four RBIs despite pulling a hamstring. Hugh Vasquez and Tom Gonzales, 4-5. Steve Mastronarde, 2-2 with a walk, on a quest to never make an out again (OK, he did get a Sac Fly but that doesn't count as an official at bat, now does it). Anthony Puccio and Rob Katzer, three hits each. Mike Nichols blasted a gapper up the middle to the fence and didn't stop running until he had a triple. Everyone else had at least a hit and all but two scored a run.

The last two weeks should be fun.

The Commander Is Happy, the Commander Rests

Well, you know that if I go 3-3 with a limping double and an RBI every time up, I am going to go straight home to do stats. I have not been hitting on Wednesdays, and I was due. It just felt good to contribute to the more or less easy win over the 

hapless Lasers, as we scored 23 runs in six innings and came away with the 23-17 win despite the Lasers making a comeback in the last couple of innings.

I was by far not the best player on the field. We started out the gate on fire. Dan Roach, who had the mini-cycle in backward order (3B, 2B, 1B) sauntered around the bases to save energy in the heat on his lead off gapper and stopped at third. Ed Hendrickson followed wth another triple (thanks to Bob Carver's running), Jim Krochka with a double, and then singles by Mark Childress and Tom Caldwell set up Jimbo Wilcox to clean it up with a two run double. Six batters, five runs.

And to prove there is no such thing as the curse of the first, the bottom of the order scored two in the second, and the top produced four more in the third, highighted by a Krochka two run bomb.

Some fine Diablo defense kept the Lasers pretty much off the board in the meantime. Caldwell made a nice running catch in LF in the first. In the second, Krochka picked a ball at SS just off the ground cleanly, and threw out a wayward runner for an inning ending double play. Roach made the first of two highlight catches to keep the L's scoreless in the third. The second one ended the game after the bad guys threatened in the last flip flop inning.

So it was 13-4 after four, and we tacked on five in the fifth on RBI hits by Caldwell, Wilcox (a second two run double) and a two run single by Brian Goldufsky. And in the sixth, the lefties Carver and Hobbling Heffe hit doubles around a walk to Don Devencenzi and singles by Willie Hollis and Mike Daley to set up the bases loaded no out at bat by the sometimes Superman, Howard Davis. He planted a line shot into left center to clear the bases, and we had our last five and prompted the no doubt flip flop as that made it 23-11. For that and pitching five innings in the heat, Superman got the game ball. And the Commander rested, and all was good.

We gave up some questionable plays to the bottom of the Lasers order as they desperately tried to come back in the now top of the seventh, but after scoring six to just start getting us nervous, Roach ran down that last sinking liner in RC and the game was over.

We hit .769 as a team! We didn't even have four at bats apiece, yet all but two had multiple hit games.

3-3: Roach (2B, 3B), Hendrickson (3B), Caldwell, Wilcox (2 2B, Team High 5 RBI), Kravin (2B, 3 RBI)

2-2+BB: Childress, Devencenzi

2-3: Krochka (2B, HR, 3 RBI), Goldufsky, Carver (2 2B), Daley, Davis (3B, 4 RBI)

Quite impressive. The rock keeps rolling along! Or is it the roll keeps rocking along? And all that Jazz.

Hurry Home, Jim!

There were calls of "Jim (Krochka) who", especially when Tom Caldwell, batting in Jim's third spot, did his best imitation and blasted a shot between the left fielders to make it 3-0 in the first.

And as you will see, we blasted the curse of the first out of the water, and poured it on late, but I am going to start with our defense. Because, after all - a wise man said defense wins championships, and who am I to argue with that?

In the first with the wind blasting out to left, Clay Leche tentatively came in on a hard liner, and it kept rising and rising until he had to leap to corral the ball. Dan Roach (who started the game with a triple), made an even better catch in right center for the third out to keep PH Blue off the board.

In the second, Mark Childress, filling in at SS, went back on a ball like he was patrolling his usual LC position and made an over the shoulder grab for out number two. Pitcher Ed Hendrickson followed that with a swinging strike out to end the inning, and just for good measure got another one to open the third. And Mike Daley closed the inning by grabbing an errant throw in the dirt at first, and deftly tagged out the batter-runner, who had fallen down but was getting back up, before he could reach the bag.

Of course, in that frame we gave up eight runs and our 13-0 lead was cut to 13-8. In the fourth, Brian Goldufsky made a great backhanded grab in the rover-shortstop hole and wheeled to fire to Bobby Vitro who just managed to get to the second base bag on time, and had to reach high in the air to hang on to the throw. Ok, maybe not that high, because like a few of us, Bobby is a little height challenged. Great grab though! He topped that the next inning by snagging a one hop smash like it was routine and got the easy out at first. Roach followed that up with an even better running catch than he had in the first for the third out.

I don't have any written highlights in the sixth and seventh, but I do remember in one of those innings we took the wind out of their sails by turning a Goldufsky to Vitro to Kravin double play.

The offensive explosion begins with our leadoff hitter Roach. He set the tone for the game with a gapper that he turned into a triple when the outfielders were a little slow getting the ball into the infield. He hit a three run bomb in the fourth, and in between and beyond he added a single and double for the cycle. Dan the man!

And it ends with our dead pull hitter Bill Hoffman, known for lacing line drives to left. When he came up in the ninth, when we already had plated six runs, he saw the middle wide open, and drove a line drive between the fielders like the ball was in a fast corvette, and courtesy runner Childress scampered around the bases like he was on fire, and Hoffman had another three run homer.

We had jumped out to that 13-0 lead, but PHB kept coming back at us, and by the sixth (we were only playing seven) the lead was down to only 18-16. Thoughts of our last game walkoff loss were creeping into our heads. We needed to make a statement in the open inning. And we did. Hits by Roach, Hendrickson, Caldwell, a walk to Childress, a run scoring forceout by Clay LeChe, and another hit from Goldufsky started to push us further ahead. But it was Jimbo Wilcox' three run blast, fresh off the disabled list that took away PHB's hope, and when Hoffman followed up with his, it was really over. PHB managed to score one in the last frame, but once again they were left with the feeling, "Who are these guys?" as they walked to the handshake line.

The top of the order - Roach, Hendrickson, and Caldwell (5 RBIs): 12-12, two doubles, two homers, and a triple. Behind them: Childress, 3-3 plus a walk (three doubles (!), LeChe in his Diablo debut, 3-4 with an RBI in each at bat. Behind them, Goldufsky, Wilcox and Hoffman 3-4 each with a home run. After that, everyone had one or two hits, all but two players in the lineup scored a run, and all but three drove in a run.

Not a bad day at the office. Final score 27-17.

And Jim, your spot is still safe. Thank you for giving us multiple performances to try to match.