To the Lava Cave!

Bats, Lava, Lava Tube, Bats in your Belfry, Curt Blefary. Fried Green Lava.

Lava Stream, Stream of Consciousness. Unconscious.

It's Derek's story, I am just borrowing it. Apparently on the field Monday night our hero was in another game and when he came to bat suddenly out of the sky fell two black blobs onto the infield. First thoughts were of the headline "Terrorists attack Pleasanton softball fields." Then he realized that was ridiculous. It turned out the two blobs were two bats (yes the animals not the kind we swing) that had collided midair and dropped dead right in front of home plate. It must be to amazing to inspire such awe in not only your teammates and the opposition but in these creatures that they lose the one thing they have for protection, their sonar... I hope they walked our hero Big D after that sign.

But back to last night's game. Unconscious is when RB connects. He is so used to it, he just starts jogging out beyond the fence to retrieve the missile. "You hit it, you get it." The opposition and umps say it almost sneeringly. Green is the Lava. RB hit two home runs to start and finish the scoring in our one big inning, the third, which settled things as we plated 12 to go up 15-1 on the way to the 21-4 rout.

The team called Green Lava has not solved their pitching crisis in the last month since we last faced them. The way I have been hitting on this team, I just decided I might as well take the free passes - I even got an RBI on a bases juiced walk! We only took 8 walks this time, down from 12 in the season opener.

Mostly it was humdrum but there were a couple of highlights besides batting around for the 12 run third. I loved the at bat Cage had in it. The left fielder played him shallow and Nick's eyes got real big, and he smashed it to the fence. There is no feeling in softball better than to come up with something open that you see, and then hitting it exactly where and how you want.

And on defense, poor Mario earned for himself return trips to the hot corner by making a couple of really nice stops on tough shots. He let the third one go (which no one could have had) to try to convince the coach his play was a fluke, but the coach sees right through that. Have fun Mario!

Everyone had an RBI and everyone scored a run to make it an egalitarian win outside the two RB blasts.

The next two weeks are the pivotal point of the season. The evil Big Kahunas are first, and they were tossed aside by Blue Dots last night. We owe them for all past injustices, score-wise and attitude-wise, so it's time to step up against them and then on them. After that the rematch with the Blue Dots but I'll get to that next week.

Oh, and Sir Guy had one K, and Rams had a chance to try third base too!

Milestones:

Heffe        90 bb (#1)
Coop        80 bb (#2)
Jason        250 ab (#17)

Just happy to be here

In the one game I did not cover last week, my Wednesday night 'Legends' team (this is what they call over 50 in Pleasanton) Sunshine Saloon won a won a rather workmanlike game 14-7 over a team called the 4 Speed.

This is not the story. We always beat them. Usually we play down to their level and it is close. This one, not so much.

The story is that everyone always beats them. I looked it up. Not all the years are archived on the Pleasanton website that tracks the standings, but most are. The 4 Speed team has been in the league at least since 2000. Their record in the years tracked: 16 wins and 158 losses. That is an average of about 1-10 every season. I know that the years not tracked include the last 4 seasons, and if they won 2 games over that time, I would be surprised. Their 'big' season, they went 4-8.

And they are happy every single game. Their attitude is, we are just here to have some fun, have a beer and some pizza and then go home. They never argue with the opponent or the umpires; they never get on each other for missing ball after ball and hitting into double play after double play.

There's no way I could do it. I don't have to win every game, but it would be good if I did. I hate to lose, and if I lost every single time and there was no hope of coming in anywhere above last place, well, just bring the straight-jacket for Heffe.

I admire those guys. I am sure I have far more flaws.

Just don't ask me to be on their team.

Moessing with the Third Base Bag: Red over Blue on a Walkoff 19-18

The headline was already written: Break up the Red. But not because of our prodigious hitting. This time, I was going to follow with when is the trade deadline, we need to make a deal. Because we had scored all of 4 runs in the first four innings, and trailed 15-4. It was hot. We couldn't catch anything. We had left our bats on field 4 last week. Blue was making play after play on balls that went through holes last week.

As it turned out, we had Blue right where we wanted them. We came up in the bottom of the 4th and batted around to tie it. It started with a Bob Muegge hit, and then 11 of the next 12 Red hitters got hits and we didn't stop until the game was tied.

It wasn't easy after that. Blue's left side (and Gary Tryhorn up the middle as usual) kept taking hits away from us. Dan Rainwater came in and held us scoreless for three innings. A pitchers' duel broke out. They made a great throw to stop our one scoring chance in the 8th after they had taken a three run lead.

But Bruce Baily and then Muegge, when he came back in to pitch, kept Blue close. We started the ninth needing three to tie, four to win. We got a clutch two run hit from Howard Davis to put the tying run on second with no outs. Bill Dewlaney gave himself up and walked to get the game winner on first. Baily moved everyone up and tied it with a clutch single. After an out up came Herb Moessing. Herb is a ground-ball-through-the-infield kind of hitter, but all he needed was a fly ball to win it. Instead he stayed within himself and put if off the third base bag and it was another winner for Red.

It was another true team win. I was the only 4 for 4 (3 doubles), but Steve Alvarez, Pete D'Alonzo, Muegge, Davis, and Baily had 3 apiece, and Alvarez, Davis, and Baily 3 RBIs. Alvarez displayed his usual power with a triple, double and a single. He was robbed his first time up by the Blue right center fielder deep in the gap: if he hadn't made that catch, I would be talking about Steve's cycle.

I guess Coach Hank will keep everyone off the waiver wire for another week.

Bulletin Board Material

I am such a softball slut that tonight I took in another team's game. The Conehead left fielder is coming back from shoulder surgery, and tonight was going to be his first game back. The Coneheads' league doesn't start up until later than other leagues; since he was playing for another team just a few minutes from my house, I thought I might as well go hang out.

What I didn't know is that Greg plays part-time on a team comprised of players from two of the Coneheads' archrivals in the Orinda league. I had mixed feelings watching them lose. On the one hand there are a couple players I like on those teams; on the other hand, well you know the other hand. I hope they continue losing through August.

One of the players plays with us on Sundays now. And another of them played one season with the Coneheads in our fall league a couple of years ago. We nicknamed him Buddha. You can guess why. Scott is very strong, a great hitter, and we had fun with him that one season. But if you looked at him you would understand why he got that name.

Buddha has a lot of respect for the Coneheads, and a lot of bad memories from us beating them every time we played them for about ten years. His team, Cal Bronco, has beefed up the last two years. They actually won the regular season last season, beating us twice in the regular season. But we had the last laugh; it was us against them in the playoff championship game, and in one of the best championship games in years, we prevailed 24-22, and walked off with the Cotton.

Well, tonight, I talked to the Buddha for quite a while after their game over a beer. He is a great guy. It was funny, because while I was talking to him, I kept hearing snippets of the conversation a little bit away between the other players. I kept hearing 'Coneheads' and 'frustrate'. Apparently the Coneheads are a great source of frustration to the rest of the league; even though we haven't won that league every year by a long shot, we probably have more than anyone else over the last dozen years; they just don't know how to beat us consistently. We always come back.

But my conversation was with the Buddha. And here is what he said. He said, we did not retire him once in 3 games last year; he was 16 for 16 against us. And he intends to continue that throughout the upcoming season.

Well the gauntlet has been thrown. I may become a Buddhist, or consult with the Dalai Lama. Burn incense. Meditate. We will get it done. We will get you out. Mark it down. And, as I said tonight, just keep in mind who was the last team standing last year. I'll take that over 16 for 16 anytime and I know you would too.

Nothing to Say

I had nothing to say. Some of you might find that hard to believe. But it was true. It was such a ho-hum game, low key and unsurprising...but then I was saved by seeing Randy tonight, and he woke up my pen.

Sunday, game day for JFT, was a beautiful day. I napped. Twice. Then I went to the game.

And then I napped some more. Some time in there we scored 16 runs, and won in a slaughter-rule-shortened game 16-1.

This year they combined all the over 40 teams into one huge division. Before this, there were 'competitive' and 'recreation' divisions. Sunday's opponent, Who's on First, was in the lower division. They showed up Sunday two players short of the 11 we are allowed on defense (because we are old). And some players who are old even by our standards. This did not bode well.

Warning: The rest of this will be very un-PC. Those with sensitivities, which I know do not exist on this team, please look away.

In addition, they had one female. Now I didn't even want to get into that. But since I have nothing, I gotta say it. The defensive highlight of the game - it was a flare, a blooper, a Texas Leaguer, hit into right field. Our right fielder Jeff is nursing a bad hamstring. He didn't get it, but he fired to second. To throw out the girl, who was on first and got caught in no-man's land (get it?....groan...sorry, just couldn't help it).

Later, there was a bases loaded grounder to Randy at third. He fired home to Chopper who did a little dance and then didn't try to get the double play at first. Who hit it? You guess it. I didn't hear this, but when interviewed on Sports Center, Chopper was quoted as saying he didn't want to throw out a girl. Or throw at a girl. Something like that. It did get him a look from Coach Stink Eye.

There were some offensive highlights. Reg hit a bomb for a triple. As the second batter of the game for us. But Chuck came home on it, got brain lock and stepped on the plate, flashing back to Little League. Yer out. So Reg didn't get the game winning RBI, but did shortly score the one that put us ahead to stay, as he went 3-3.

Gerry also went 3-3 and had an absolutely beautiful slice down the right field line for a two run double, part of a 4 RBI game for him. Greg of course also was 3-3, with 3 RBIs of his own. And Hazel got three also in one official at bat - he had a two run single and a sac fly. He could retire with a 1.000 season, and set a record for RBIs per AB, but I bet he wants to play some more.

We got to watch the Pretty in Pinky's get their lunch handed to them by Advanced Construction on the other field. This tightened up the three (or maybe four) team race; it means that all we have to do is win out to end up in first. Which we knew anyway. But AC is now the only undefeated team. It starts next Sunday.

The Agony of Defeat

Sometimes it happens. You score 9 runs in the first, and subconsciously you coast the rest of the game. You don't mean to, but it happens. So after the 9-2 lead after the first, Transdyn never added on enough to make BASBHAT think they had no chance. It was surprising the way we had hit in just about every inning until last night, but we then went 3 innings without scoring. They crept back to 9-6, then 11-9, 12-11, and by the bottom of the seventh it seemed the walk off hit was inevitable, as Transdyn finished with a 15-14 loss.

The top of the first is what we will focus on, because I am all about the good play and not the failures. Ten straight hits to open the game. The Load, in his first AB of the season, hits a towering shot for a two run homer to right center. Mario, as usual complaining about his back pain, crushed one for 3 runs to right. The two of them knocked in 7 or our 14 runs.

There were some breaks that went the wrong way. Cage's scorcher down the line less than an inch foul. RB hit a ball that I swear cleared the trees beyond right field, and it was so far out that the ump just couldn't tell where it was. After the game he admitted to one of our players he missed that one. A number of times their outfielders ran to try and catch a gapper, and stuck out their glove at the last second. Every time it hit and stuck. You have to give them credit; they made the plays. We say they were lucky; if we had done it we would have said great skill!

The highlights on defense were Woody gunning a runner down at second base that dared to test his arm, and Gabe in a rare return to second base playing a tough popup in shallow right like an outfielder, into an out. Both key plays.

Still a 3-1 start is pretty good, and next time we will have the hammer when we play them. The one good thing about this game was that I doubt they had any doctored bats, there is no bad blood. But there is still time to develop that.

Milestones:

Load   200 h (#11)
D        100 h (#19)
D        150 ab (#22)

The Longest Day

I know some of you are old enough to have fought in WWII. Or at least in Korea. Vietnam?

But we all saw the movie the Longest Day, with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, et al. It's about D-Day, of course. Well, today the game between Red and Royal was No D Day. We outslugged them but they just wouldn't go away, although ultimately we outscored them 40-33. Does anyone know the record for runs by both teams in a Creaker game?

Red scored 5 runs in 7 of 9 innings. Royal kept us from gloating about it, as in three of those innings, being down by more than 5, they answered with 7.

Red did get a little lucky - a few Texas Leaguers fell in for us. A few ground balls just squeaked through the infield. Royal missed a couple they would say they should have had. But that all evened out as Royal had a few of each too. We just stayed a little hotter throughout the game, and never trailed in the whole game; the last tie score was 5-5 after the first.

There were so many hitting stars for Red today, I might as well just list the whole lineup. Everyone scored at least one run and all but one drove at least one in. Everyone had at least two hits. But our John Wayne was Steve Alvarez. He simply went yard for a grand slam his first time up as the fourth batter of the game, and hit a two run homer in the third, as the race was on. He had a total of 9 RBIs, and he made a couple of nice catches in left center too. Brian Black wasn't far behind Steve - he had five hits, including 3 doubles and a home run of his own. Poor Brian though - all the runners were gone off the bases when he was up thanks to Steve, so he just had one RBI.

A summary of the rest includes 5 hits from Kravin, Black, Dewlaney, and Sayatovich. Four RBIs from Fragoso, D'Alonzo, Baily, and Sayatovich.

As the visiting team, Red never had less than a 4 run lead going into the bottom half after the fourth inning. Royal never gave in, and kept storming back. I thought the game might be suspended for darkness before we were through. The teams on Field 3 were done at least a half hour before us. Guys were crying for their lunch. The geese were already getting ready to fly south again.

In the bottom of the 9th, we really thought Royal would fold as they should have been flushed. At least three times they were down to their last strike. By the time we finally put them away, we were getting very nervous. They had no quit in them, and you have to respect that. But Bob Muegge finally coaxed a pop up to end the game. Everyone will enjoy their nap this afternoon.