All is Golden - Team Cuervo 18, Maroon 17

For the second week in a row, Team Cuervo played mostly great defense and had timely hitting and put away the Maroons 18-17. It was a back and forth game with five lead changes. They were up 3-1, we came back to lead 7-4 in the third, they roared back with a five run fourth to go back up 11-7. We traded three run innings in the sixth and zeroes in the scoreless seventh. But Gold dug deep with a five run eighth and three run ninth, and held off Maroon in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base.

We only had eleven players, and infielders Donn King, Andy Steinberg, Tom Sciarrino, Jeff Kravin, and Chuck Howlett each made at least one great play. We turned a double play on Mike Piscotty on a hot shot to shortstop.

Play of the game was a grounder to the substitute Rover's right, and being left handed he caught it on his forehand side but didn't have time to turn to throw back to second. At the last second I saw that 2B Howlett was getting to second slower than I thought, so I kind of lunged and flung a backhanded wild throw. I swear Chuck, who might be all of 5'5", elongated like a cartoon character and snagged the ball (before it got out to right field) for the force out. Bravo Chuck!

However, the best infielder might have been Jay Edwards, who caught most of the game. Twice there were dribblers in front of the plate, and he pounced on them like a cat. On the first one he fired to King at first. Then he outdid himself in the ninth with the game on the line and got a force out on the lead runner by throwing to Steinberg at 3B. It's a rarity for a Creaker catcher to jump out and get one out in a game much less two on balls hit like that.

Outfielders Charlie Uhlman, Willie Hollis, Dick Stanley, and Dan Declercq were solid all game.

Woody Whitlatch was pressed into duty to pitch the whole game. He had some relapses after missing two games but when it counted in the ninth he managed to set down the very good Maroon lineup before they could tie it up.

Oh the offense. Stanley was 5-5 with two doubles and a home run, and still didn't lead the team in RBIs. Declercq was 2-3 with two walks and both his hits were triples, and he didn't lead the team in RBIs. I was 4-4 with two doubles and a walk, and Uhlman was 3-5, likewise with two doubles. Neither of us led the team In RBIs.

That's because we have Mr. Clutch, catcher Edwards, who just seems to thrive when there are runners on base. He also went 4-4 with a double plus a sac fly, and drove in a run in each of his five plate appearances. He leads the team with 17 RBIs on the season.

We were missing some talent today, but everyone stepped up and Cuervo came out on top in what was the most entertaining game of the season thus far. Salud!

Dr. Jekyll Gold 18, You're in the Navy Now 7

Maybe I am delusional but it seems like I am managing two teams. Today the Dr. Jekyll half performed surgery on the Navy bunch and dominated them 18-7 and evened our record at 3-3. Hope the Doc figures out a way for his alter ego Mr. Hyde to stay out of sight.

Navy jumped to a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the third. Chuck Howlett led off with a single and Willie Mays Hayes Hollis sent his pinch runner to third with a double. After a fly out, Dan the Man Declercq tied the game with a two run single. Up to the plate strode Big Jim Alexander and did what Big Jims everywhere should do, he pounded a rocket launch into the far reaches of Field 5, and by the time the dust cleared he stood on third base. Charlie Ohlman brought him home with a line drive single, and with the score at 6-4, we never looked back.

That's because we brought in the new secret weapon, a pitcher named Steve Bedrick. This is a Creaker rookie in his first appearance on the Farm of Heather, but it's clear he has plenty of experience getting batters out in slow pitch softball. Bedrick mixed up short and deep, high and low and in and out, and the Navy batters for the most part were off balance all the rest of the game. For four innings we played good defense behind him, and Navy put up four zeroes. They finally touched him for three runs in the top of the eighth, but they were all unearned - we made at least four or five errors. By that point the game was out of reach and he set them down in order in the ninth for the win.

It was out of reach because our bats came alive this time around. Declercq, Charlie Uhlman, and Coach Heffe were all 5-5. Alexander hit another bomb for a double to go with his triple and had the mini-cycle with three hits. Jay Edwards was also perfect with 4-4 and a team leading four RBIs. He has made a habit of hitting in the clutch all year and is tied with the team lead in RBIs despite hitting lower in the order. Besides Alexander, Helen Kostoff, Donn King and Howlett also had three knocks, and everyone had at least one and nearly everyone knocked in one or more runs.

There were a couple of good plays to note. On a shot up the middle  Howlett, who started the game, managed to deflect the ball just enough that SS Tom Sciarrino could grab it and get a force at second. Alexander took a bases loaded hard grounder to third and performed the textbook step-on-third-throw-home double play in one of the later innings. And Donn King, nailed a guy trying to stretch a hit to right into a double.

But (butt?) the play of the day was by Willie Mays Hays Hollis on a medium deep fly to center, casually sticking up his glove to snare the ball (what, two hands? 150 years of baseball fundamentals? bah!). Next week, I expect a snatch catch a la Rickey Henderson. Oops, did I say that out loud?

It's the Shoes! Team Cuervo over Blue-Yellow, 25-18

Last week Team Cuervo donned our gleaming new yellow uniforms but it didn't help us in the game as we were missing so many key players.

This week my Co-Manager Chuck Howlett took all the rag tag shirts we had been wearing and exchanged them for new shoes - the brand name is Hitting Shoes.

And so, we came out slugging and didn't stop until the game was nearly out of reach. We scored five spots in the first, second, and fourth and fifth after taking a break in the third, and before Blue-Yellow could blink, we were up 20-8. Give them credit, they came roaring back in the top of the seventh with eight runs to narrow the margin to 23-17, but we tacked on two more in the eighth, and it was too steep a hill to climb in the open ninth inning, and the final score was 25-18.

Hitting heroes abounded, which is obvious when I tell you Gold hit .722 in the game. Dick Stanley continued his rampage through the league going 5-5 with four RBIs. Jim Alexander was right with him with a 5-5 day. Dan DeClercq was 4-5 with a triple and a double, and tied Stanley with team leading four RBis. Helen Kostoff was also perfect with a 4-4 game including three RBIs. Charlie Uhlman smashed some line drives and scored three and was also 4-5. Lead off hitter Willie Hollis and Dale Browne and Howlett all had three dingers, and all but one player had at least two, and that guy walked twice including one with the bases loaded for an RBI.

There were some spectacular plays on defense. Howlett set the tone for the day with a diving two out grab in the first to end B-Y's threat. We turned three double plays with Kostoff as the pivot in her rover position. Kostoff robbed Leslie Lafredo on a hot shot down the line in the fourth when she subbed for Alexander at 3B in his one inning out. Likewise Jay Edwards made a great play on a ball up the middle that inning when he replaced Helen at rover.

It was very encouraging how well Gold played when almost the whole team was present. Henceforth all vacations and tournaments are canceled for Team Cuervo players. Sorry, guys and gal.

Well We Looked Good in Losing - Orange over Gold 23-10

The long promised brand new Golden shirts finally arrived in Creakerland in time for our game with Orange Thursday, but the magic just wasn't in them as Cuervo Gold went down to the powerful Orange team 23-10. Only a late two run rally got us to double digits.

It is tough to write up a game where the team wasn't really in it from the beginning, but I wanted to single out some of our standouts' play. We were down 13-3 by the third inning and never got close than 15-7.

We actually didn't hit badly - the team batting average was above .500, and we had six extra base hits but we just didn't string together enough of them, and hit into too many double plays.

Willie Hollis and Dick Stanley led the way with four hits each, and each hit a double. Charlie Uhlman was right behind with three hits including a triple, and tied Stanley and Jay Edwards with three RBIs. Newcomer Tom Sciarrino also had three knocks and played an impeccable SS.

But the play of the game (possibly for both teams) was Uhlman ranging far to his right in left field to rob the new powerful rightie on Orange, to snag a hard liner that probably was destined for the fence. It proved my own personal adage - "Stick out your glove you never know what might happen."

As the famous Dodgers saying went (sorry Giants fans for calling up Dodgers lore) "Wait 'til next week!"

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!