The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good

I was raised be one parent who was generally an optimist, and one who was an extreme pessimist. Which makes me AFU.

So I am not going to sit here and say that Kapsch starting 0-3-1 is great, nor am I going to say is it the end of all hope.

After all, in my continued Tuesday night slump, I may be 1-11 but on the bright side, I have five walks! With that kind of production from the 11 hole, how can we fail??

The good news is that we have battled back in all of our losses. Last night we were down 12-4 and lost by four, ending the game with the bases loaded. Last week we were down 17-2 and lost 18-15. The first week, down 20-5 before succumbing 22-18. You might say that the other teams relaxed after taking a big lead, or you could say we didn't quit and came back.

Either way, what we have to work on is our early inning offense, defense, and pitching. Last night Tom was getting squeezed mercilessly by the strictest most inconsistent umpire I have seen in the 33 years of Pleasanton softball I have played. The strike zone was about 8-10 feet. But Tom adjusted and kept the Ultimate Warriors to zero after the fourth inning.

Similarly, on defense, we played the first three innings like Little Leaguers. Bad ones. We missed balls we normally catch; we didn't hustle for balls that dropped near us; we threw to the wrong base. Then suddenly we looked like the team that used to consistently be the best defensive team out there. Cage and Bo catching everything, Brian doing his magic at SS, Pauly picking up hot shots at third. We even turned a nifty Cage to Bert to D back door double play in the fifth.

Bo, B, and Cage (four RBIs) at the top of the lineup continued to scorch. They went 9-10 plus two walks. Tom got his usual three line drive hits, and Pauly and Coop had multiple hit games. Bert had a rough game but managed the biggest hit we had, a bases loaded, bases clearing two out double in the third.

If we can just clean up our early game woes, maybe there is hope for the season. After all four of five teams will make the playoffs. We can't wait much longer though.

Now, if we could just get some production from the 11 hole...

Scarlet plays the Purple People Eaters, 18-13

On a day that the Purple People Eaters were missing some of their best players, Scarlet played just good enough to overcome a close early tight game to pull away at the end with timely hitting and good defense late to win 18-13.

The defensive play of the day came on the last out. Roc Lumley leapt up for a pop up foul ball and batted it into the air, caught it temporarily with his chest and then let it settle in his glove. Game over. Earlier in the inning Raymond Aguilera made two stellar catches in right field, and Purple could have no ninth inning heroics.

The infielders starred for Scarlet. Tony Gorgone and Raul Delgado both made back handed grabs on hot shots for force outs. Gerry Dasey, in his one inning at the hot corner, fielded two smashes for outs. Scarlet also turned a crisp double play in the first - Delgado to rover Garry Booth to Dasey.

We took a curse of the first lead at 5-2. Does the curse count if it's the home team that plates five in the first? If so, we broke the curse. We let Purple into the game with a five run fifth, and they had leads of 11-9 after that frame and 13-11 after 6 1/2. But a four run two out rally in the bottom of the seventh iced the game as closer Chip Sharpe shut down the opposition with no runs in the eighth and ninth. The clutch two out RBI hits came from Paul Lisi, Art Miner, Delgado, and Gary Namanny.

Miner lead the way with a 4-4 day. Sharpe, Namanny, Dasey, Gorgone, and Mike Nichols contributed three hit games. The latter may have pulled up with a quad injury as he beat out a run scoring dribbler up the third base line with great hustle.

We didn't hit any bombs but we got triples from Namanny, Booth and Nichols, and two baggers from Lisi, Miner and Delgado. We did have a strikeout looking; I won't mention any names, but if he reads this far he will know who is bringing refreshments next week!

Scarlet Walks over Maroon

Scarlet showed a lot of patience and turned 15 walks and solid hitting in between into a 31-19 win on Field 5 today over Maroon.

The game was closer than the scored suggests; Maroon gave themselves the curse of the first by scoring five, and as late as the fifth inning trailed only 17-18. But Scarlet scored relentlessly, putting up the maximum in the second through the fifth and again in the bottom of the eighth.

Scarlet gave up a few bases on defense but for the most part just made all the routine plays. In fact, until Gerry Dasey jumped up to snare a line shot up the middle by Mark Pitzlin sometime around the sixth inning, there were no defensive highlights. I think GD even got about a foot off the ground. It's good to have a tall infielder sometimes. He had a fine defensive day - on a few other plays he grabbed low liners and hard grounders from his rover spot by great scouting and positioning.

On offense, on the other hand, there were plenty of heroes for the Red Menace. Lots of clutch singles and the aforementioned walks, but there were three or four rockets to fill up the highlight reel. Paul Lisi got the first big hit in the second, clearing the bases with a triple to give us our first lead at 7-5.

In the fifth, Art Miner hit a booming opposite field shot over the right fielder's head to plate our last two runs in that inning. In the eighth, when we created our final insurmountable lead, Gary Namanny hit a gapper double to right center to score our first run of the frame, and later the other Gary (Booth) cleaned the bases with a bases loaded triple. Booth led the team with six RBIs total, and his hit kind of closed the deal.

The rest was spread around: Raul Delgado was 4-4 plus a walk, Dasey was 3-3 with two walks, Bob Shipway was perfect with 2-2 and three walks, and Roc Lumley (who had our other extra base hit) and Kravin were each 2-2 with two walks. Chip Sharpe (who pitched a fine game), Mike Nichols, Lisi, Dasey, and Booth all had three hits. Extra thanks to Namanny for pitching the ninth without warning (0 runs!) since our other pitcher regular pitcher was unexpectedly out.

Bad News Coneheads

Here's the perfect way to start a new season:

1. Have one of your best players move out of town.
2. Have one of your best players have surgery and hang up his cleats.
3. Have a player in a tournament that is a makeup because it has been the rainiest winter in years.
4. Have a player mess up his knee playing tennis the day before (which ligament is as yet unknown but he is in a boot).
5. Have another player scheduled in another tournament makeup but it is cancelled and THEN he loses his keys so he is late.
6. Have another player with a calf problem and is two weeks into a four week recovery.
7. Have another player go out and golf 18 holes the day before and then tweak his knee in a morning game the day of our opener.
8. Have a player who needs to take his wife to the airport. At game time.

And then your opener is against the arch-rival team who went 13-1 last year (although we did beat them in the playoffs).

If we had laid down, it would have been understandable. Instead, we played a nearly flawless game and took down Advance Construction 9-3. We had a solid defense including a few web gems, great pitching, and timely hitting featuring some highlight blasts by a few of our hitters. It was a very good combination.

Gene, Sting, Lefty and Haze took turns making far-ranging catches in the outfield. Johnny took away a hit diving to his left for a ball ticketed for right field. Skip turned a double play at rover started by Randy at SS. There was a ball hit right into the sun that Gene nearly caught. When it popped out of his glove, he recovered quickly, and sent it to the infield. Randy threw a perfect relay home, and Chuck scooped up the one hop toss to nail a runner stupidly testing our arms down about seven runs at the time.

But the play of the game was a leaping catch of a hard hit liner headed to left field in the seventh inning by Randy. It wasn't the last out, but it pretty much ended any hope for a comeback by the Advance crew, and the game ended shortly after that with only one run across in the last frame.

Randy, batting leadoff, set the table every time up and went 3-3 and scored every time. Included were two gap doubles. Lefty followed him with a double and a triple of his own and drove in four of our nine runs. Gene and Charlie were nearly perfect as the former was 3-3 and the latter was 2-2 plus a sac fly. Sting, batting last after finding his keys, slashed a line drive single and another gap double, and drove in three runs.

Joe and Chuck deserve special thanks because both are hobbling and played through it. Each had a hit, and Joe even ran for himself to first! Special thanks to Skip and Charlie for filling in on short notice. They played so well there is an open invitation any time to play.

Imagine what would happen if we were even at half strength!

Noob is the new choke

There's a drive, way back, it might be, it could be, it IS, a home run and we are tied. What a comeback, down 22-12 going into the bottom of the seventh, six runs in, bases loaded, two outs, tying run at the plate. We all have dreamt it.

I suffered no such dream, I just wanted to get on safely, and keep the line moving. Leave the heroics to someone else. Hell, I just wanted to get the ball out of the infield.

Instead, I noobed it to second, and that was that.

But this isn't about me. The team did launch a heroic comeback against SOP, even if we came up short, 22-18. We held them to 2 runs after giving up 20 in two innings early in the game. Accentuate the positive. Let's face it, they are younger, faster, and more powerful than we are. But we can still give them a game.

Several players had great games. B, D, Cage, and Pauly all had three hits. Pauly would have had four but hit a "fielder's choice" that landed safely in the outfield. D's third hit was a laser shot that kept rising on the right fielder and it's a good thing he came in because if he had gotten in the way it would have hurt. Unfortunately it was our only extra base hit of the game. Coach knocked in five runs on two hits and two sac flies. Bo was a nuisance on the bases with two hits and a walk.

B on a popup to center, and Coop in right made good catches in the first to keep SOP scoreless. Unfortunately they made up for it over the next two frames. Pauly handled a hot shot at third in the fifth by knocking it down and still getting a force at second.

All in all not a bad beginning, we kept chipping away after falling way behind and that's a good sign. Not sure who the rest of the teams in the league are but I'm sure the championship runs through SOP. Next time.

- Noob

Scarlet Squeezes the Orange, 22-17

In a seesaw battle between two very well matched teams, Raul Delgado hit a three run blast that put Scarlet ahead to stay at 19-16 in the top of the sixth. Scarlet eventually prevailed 22-17 after there were four lead changes in the first five innings.

The Orange got into the head of our starter because he wasn't pitching from the correct location (i.e. he was releasing the ball in front of the rubber). When he tried to adjust, he had a little trouble finding the strike zone and it fueled the Orange offense early, which has some great hitters and didn't really need the assist. Still rules are rules, but Raymond Aguilera got his revenge when he hit a three run knock himself in the fifth to give us one of our early leads.

There were some fine infield plays turned by Gary Booth at rover and Delgado at SS that kept the Orange menace at bay in a scoreless first. Since we started with a five spot, the coach was a little afraid of the curse of the first but we eventually overcame it.

The first baseman also turned a wild throw to first into an out at home when the runners didn't notice that he had knocked the ball down, and even with his candy ass arm he was able to get the out at home.

Chip Sharpe came onto the mound in the fifth, and even though Orange crushed five runs in his first inning, he settled down and allowed only one run the rest of the way. He helped his own cause with a great grab on a hot liner up the middle off Evan Spinrod's bat in the ninth. It took away any hope of a late comeback.

But the defensive play of the game was in the eighth when things were still unsettled. Tony Gorgone ranged far into right field on a deep popup, calling it all the way to snag the fly. It was a game saver! Art Miner and Paul Lisi also ran down a couple of sinking liners that had hit written all over them.

On offense, Delgado crushed another ball in the gap that was only not a home run because the fifth run in the fourth scored in front of him. He added a double and a sac fly, and had seven RBIs total. Aguilera went 3-3 with four RBIs and was just a triple short of the cycle. Gerry Dasey had the 'mini' cycle, a single, double and triple. Miner wreaked havoc, going 5-5 with two doubles and four RBIs. Lisi and Kravin also had three hits, and almost everyone else had at least two.

A big call-out to Orange, (especially Brian Black) for allowing Aguilera to keep second base on his double. Ray is a new Creaker and, having played in Pleasant Hill for a long time, where they don't overrun the bases, he stopped short of second on his extra base hit. After some discussion, Orange allowed him to stay - that was a good and laudable bit of sportsmanship.

A good beginning for Scarlet and a very well played game all around!

The Pen Is Mightier Than...

...the Bat?

(Note: this column was written in December 2013. Somehow while looking at it recently, it disappeared, but I was able to copy the content into a new post)

It's Winter. In case you didn't notice, this winter is about the coldest one in Bay Area history, at least for the last couple of weeks. I know, if you are in Indianapolis right now, highs in the 40s, a low of 23 doesn't sound that bad, but lord there is a reason we live in California and 23 degrees is not IT.

What does this mean to a softball slut? For some teams that actually like each other it is another holiday party - The Coneheads had our annual pool party (as in billiards, no one wants to see us in swim suits)...the MudHens/RipCity/Pack/Guerrillas group held the umpteenth Steak Night a couple nights ago.

These are fun activities, it reminds us that we play softball because of the friendships as much as the game itself.

But we are all really just Jonesing for a game. One of the big topic of conversation at Steak Night was why aren't we out there suffering through yet another SF Winter League? We could really be bitching now, considering how cold it is - and then pat ourselves on the back for being such good softball sluts.

So the mind wanders...goes a little...'batty' (sorry)?

And it brings me to the Pen. This year was the most amazing in Conehead history. Two seasons, twice losing the first game in the end of season double elimination tournament only to roar back and win six in a row to take all the Cotton. That's right - TWICE. I mean, it's unheard of...

Here's the thing - I am a little superstitious. One of the things is that I keep a Pen attached to the clipboard that holds the scorebook. The scorebook changes from game to game, depending upon which of my teams is playing that night. But the Pen remains.

One day early in the summer season in Orinda, we played a game at the Orinda Sports Field, number two. We lost a bad one that night, I think by two or three runs to the Waitlisters, who pretended to be the best team in the league until the playoffs. It was a game we should have won - I think we had a number of bad base running plays and other gaffes that cost us the game. It was the second loss in a row to open the season. This was unheard of in Conehead history, never happened certainly in my 14 years on the team. And the Pen disappeared that night, I didn't know where it dropped out, and I had to get out a new one.

The rest of the season we struggled to make decent seeding for the playoffs, for God's sake we only beat the lowly President's Club 5-4 one game. We managed to finish 8-3 and in a decent place for the tournament. But our first playoff game was back on that field OSF2, where we had had our problems, and our opponent was the dread St. Monica's, who had upset us twice in a row going back two years, and had given us our closest game the previous year in the playoffs and that year we were rolling everybody in our way.

And sure enough they beat us again this year to start the playoffs. But a magical thing happened at the end of that game - I looked down in the dugout and there was the Pen. It was just a nondescript Bic: black ink, medium point. Covered with ground in dirt. But there it was, staring at me like a lost puppy that found its way home. I picked it up (it still wrote!) and clipped it to the scorebook, And It Was Good.

We went on to win six in a row over the next two days, in the 100 degree August heat in Orinda, went 7-1 in the Fall season, and after again losing the first game, came back to win the playoffs from the losers' bracket... history was made...and the Pen smiled.

So that brings us to the challenge for next year...Truth is that sometimes the reason the blog is late or non-existent is that, among my other faults, I am addicted to crosswords and Sudoku. I can waste vast amounts of time in these activities. Julia says it's good for me, will keep my mind sharp in Old Age. The 

jury is out on that. Nonetheless, I have erred and used the Pen for these activities. A lot. And now - the Pen is running out of ink.

What does it mean? Does it mean that the Coneheads great run of seven straight Championships will come to an end? I can try to save the Pen for a few more games - but a whole season, a whole year? No way.

This will be our challenge - it was inevitable that eventually we would have to win without the Pen, and I am giving you fair warning. Everyone double their offseason workouts, do whatever it takes, because next year we will have just one more obstacle to continuing our runs in our two leagues. I know we can do it, but it will take just a little extra.

And just in case we don't, please don't blame me - I am so sorry I used the Pen for word games - please forgive me, Coneheads and Softball Gods.