What's in a (Nick) Name?

Athletes love to give each other nicknames. My old friend and teammate George (Top Gun) was infamous for giving everyone nicknames on my original team. We started out as a Chevron work team, and he gave nicknames to everyone in our work group in addition to the softball team. Archie, Maynard, Sir Guy, Squint, Boom Boom (don't ask) were just a few.

JFT/Coneheads only has a few and most came with them, Heffe, Chopper, Lefty. Others have not stuck - Chico for Chuck, for example. I just can't imagine him rapping with Carlos Santana in Spanish. You can't force it. Reggie a.k.a. Sting has been the exception. Anyone that was at that game at JFK and saw him sitting down in the outfield in a panic taking of his shoes and socks when that hornet took liberties through his clothes will never forget the sight.

Sunday's was pretty ho-hum as JFT games go, we kind of sleepwalked through a 14-4 victory over the Masterbatters that was never in any doubt. The most exciting hitting exhibition was Knight going yard with a walk-off home run, and it was a walk-off because we ran out of time, or I should say the Masterbatters ran out of time.

Randy went a perfect 3-3 with a double. D had the only other extra base hit, an opposite field laser to Concord on which he hobbled into second base with a double. Other than that a bunch of guys had a pair of hits, and scored a bunch of runs.

So I was left to ponder what the best defensive plays were, and I came up with my dive to take a hit down the line from one of their few good hitters, a lefty. Not easy for a 60 year old to go down and get that one, backhanded at that. Routine for Chuck I know, but still, not too shabby. And nothing else stuck out.

But you don't want to toot your own horn, too much, and I remembered a line shot headed to the LC gap that Bruce leapt up and grabbed. It only seemed not that outstanding because it was so graceful and he got there so fast, he hardly needed to jump, and made it look routine. Dare I say he looked like Pegasus, the horse of the Gods, and for those who don't know who that is, look it up. When Bruce runs, he is like a stallion with wings, galloping but gliding at the same time. I swear when he goes from first to second base it's like three strides.

Pegasus is a little awkward for a nickname, so let's shorten it, say to Peggie Sue. Bruce 'Peggie Sue' Reed. There. No one will be the wiser and they all will ask, how the hell did you get that nick name?

Think it will fly?

Milestone:

Randy          10 2b (#14)

Breaking Out

The true sign of a good team is what they do in the games they don't play up to their standards. Do they lay down, or gut wrench it to a win? In games two and three, Transdyn scratched out wins by scores of 11-7 and 11-10. Especially the last one, in which we had to protect a one run lead.

At this juncture, the Dirtballs (game 2), who also might be thought of as playing down in this league, have scored only two fewer runs and allowed only four more, but have lost two games while we are 5-0. This illustrates the point, when the chips are down we have come though.

All this changed the last two games though. While we welcomed back Load and had the middle of the lineup we meant to have for the first time, we put up a complete came against Kung Fu Panda, and after jumping out to a 11-2 lead and then allowing them to creep back to 11-6, we put up a six spot and won going away 19-9. Load had three hits in his season debut and Jas was on base four times and Cage and Alberto went yard.

Then last week, we summoned up last spring in a big way. Breaking Bad, which traded in a bad name (BAHSBAT) for a Bad one, came in tied with us in first place at 4-0. We punched them in the gut every inning and scored 5-4-4-5-4 runs. Sounds like a senior league team with the five limit in those leagues. We walked it off when the bases were loaded with one out in the fifth and Sir Guy put the ball over the drawn in outfield. Turns out the (slaughter rule) winning score had already scored - the scorekeeper had it wrong on the scoreboard. So walked off to the tune of 22-6.

D absolutely crushed one ball, which doesn't happen much in this league any more. I half expected the light bulbs in the scoreboards to start popping like in the Natural. Rene was a pest all game, going 4-4 and has started the season 10-11. Tom was a perfect 4-4 too, and Jas was 3-3 with a walk, and dove deep into the hole to rob one of the Bad hitters. Coop has been on fire (3-4), and had the biggest blow of the game, a bases loaded, bases clearing triple. He has seven RBIs in the last two games.

It was a complete team win - all but one of us had at least two hits, all but one had an RBI and all but one scored at least two runs. Everyone contributed in a big way.

Breaking Bad is now Broken Bad. We are in first place, alone. This week we go for the first half sweep against the 0-5 team. I like our chances.

Milestones:

Game 2
Cage        400 rbi (#2)
Heffe       350 rbi (#3)
Monty     1000 ab (#3)
Sir Guy    900 ab (#4)

Game 3
Heffe       400 g (#1)
Pauly       250 rbi (#5)
D             30 bb (#9)
Alberto    50 ab (#49)

Game 4
Cage        250 g (#6)
Load        201 rbi (#11)

Game 5
Pauly        30 sf (#2)

Wholly Holey Holy

I'm gonna say it, I just can't resist. We played the Holey Sox last week. The church team (actually called the Holy Sox) has more holes than Swiss cheese, to coin a cliche. We ran away with the game in the second inning, plating 11 on our way to an eventual 20-7 Christian slaying. We fed them to the lions.

But it's ok, they are going to Heaven and we are going to Hell as we all know. Cotton burns, too. No amount will protect us from the flames of the depths.

Story within the story, their coach and left center fielder Mark P and I were teammates on the Walnut Creakers MDSSL team, the last time I pretended to be retired. We have almost nothing in common but in softball all you need is to be in the same lineup for a couple of years, and you are friends. So after I hit my usual flare over SS in front of him my second time up, he cheated way over almost behind the SS the next time I batted, and I hammered the ball over the pitcher's head straight up the middle, splitting the outfielders for a double. The pitcher was not pleased. "Did you do that on purpose?" he asked when I got to second base. "Of course", I said. He was not pleased with this response. I think he called on Yehovah to curse me. You can call me the Monster of the Midway from now on.

The next inning when Mark was going to coach first, he commented into our dugout, "nice hit." Gene was sitting next to me. He thought it was about his grand slam in the second, which was really the blow that put the game away. On a scale of one to ten, his was a nine point nine and mine was maybe a seven. How dare he think Mark would be complimenting him?

Defensive highlights included a great play in the hole by Chuck in the second, and yet another all lefty double play in the third. Besides Gene's big fly, there was Lefty's two run homer in the first, which actually put the game away at 2-0. It was of Derek proportions, or to continue the holy theme, like our Pope might hit if he ever turns 40.

We held them in check until the bottom of the last inning. In strode Lefty, staked to a 20-2 lead. He gave up five. I think he is like a any good closer - he needs the game to be close to be effective. I think I saw Joe changing his pitching depth chart though.

Ten guys had multiple hit games, including Chopper with a double and a triple and a single - the mini-cycle. No Christmas goose though. Bruce and Joe had the other perfect games at the plate. In our Conehead inning, we batted around (plus two) with 15 guys in the lineup - and the hardest hit balls were line drive outs by Knight and the Buddha, who were on a Crusade. OK I will stop now with the religious references.

Milestones:

Stink Eye 150 g (#1)
Heffe       250 h (#3)
Lefty        400 ab (#4)
Bruce       50 ab (#22)

Nearly Tripped over Big Feet

We were discombobulated. Bruce a no show, Knight late - it had the makings of an upset. People out of position, the lineup all jumbled up. Poor Gene thought he was a jinx.

Just when we got the Big Head from our 23-3 win last week, we almost tripped over the Big Feet. We were down 3-0 in the first, and that nearly was enough to put us away on an off night. But in the end our defense saved us from getting too far behind, and we put just enough of a rally together in the bottom of the seventh to prevail 6-5 on a walk-off 120 foot fly out.

Randy and Gene made diving catches in the outfield to provide the highlights. Joe got a K to go with holding a pretty decent hitting Big Feet team to single runs in the third and fourth after the first inning, aided in part by a sweet double play turned by the Knight from a feed from Derek at third. The Lefty to Lefty to Lefty double play, gotta love it.

In the bottom of the seventh Buddha, Gene and Joe came up with the table setters to load the bases with one out. Knight hit a line drive two run single to tie it up and Chuck came though with a hit to reload the bases. Up strode the strongest guy on the team and you knew he would park one to deep right to allow Haz, running for Joe at third, to waltz home. But this is reality and Heffe just managed a sinking liner to LC that the outfielder managed to corral, and he was only about 120 Big Feet out. Jeff took off from third, and even though the throw beat him by plenty, he had to throw it off balance and it was wide and Jeff scored easily.

A good team wins the close ones on nights when they aren't at their best and we proved it once again.

Milestone:

Chuck        150 g (#1)

New G

Long time ago, when I was in college, I had a brief relationship with one of my classmates in the English Department. It didn't last long, and she went on to court fame in three different ways. She wrote a best-selling novel that became a Hollywood film starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. She married the future writer/producer for the Simpsons and the Family Guy. And if that wasn't enough, she found out when she was 25 that her biological brother was none other than Steven Jobs, who was given up for adoption by their bio-parents after he was conceived and born when they were still in college themselves.

Good thing we didn't last. Think of how I would have held her back.

I bring this up because, having become a die-hard bandwagon fan of your Golden State Warriors, I can't help but be reminded of our own Ol' G every time I see an interview with Draymond Green. He's the "New G" to our old one. He plays solid D, and gets offense in the most clutch situations in whatever way they need it, be it a pass to someone standing next to the basket waiting for a layup, hitting a 3, or fighting for an offensive rebound, and is in the mix in everything the Warriors do, which this season seems to be winning a lot of games. And he likes to bark at everyone around him and being the vocal leader of the team. You don't mess with him.

Our G shares many of those qualities. He seems like a quiet leader until something needs to be said to an ump or to back up a teammate when the other team wants to start a ruckus. Then watch out. And I swear DG looks a lot like OG.

It is said that DG has a "high basketball IQ". Hmmm, but then, we realize that Ol' G is married to Deb, so that would explain where that came from.

So what I want to know is what secrets are there lurking in  Deb and OG's past that we don't know about? Draymond would be a little older than their daughters...makes you think, what were they doing in college???

Which leads to a classic moment in our last JFT game. Ol' G has been known to go up the middle, in fact if I were to track his hits, I bet 90% of them go between the two center fielders. But he rarely hits it on the ground, mostly it's line drives in front of or between the outfielders. Well, G comes up in the top of the fifth after Randy put the game away with a two run blast to make it 10-3. The Slammers pitcher then throws four deliberately illegal high pitches to walk him intentionally, saying something like, "wouldn't you do that with a guy who hits it hard up the middle?" Didn't do them any good, by the way - we ended up putting up three more runs in the inning and eight in the sixth to win going away 23-3.

Of note was that after tossing a shutout in the first game we went another three innings holding the Slammers scoreless and even though they broke through for three in the fourth, we have allowed a total of three through two games. Not bad. Somewhere in there was an 4-11-1-2 double play - I can't even fathom that now in retrospect - but I wrote it in the book. Bruce made an all out dive in left field for the play of the game.

Besides Randy's bomb, Chopper also had a two run shot - no chance for a goose as I stood at second with a double when he hit it. Buddha made an impressive JFT debut - 4-4 with the game winner in the first inning. Bruce also had four hits including three for extra bases - just can't hold that boy to a single. Ol' G got mad after the walk - he sent the next one to the fence for a triple. Draymond would be proud.

Milestones:

Ol' G          10 3b (#6)
D               150 ab (#15)
Randy        150 ab (#16)
Randy        50 g (#17)

Where Have You Gone, Bobby Muller?

This season was going to be different. This was the year that we were going to overcome the Pinky's dominance since they came into the league and we became the bearers of those nondescript also-ran second place t-shirts. You know the ones - you are either checking the oil in your car with them or if you wear them, it is as an undershirt. They are like the trophy's we mistakenly gave our kids for 'participation' (so little Josh or Jen wouldn't feel like someone else was better than they were, even though they were).

It was a little disappointing to hear they were not going to be in the league, an empty feeling. Where would the competition come from?

Then Lefty did his best to spark the flames - half of Pinky's had joined Advance Construction, he said, our former main competition. Now that could make for a great year - and we were starting the season against them. Bring it!

But in the end you have to play the game. I think there are at most two or three Pink's on AC, and it ain't the best of the best. And they were without our friend Bobby Muller, who perhaps is the best they have to offer.

The result, predictably, was that we continued to own Advance, a trend that has been going on for a couple of years now. Ownage is a 10-0 beat down, and it wasn't that close. We didn't hit all that well, and while we had the usual assortment of up the middle nifty force outs (from G to Knight, or Knight to G or Chuck to Knight, you get the picture, and the first baseman (the short one) fell down and stretched out to all of his 5'7" to get to a low throw from Chuck in the last inning to preserve the shutout. The taller first baseman caught a couple of hot shots as well, but that was about it. We were never threatened.

The game ball goes to Old Joe, a shutout is a shutout. D finished but unfortunately a 10-0 lead ensures he doesn't qualify for the save. But he had his part in preserving the blankout.

Chuck did his thing, going 3-3 and a walk, Knight had three hits and the game winner, which occurred in the first inning, and Lefty had a couple of doubles. Next!

Milestone:

Lefty        30 2b (#1)

Bandwagon

I admit it. I am firmly on the Warriors bandwagon. Oh I was entertained a little in the We Believe years a few years ago, the upset of Dallas and all that. But this year is different - they play in such a way that you can't take your eyes off them.

So I leapt (and they say Old White Jews can't jump, or something like that). Firmly on the wagon, and I ain't movin' off.

The reason I bring this up is that the intriguing thing about the Warriors is that they have this team where the motto is be selfless, share the playing time, come off the bench if the Coach asks you to, and most of all, always give the credit to someone else. There is no ego.

And how does that apply to Transdyn? Well it looked like we were going to lose a few really good players, after a tough Fall season, but then we reloaded - and it turned out we may have too many guys. These things have a way of working themselves out - Rene can't make early games, Mike O'Neal who we originally added couldn't make late games, and Load injured himself in his first game of the season on his other team. So we didn't have too many guys last week, and we won't tomorrow (if we are not rained out). But what I am here to say is this coach will try to emulate the Warriors (at least in the field) and ask people to move around, sit out innings, etc. And we will be stronger for it.

Last week was a weird game. Let's face it, we are literally half way between the talent level (when you add in our average age) between the D Lower division and the D Upper (which is really C). So play up or play down was our choice. Being Cotton sluts, we asked to play down, and although we haven't seen most of the teams, it appears (if last week was any indication) the level of play could be er, um, Lower D.

I mean one guy on Where My Pitches At didn't even know you have to stand on the base until the next pitch is thrown. And trust me it wasn't that he was trying to get a lead to steal second base or third.

So what we did was make a couple of early errors getting the jitters out to go down 1-0, and then came up in the bottom of the second, and all twelve of us reached base in a row, and we scored ten runs. Ten hits, an error, and a walk. Then three straight outs but we will get to that later. I drove in the first after we loaded the bases, Tom followed with the eventual game winner, and then the biggest hit - Mario knocked it over the right fielder's head for a two run double. Every other hit was a single.

Then we settled down defensively. D made a couple of nice plays at first, and Brian went into the hole for a hot shot later in the game. Mario made a prancing tumbling catch in right center - the debate was over whether he made it look extra dramatic, but it was a nifty play anyway.

The hitting was in spring rust mode, although D and Monty were robbed on fantastic catches by their left fielder. That is everyone except Coop, who had three straight hits for a perfect night.

We didn't score again until the last inning to make the final score 12-3. After those three outs to end the second, the next twelve at bats through the lineup produced two walks and a single (by Coop of course). We need to watch that against better opposition, and learn to pour it on.

Tomorrow may get rained out but if not, we can win again and brag that we have a bigger winning percentage than even the Warriors!

Milestones:

Heffe      120 bb (#1)
Mario     200 g (#8)
Mario     40 bb (#6)
D            350 ab (#13)