Sometimes a Great Notion

From 1980 to 1988, MLB kept a statistic called the Game Winning RBI, defined as the run driven in by a hitter that put his team ahead to stay - the team never trailed after that run.

Of course this meant if you drove in the first run of the game in the top of the first and your team ended up winning 15-2 or 9-8 and never was tied or behind, you got the stat. Which pretty much made it irrelevant, and they discontinued it in less than a decade.

Sadly, I programmed it into my home grown stats program at that time, and I never took it out. I considered removing it entirely, or changing it to track reached base on error (which is more useful to a team), or some other stat, but being lazy be nature I never modified it. And besides, we had years of tracking it on my teams!

But - once in a while, the original intent of the stat, which was basically to track walk-offs, is actualized in a game and tonight was the perfect example.

Derek strode up to the plate, having gone from down on himself after his first at bat, to mild self-satisfaction when he hit a scorching double in the 5th, to climb the heights in the bottom of the seventh. He came up with the tying run on second, and the winning run on first and blasted a ball off the pole in deep right center and we had our first win of the year, 16-14. I think it was still rising when it hit the pole. It felt real good after going down 6-5 the week before in a game we should have cruised through.

He had plenty of help. Berto hit a three run blast of his own in the first to start our scoring, and went 4-4. Jason was a nuisance on the bases also going 4-4. Jeremy made the most of his ABs, with a double, sac fly and reaching on an error to plate 3 RBIs. Plus he made a great catch in LC filling in for Cage. Heffe ignited our six run catch up inning (with two outs and no one on) and our game winning rally with nine hop singles up the middle.

And you don't come back from down 12-3 after 3 1/2 innings without some stellar defense. We turned three double plays, a 1-6-3, 6-4-3, and 4-6-3. Those guys up the middle are our strength. And Tom pretty much slammed the door on his teammates from another league, another time, after they came out of the chute on fire: Helped by the double plays, he only allowed two runs in the last three innings.

It was a great team win and put us back on the map in the early going. Onward next week.

Milestones:
3/28
Jas          300 r (#6)
Monty    450 h (#6)

4/4
Coop      1450 ab (#1)
D            60 2b (#4)
Chopper 100 rbi (#19)

It Was Rigged!

It was revealed that I use a private laptop for my blog, and this is a breach of National Security.

The stats have been compromised, and they have shown up in a former Politburo bunker in Moscow. Who knows what the Russians will do with this information, but since Wikileaks made them public, and the FBI stated that we were under investigation, Cream and Clear and other teams in our league somehow seemed to know where were were going to hit before even we did.

It started two weeks before the playoffs. After starting the season 6-0, including beating Cream and Clear our chief rival twice, we came up short against Pat's Bats. We brushed it off - after all we had already clinched the number 1 seed for the playoffs. Then the league decided to skip playing on Halloween. All those millennials with their tiny tots had to take their precious candy grubbers across the neighborhoods extorting sweets from their helpless neighbors. We all know this was a clear ploy to break our momentum, as most of us are closer to Grampa age than toddler parent age. And, since no kids showed up at my door, I had to eat all the Snickers and M&Ms and Butterfingers myself, getting even fatter in the process.

Then there was the Wall they wanted to build at the Caldicott Tunnel. Isn't it a little suspicious our players on the other side of the tunnel were our two African-Americans, Ol' G and Sting, and the other is that noted Anarchist/Democrat Lefty? The final straw was when they wanted to outlaw all players not born in California. You think that it is a coincidence that the Conehead Managers were born in Brooklyn and St. Louis, respectively? Lock 'em up!

I'm writing this from Mexico, where I landed after being tossed 'over the wall'. Joe is in the hut next to me; Derek, who declared himself "Mr. Conehead for Life" is your new coach. Good luck in the coming years.

As it turned out, conspiracy theories aside, we just really didn't show up for the playoffs. Perhaps we are getting old; I happen not to think that is it. More likely we just need to step up our focus. We have a lot of talent and chemistry on the Coneheads, but that alone cannot always produce a winner, especially in the playoffs, and especially when everyone is gunning for us.

We just didn't hit. It could have been worse; we had a tremendous comeback in game one against the Hawks in Game 1 to avoid going two and out. We were flatter than a pancake and trailing 11-6 going into the bottom of the seventh. The bottom of the order picked us up. We started out with singles by Chopper, Heffe, and Johnny, then a double by Gene, and another single by Larry to turn over the lineup. Randy singled, and after a ground out, Pope knocked in the game tying and winning runs on a walkoff hit.

As it turned out that was pretty much the last highlight. We did have another comeback rally against Pat's Bats to remain alive winning 10-8, fueled by clutch two out hits from Patrick, Chuck, and Ol' G. However, in the last three games we had exactly two extra base hits, and they were 'only' doubles. Worse than that was we never really had the Conehead inning that we are famous for, where we don't even need extra base hits (but usually get a couple) because we string together ten or twelve straight knocks. This year, especially against Cream and Clear, it just wasn't to be.

Silver lining - even though we slumped for the last month, we still made the championship game. We'll be back.

It's tough to cite the MVP on the loser side, but I have to mention that Johnny single-handedly tried to defy our under-performance. He was on fire, and ended up 8 for 9 in the playoffs, and tied for the team lead in RBIs despite hitting near the bottom of the lineup.

Pope was runner up. He was down on himself after his first at bat, and even requested to be moved down in the order. But when he hit a little Heffe blooper into shallow left his next time up, I told him that would be all it took to shake his slump. He proceeded to go 10 for 11 the rest of the way, including that walkoff hit.

Lefty led the team in extra base hits and also walks in his leadoff role, and Knight tied Johnny for the team lead in RBIs.

Keep the faith. If we manage to survive the Trump presidency all is possible. Although I like our chances of winning another title better.

Milestones:

11/7
Game 1:
D                50 bb (#11)
Lefty          30 bb (#15)
Randy        200 ab (#25)

Game 2:

Joe             450 g (#2)

11/14

Game 1:

Sting          850 ab (#11)

Game 2:

Lefty         50 2b (#16)

The Top Ten List

Remember David Letterman? Here's my Top Ten List of Positives from tonight's Conehead game...

10. No one struck out.
9. No one got hurt.
8. Along the same lines, that nasty hop in front of Ol' G did NOT rise up and hit him in his teeth or between his eyes.
7. Even though we were NO HIT through four innings, we BUSTED out for all of SEVEN hits in the last three innings.
6. Even though we did not have a hit in the first time through the line up, Randy at the top and Larry at the bottom did coax walks out of Pat's Bats' pitcher. Now those are team players.
5. Even though we hit into two double plays, wiping out two of those hits, we did not hit into ANY triple plays.
4. Despite Chopper's imploring Joe to give a coach's speech to inspire us, Joe held off, saying he would give it next week - so we still have that to look forward to.
3. The ground caused Pope to drop what would have been a great catch, and similarly, Reggie's knee knocked the ball out of his glove on what would have been another difficult catch - these things can't happen two weeks in a row.
2. Chopper had an off game - he looked lost out there. But we identified the reason, namely that Lisa missed the game.As long as we get her out there for the playoffs, he'll be himself.

And the number one positive that came out of the game tonight, a 10-3 loss to Pat's Bats, was that we still had beer after the game, and even though we talked politics over beers, Derek and I did not come to blows over Trump and Clinton. He still has not come to his senses, however.

Next week off to give out candy on Halloween. Then the playoffs, and we are still the team to beat, and we got our bad game out of our collective systems.

Milestones:
10/10
Johnny        100 ab (#32)

10/24
Larry          140 bb (#2)

The Engine That Could

A couple of weeks ago, Reggie cracked me up in the Conehead dugout as we watched Chopper chugging and huffing and puffing around the bases on a home run, when he said, "He's like the Little Engine that Could...I think I can, I think I can (first base), I think I can, I think I can, (second base), I think I can, I think I can (third base), I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could (home)." I was rolling off the bench with laughter.

That was the big blow, a three run bomb that put Pat's Bats away in our eight run Conehead fifth inning. We ended up trouncing the Bats that night 16-5, putting them further in our rear view mirror.

While the team was knocking on Good Wood (and Larry presented the win in a much more timely fashion), I had a couple of days off softball doing the 'Wild Hog' thing. Here is proof:

...although you can't even see my bike... (it's off to the right)

Last week's game was a Wally Pipp Special - Johnny took G's place, and had a stellar game at the plate and in the field. He was part of two DPs, and his turn and throw on a feed from Randy at short looked very professional. Like they had been doing it for years - wait they have, only against us on the Old Scouts in Orinda.

Plus Johnny had the hit of the game - a two run triple in the second inning that put us ahead to stay as we had the first of three mini-Conehead  innings, in the 2nd, 6th, and 7th.

Other Pipp moments - Knight takes Randy's place for an inning and makes a tough play. Greg had a season high seven RBIs on four hits.

After Larry pitches a great game through 6 innings (one run), D shuts down the Dusty Nuts in the seventh, final score 20-1.

And of course - Joe who? With Joe enjoying honey cake and other treats of Rosh Hashanah, I filled in as Coach for a day. Looks like I will finish the season 1-0 as we won by our largest margin in a while. We made no, as in zero errors, I take full credit for putting the right guys in the right positions.

Ok, granted it was against the weakest team in the league by far, and I had nothing to do with our team playing such good defense, or three hit games from Randy and Pope (minicycle) and Gene and Johnny and Larry, and Larry had them hitting almost all routine flies and grounders.

But no Stink Eye, 20-1. Just the facts.

We are the Engine that Could, once again. It starts tomorrow as we face Cream and Clear for bragging rights and first place seed for the playoffs. Should be fun.

Milestones:
9/19
Larry       1350 ab (#3)
Lefty        20 sf (#14)

9/26
Knight      40 2b (#18)
Knight      300 ab (#21)
Randy      100 r (#23)

10/3
Chuck      450 g (#1)
Lefty        400 ab (#19)
Bruce       200 ab (#24)

Welcome to the Club!

I tried to get the ball. I really did, but the ump and the Dusty Nut catcher were having none of it.

Wouldn't it have looked nice on the McKnight mantle? First Conehead hit, Patrick McKnight, Sept. 12, 2016. We coulda all signed it.

It was not to be.

On a night when the Junior Knight had a rather pedestrian (for him) 2-4, the rest of the Coneheads scored enough and the Nuts were generous enough for the Coneheads to win a rather ho-hum 14-9 no doubter.

There were quite a few Conehead hits - I had one that turned into a Conehead double - where's your hustle Patrick? You only got a single on yours. Never mind they threw mine under the fence.

But we also had some big hits - a slashed two out two run homer by Bruce, a deep gapper for a triple by Sting, and Chuck just muscled up to beat the left fielder for a double. The three of them paced us with three hits.

Larry had the Nuts by the...for most of the night. Take away the first inning and last and he allowed on run total in the middle five as we built what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.

As Reg said after the game, we are a freight train, and once we get rolling, watch out for the Coneheads! This was step one.

Milestones:
Larry            800 h (#3)
Gene            600 h (#7)

The Long and Winding Road

What do you do when you have missed a couple of months of blogging for your favorite Tuesday team?

Well, you just start up again like you never left, raving about the utter shellacking Transdyn put on the HLG Crew tonight 16-1. About Tom's near shutout, Jason's two great catches ranging into the outfield, once from short and once from second.

About Nick dropping a triple over the left fielder's head, and then just to remind everyone who the power hitter is, Bert puts it in almost the same exact spot, except over the fence. I called it, by the way, ask Mario, who was sitting next to me on the bench. That made it 7-0 and there was no comeback in sight for the last place HLG Crew.

And speaking of the Puppet King, Mario made a fabulous shoe-top catch in right to preserve the shutout to that point in the fourth.

D and Hama led the way with quiet 4-4s, and Al was matched by Heffe with team high 3 RBIs each.

But then you get to the Milestones section and you see that it extends from July 12th to now, and you smell a rat. So sorry, fellow Transdynians, if you made a great play or two, or got a clutch hit or did anything that called you out in the last two months, it will just have to live on in your mind's eye - you know what you did.

It's a long road to this season's championship and playoff cotton, with four competitive teams in the mix, and hopefully you won't have to wait until then to see your name in the light of this column.

Milestones:
7/12 (Playoff Game)
Heffe      1400 ab (#2)
D            300 rbi (#5)

8/2
Monty    1050 ab (#3)
Bert        10 bb (#25)

8/9
Jas          50 2b (#7)
Pauly      350 h (#9)
D            300 h (#11)
Rusty      50 ab (#51)

8/16
Bert        20 hr (#3)
Cage       550 h (#4)
Bert        102 h (#26)
Bert        150 ab (#28)

8/23

Mario      30 sf (#3)
Hama      200 h (#14)

Hama      300 ab (#15)

Tom        250 ab (#21)

8/30
Cage       60 sf (#1)

9/6

Cage       950 ab (#4)

Mario      50 bb (#6)
D            150 g (#12)
Hama      150 rbi (#14)

The (Un)Catch, Part II

As Jerry Seinfield said in one of the episodes of his classic show, everything always evens out.

Last night I went to the A's game against the Boston Red Sox. Two teams going in opposite directions, and I think you know which way the A's have been going for years, thank you Lew Wolff and Billy Bean.

I went with my friend and former colleague Pat, and our significant others. Pat and I have known each other for years, have had kind of parallel careers, each have two daughters, worked together, and even played a little softball together. We have our differences (politics and he's a DODGER fan despite moving to Petaluma at a fairly young age from LA), but we have much in common, including each having lived within a few blocks of Fenway Park, and worked together and separately on the Big Dig, and thus having somewhat conflicted views about the Red Sox and Boston in general.

We hadn't seen each other for quite some time, and probably to our SO's chagrin spent the game catching up. There was no drama in the game as the Sox scored 9 times by the fourth inning pretty much settling things baseball-wise. We barely noticed that Rick Porcello took a perfect game into the sixth inning, until the A's finally scored a run on a couple of hits.

One of the stories I told Pat was about the ball I caught at an A's game in 2012. You can read about it here: The Catch.

Last night however there were two balls that came down within a row of where we were sitting. How often does that happen? One was early in the game, and it was one row back and on the aisle a few seats away. They always look like they are coming right at you and then they peel off. This one faded to the aisle, and a guy who brought a glove stepped into the aisle and made it look routine. I thought of moving, but it happened so fast, and it wasn't really close enough to me to go for it.

Then in the ninth (I think), another batter hits a popup, but not too high in our direction. My baseball instincts took over; I was determined this time. The ball was going to be a few seats away again, but beyond Julia to my right there were no other fans in my way. The ball was going to land on the back of a seat in the row in front of us.

Some would say I fell. I might embellish the story and say I dove. The truth is somewhere in the middle - baseball instincts did take over - I would call it a lunge. But what happened was I landed with my chest right on the edge of the seat (ouch) and stretched out as far as I could, I just managed to get a fingertip on the ball. It bounced away, destined for someone else's trophy case.

Seinfeld would have said, "See, it all evens out."

Mike Krukow, the Giants' broadcaster would have said, "If you brought your glove, you would have extended your reach just enough to corral it, meat!"

And he'd be right...instead, all I've got is a story, and a sore man-boob, and a black and blue fingertip.