Gold's other manager Chuck started referring to our team as Team Cuervo, as in Cuervo Gold. It sounded like a cool name, summed up the ballers in us with a favorite post game treat. But then the new day glo Golden uniforms we were promised never showed up, even though by now we were supposed to be in Week 6. Last week, we tried being the psychedelic rainbow team, and it didn't work out so well. So this week we tried to each find anything that had Gold or Yellow in it. Since it ended in a narrow victory over the vaunted Purple Team (18-17 officially*, more on that later), I have made a unilateral decision - we will now be referred to as Zippy Josh and the Rag Tag Band, borrowed from a music group from around the turn of the century that had an album called Stupidville.

Oh the game - it was a tautly played back and forth chess match. Both teams had some great defense and some timely hits, and there were four or five lead changes.

We jumped out to an 8-2 lead after two. There were a bunch of clutch hits, Dick Stanley having the most clutch, a two run single for runs six and seven.

But it was defense that allowed us to keep the early lead. Chuck Howlett made a fine catch of a line drive in the first followed by Donn King claiming an errant throw in the dirt at first. In the second with a couple on and one out, Andy Steinberg snared a hot line drive and had the wherewithal to immediately fire to rover Helen Kostoff on the bag at second. Inning over.

Purple came roaring back to overtake us and go up 11-9 after five. We plated two in the sixth to tie it, and five in the 7th to go ahead where we stayed the rest of the game. The big hits were Steinberg's two run single, Stanley's double that pushed our five run seventh along, and Howlett's clutch single for the fifth run that inning.

Adding on when you have a lead is very important and in the eighth Dan DeClercq hit a two run triple to right and when he scored we took a four run lead to the bottom of the eighth.

Purple was somewhat bitten by the time limit rule. In the eighth I had to tell Manager Sloat that since it was 11:41 going into the bottom half, we would not have an open inning (unless we finished the inning in less than four minutes) because we could not by rule start an inning after 11:45. As it turned out it didn't matter because even if we had declared the eighth the open inning each team scored three, and when the last Purple player lined into Steinberg's glove it was game over.

Woody Whitlatch, who pitched the whole game, mostly got outs when they counted (many of the runs were unearned in Purple's big sixth inning six run comeback). He gets the game ball.

The hitting stars were Charlie Uhlman with four hits and three RBIs, Willie Hollis, Kostoff, Stanley, Heffe, Whitlatch, and Howlett, all with three hits.

Comic Relief Play of the Game was by yours truly for ending inning five with a backward K for the third out. It was my second straight Creaker game doing that as I finished the Winter league that way and missed Gold's first game last week. That must be some kind of record. Deep bow, thank you very much.

*When I got home, I discovered that we neglected to post one of our runs on the scoreboard, so the game should have been 19-17. That would have hurt if we had tied or Purple had finished their  comeback to beat us by a run. C'est la Vie.

Ignominy

There are certain words I love to find the opportunity to use in my blog. As I am want to do (which is also such a phrase), I will lead with a subplot involving me. One such word is: Ignominious. As in, "Heffe ignominiously looked at a called third strike to end the at bat, the inning, the game and the season!"

Yesterday, Team Black Shirts seemed to play out the game like we were looking forward to the post game Helen's Shots and Dave's Margaritas more than the actual game. We stood in first place in the non-existent standings and Team Four seemed intent on winning to tie us to end the season, and tip your cap, they brought it to the field, resulting in a 24-15 drubbing. Every time we threatened to make it a game they piled on five more runs.

I took on the job as Winter Coordinator (and one man Placement Committee) with one main goal and one selfish goal. The main goal was, of course to get the most balanced in the teams' talent I could.  If you look at the results in the non-existent standings, you would have to say I did a pretty good job. Just look at the talent we faced yesterday - their lineup is pretty daunting.

But selfishly, my goal was not to load my team but to create a team with the best chemistry I could find. And our winning games was largely a product of that. As Dave said in his season ending email, "We had a good defense, a strong lineup, a great attitude and a post game that was the envy of the league."

An interesting stat: We had only two players that missed more than two games in the rain shortened season, and they both had injury problems. Now maybe it's because we have no other life in retirement or just love the game, sometimes it's hard to tell. But we have a team full of gamers who liked to play together and simply put, showed up. At least one of the other teams could barely field a team yesterday.

In the game, we trailed early (9-2 after three) and then managed to mount a comeback to tie the score at 14 in the top of the sixth. But from there it was all Team Blue until they put us down quietly in the eighth and final inning.

Sloat led the way with four RBIs. He and Greg had triples for the big blows of the day. And Helen was one of three players to hit doubles, her first of the season! She was joined by Mike and Marty. Greg, Johnny and Marty each had three hits.

Helen very nearly actually got off the ground to snag a hard line drive up the middle. Steve Rousso made perhaps the catch of the season in a dive in short right center. We turned one double play, David Peterson to Helen to Heffe.

Our best inning was the five run sixth, when after a leadoff walk to Coach Dave, we had six straight hits including Sloat's triple and Helen's double.

Marty nosed out Dave for the team batting title, .818 to .791, both pretty impressive. Mike knocked in 33 runs, way ahead of the runner up. Kenji led us with eight doubles, and in only six games. Brian made the most of leading off to score 24 runs.

Nine players hit above .700. Not sure if I have ever been on a team with that kind of performance.

A note about the standings, in case Dave Kinkead ever mentions it: Yes they tied us at 7-4 but they fell short in runs scored and in run differential which are usually the tiebreakers.

Overall, Black Shirts was a really fun team and the season was very successful. Wish we could keep this team together!

And Now, For Something Completely Different

A Loss. Try that one on for size. Albeit, it was a one run, 25-24 loss, fun game between two very evenly matched teams.

Not that this is all about me, but trailing 25-17, we put on a tremendous rally with nine straight hits in the ninth, getting the tying and leading runs on with one out.

I had gone to the eye doctor and picked up my new glasses the other day. I blame my year long slump to stumbling around half-blind. Today, I hit an actual legit double. But in the ninth, mighty heffe stepped to the plate, and hit a Screamer up the middle and Billy E made the stab of his life to get me out. I have no doubt it was going through, the rally would have continued, we would have batted around again, and held them to zero runs in their half, and won the game going away.

And Brock Purdy is going to lead the 49ers into the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks too...

We did have a couple of defensive lapses and that really was the difference.

Oh the rest of the game. Johnny G went 4-4. Wait - that was last week. There was a lot of grumbling that there was no blog last week - it's nice to be loved for my words if not my personality! But JG gets his kudos!

Back to this week, Steve made a highlight reel catch in right center when he gunned down a runner trying to advance a base. Not on that arm! Jerry made a number of running catches in right field saving innings from getting the five run limit. Chuck made a diving stop at second to get a force out late in the game.

What a game! The lead changed nine times and that's not including one tie. Both teams scored in every frame until the bottom of the sixth, and then both teams took an inning off. Unfortunately we took three off, only scoring one run in the sixth, seventh and eighth combined. That set up the flip flop and the seven run ninth that just fell short.

Mike led the way going 5-5 and ended January 9-9. He leads the team with 31 RBIs. Brian, Greg, Kenji, and Johnny all were 4-5. Dave was 3-4 and led the team with six RBIS, and is your batting leader at an even .800. Everyone had at least one hit, and Sandy was the other person robbed by a great fielding play (by Vince F in left field on a smashed sinking liner).

In the three run fifth, we had four hits, all doubles by Kenji, Steve, Mike (!) and Heffe (!), and we had 11 for the game, a season high. Really we hit enough to win, but had one bad inning in the field, and that was the difference.

Here's your props for last week: David P 5-5, Greg, Jerry, Johnny, Dave, and Mike four hits and Kenji 3-3.

Only two weeks left - we are still in first place in the non-existent standings but let’s get back on a roll next week!

Comeback Black!

Team Black cheated.

I say that but it made no difference. The scoreboard read 23-17 at the end of the game but according to the book it was only 22-17. We took an extra run in the ninth. So it goes.

But who could tell, because we hammered home seven (or eight) runs in the top of the open inning, amidst a flurry of runners rounding and rounding the bases.

We came back in the game twice. We started slow and spotted Team Green an 8-2 lead after four innings. Then we plated the max ten runs in the next two innings, the biggest blow a knock to deep right center off of Alan's bat to clear the jammed bases. That gave us the initial tie at 12-12. Green responded with three in the bottom of the sixth, and even though we tied it again with three in the seventh, Green poured in five in the eighth to take their last lead at 17-15.

The top of our order was up, and the top of the order was hot - Brian, Dan, and Greg were all 4-5. They set the table and after a Mike SF, there were three more hits, and after a second out, three more with two outs. The seven (or eight) runs were too much for the Greenies to overcome, and even though they got a couple of baserunners on, Greg started throwing knuckle balls for strikes and they were unable to get a single run. A couple of popups later it was over.

Cap'n Dave led the way with a perfect 5-5 day. In addition to the three at the top, Steve R and Alan also had four hits. Alan led the team with five RBIs. Besides his two extra base hits, Brian also had two doubles.

Defensive highlight of the game was another wayward runner thrown out from the outfield - this time it was Brian in left to SS Russo to Mike at 3B in the first inning. Later, Johnny and the outfielders were playing the bottom two hitters in the order at the cones. Each one came up in the third inning and put it over his head - and he managed to get back and catch them both! Sandy made a great stop on a ball hit by Green's big lefty, knocking it down and then outracing him to the bag. Chuck had a couple of snags in the sixth at the mound on balls ticketed up the middle to green lands.

We are on a roll - four in a row around all the rainouts. There's good chemistry - we are doing it without the big bats of Mary and Kenji. But don't say it too loud, we know who put together these teams. Shhh!

Howlin' Wolf

The Wolf in all of us was finally unleashed today, as we devoured the hapless Hornets today 20-16. It was only that close because we started to repeat past behavior - after taking a 19-7 lead through 5 1/2 innings, we only scored one more run. We let the Hornets back in the game with a six run eighth to close to 20-16, and then failed to get a run in the top of the open ninth. The Hornets had the top of their lineup up, and were all set up to do what they do to us. But after a couple of batters got on base, Chris coaxed a couple of popups and an easy grounder and it was over, a sweet 20-16 win to double our win total for the YEAR in two weeks. And we climbed out of the cellar in the standings.

A true team win, there were plenty of heroics. JP played a great game at rover. He caught a smash in what was an act of self preservation. He turned numerous grounders into outs and ranged far to his left to catch a popup in shallow right.

Dave may have tied or set a record and certainly a career high with three putouts at catcher. Two of them were foul ball popups that not many 65+ year-olds would snag. And we had a stellar Jimmy to Marc (I think?) to Dave putout on the speedy Rich Brown.

Wilbur made a diving stop and toss to first to get an out - but we are used to that.

Howlin' Wolf

The hitting was hot and spread around. All but two of the Pack had THREE or more hits.

Ladd had four of them, and six RBIs from the leadoff spot, including a two run blast to deep left field.

Marc led the way with five hits, including a triple - he was huffing and puffing all the way to third.

Reymundo joined Ladd with four hits and Jim, Paul, Chris, Dave, Heffe and Wilbur each had three. Dave had a right center gapper for a double, and Heffe rounded out the extra base hits with a line painting oppo line drive to left that scored Dave all the way from first.

If we can just put it together every week like we have the last two games, we can be contenders in this league. Look out Little Red Riding Hood:

Hey There Little Red Riding Hood

Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny Oh!

When I was a kid, there was a sing song I thought was called Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny! I thought that was 90% of the lyrics of it. the other part being Oh!. As in:

Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny,
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny,
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!

My Parents' Best Friends' daughter Ellen (who was two years older than me and I had a tremendous crush on) used to tease me by changing Johnny to Jeffrey.

Oh Jeffrey, Oh Jeffrey,
Oh Jeffrey, Oh Jeffrey, Oh!
Oh Jeffrey, Oh Jeffrey,
Oh Jeffrey, Oh Jeffrey, Oh!

I was so embarrassed and crushed at this that I would usually run out of the room, but I was secretly flattered as an eight year old should be.

*see PS note for a good laugh

And then when I had toddlers, one of the games we would play was Johnny Whoops. This would involve putting a child on my knee and jumping my leg up and down over and over, all the while chanting Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, and then when she least expected it, call out "Whoops" while lowering my leg quickly so my daughter would slide down on my leg (not hurting her) and she would start laughing as she slipped down. And then call out "Again!"

This may seem like useless nostalgia but in fact it has a reason. Our Left Fielder Johnny G has on occasion complained about not getting enough press, so now, Johnny, You Are Covered.

Note: The Johnny Whoops has nothing to do with any potential shortcomings in left field like the one where you nearly made an almost impossible catch while blinded by the sun, but it got the best of you that once at the last second.

No it's more about the catch in the same blinding sun and the gun to second to get the last two outs of the game. Except it wasn't, because Team Green claimed Charlie U tagged up so he had to be tagged on the throw.

And the one in the sixth where you started a 7 (LF Johnny) to 6 (SS David) to 5 (3B Rousso) to 2 (C Sandy) Art Miner home run robbery with a strike to David.

Bravo! And of course you were 3-3 and the only out you made was a sac fly. 

Enough?

There were many other stories in this game. We took a 5-1 lead in the first without making an out. But Team Green came back to catch us at 11 in the fourth. In the fifth and sixth we took command again with a pair of five run innings but the Greens scratched back to tie us in the top of the eighth. Then they gifted us five runs in the bottom of the eighth with some bad defense before clutch hits by Dan, David and Mike at the top of the order. That really put them away and Johnny made sure in the ninth. It was over at 28-23.

Team BS had another fabulous relay out, the first out in the second. This one went from 8 (LC Sloat) to 6 (David) to 1 (P Chuck) to 2 (C Sandy) to throw out another potential home run hitter. There were three things the outs at home had in common. The initial throws were each fired on target with speed to the next cutoff. The relays were turned quickly. The last throws were dug out by Sandy from the dirt on one and a low throw on the other. Bravo!

In the fifth, Chuck earned his new nickname (Roomba) (for the bazillionth time). This was on a one hop smash off the bat of Greg Wilson, the hardest hitting lefty in the league, that he stuck into his glove making it into a relatively easy out. Sandy in right and Sloat in LC made great catches for the other two outs in that inning.

But for comic relief Sloat takes the cake (as usual?). He made the toughest catch of the day in the first, going deep into left center to chase a blast down. Quite remarkable. And then to celebrate, he kept jogging deeper into the outfield, rejoicing. And forgetting the speedy Miner was on second tagging up and just kept running all the way home without a throw.

Mike led the hitting barrage with five RBIs on a 5-5 day (one double). Dan, pressed into the leadoff position because Brian's note somehow didn't get to coach Dave, had a monster day. Two doubles, a triple and four RBIs while going 4-5.

A leadoff hitter gets four RBIs because once again, the bottom of the lineup stuffed the bases all game. Helen was 3-3 with a walk. Sandy was 3-4, her only out breaking a streak of eight straight hits going back to October. Jerry was 3-4, Chuck had a couple of knocks including the hit that put us up for good, and rookie Greg started his Creaker career with a two run triple (after strategically whiffing on a high pitch to bring in the outfield), and also had two hits.

Everyone in the lineup had at least two hits, in fact. Mike had five, Dan four, Sloat was 4-4, the other Rousso joined Dave R and Johnny G and Helen and Jerry with three. Four players drove in a fifth run in an inning, Sloat in the first, David in the sixth, Mike in the eighth, and Heffe in the fifth with two outs.

Clutch hitting throughout even though some were gifts.

So we cemented our spot in first place in a league that doesn't keep standings! Keep it up!

p.s. I found Oh Johnny Oh by the Andrews Sisters from 1939. I think Johnny G was born around then. In fact there are lyrics! Enjoy:

Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh!

You're not handsome, it's true
But when I look at you
I just, Oh, Johnny!
Oh, Johnny! Oh!

p.s..s. I think we have another new nickname: Johnny Whoops. Or maybe just Oh Johnny. Team vote?

Bottoms Up!

If you look at the stats, you may notice that at the top are Marty and myself, the two August 2nd birthday boys. Now in my case it may be a fluke; Marty is a legit power and average hitter. But the point is that today we sat out with various ailments, threw down the gauntlet and challenged the team to win one for the Leos!

And the Black Shirts responded with a game that was not completely perfect, but was nonetheless a complete game - clutch hitting, clutch pitching, and some very good defense.

Have a game David in the three hole! Five for five, two doubles, a triple, and SEVEN RBIs. And behind him Mike with four for five, two doubles and six RBIs.

But look closer - there were base runners all over the place for those guys. And look at who they were: Brian (2-4, BB) and Dan (4-5), of course, batting one and two, but beyond that Sandy and Chuck were 8-8 between them in the last two spots in the order. Bottoms up! Bottoms on! Bottoms score! And when Steve S wasn't battering himself in the base path to first he was right there in front of them: Three of our four five run innings were started by Steve or Sandy and Brian came up with two or three runners on and no outs.

Now that's a formula for success.

In the mean time there were some very, uh, entertaining plays. Steve S getting out of the box and running into the ball took some real talent. Steve is always entertaining. And on the other end, in the fourth, Johnny G, blinded by the bright sun in left, stuck his glove hand out to where he thought the ball was, turned his head away, and plunk! right there in the pocket. Just like his coaches taught him!

And finally the old 10 (Dave R in right) to 11 (Helen at rover) to 2 (Sandy catching) to 5 (Mike at 3B) putout to get the last out in the second inning. It was almost an afterthought that Team Four scored two on the hit.

David also caught a blast to left center in the sun, also in the second. Steve R made a sliding catch in the same position in the third. Jerry stood tall to snare a line drive to first that no one else in the team could possibly reach to end that inning. On a grounder in the fifth, the throw to get a force at second was off line and Helen alertly came off the bag and managed to tag the runner. In the sixth, David (SS) and Sandy at first made back to back plays with Sandy stretched out to get the close throw. And finally, Helen made a fine play to nail the speedy Doug Hearth in the eighth to keep Team Four from a big comeback inning with the Heart(h) of their lineup up.

We jumped out to a lead, (10-5 after two), withstood their comeback (12-12 after five), and then shut them down (one run in the 6th, 7th, and 8th) while pouring it on with five run innings in the sixth and eighth. Now that's the formula of victory, 22-16!

Bottoms up!