Big Moments

In any team athletic competition, there is an ebb and flow to a game, it turns this way and that until the final push...sometimes great drama at the end, sometimes not. But it seems that at some point in the game, there is that one moment, when some play happens and you just know by the result of that play how this game is going to go. Especially in the playoffs.

It happened yesterday while we watched Advance Construction take on Pinky's (note - sipping our beers after winning our two games). Advance, a heavy underdog, was in the game, and had it tied up in something like the fifth inning. One of Pinky's slashers was up with a couple of guys on base and I think there were two outs - and the shortstop went out and played short left field. His gambit worked perfectly as the hitter smashed the ball right to him - granted it was hard hit - but it went off his glove, a run or two scored, it opened the floodgates, and Advance never recovered.

Likewise in our game, the was a Moment in our game against Pinky's. In a surprising low scoring game, we had gone up 2-0, and then the umps killed our rally with a bad call when Chopper ran into Knight rounding second. Pinky's wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball, but crept back to 3-1 then 3-2 and took a lead in the bottom of the fifth 4-3. Between the bad call on Chopper (which nullified a run in addition to killing the rally) and the bad 'no-tag' on Greg in the fourth, we were beginning to wonder what do we have to overcome to beat these guys? It's bad enough that we have to shut them down, but we must overcome every bad call too?

At any rate it came to be that in the top of the sixth, we tied it on hits by Randy, Haz, and Timmy, but had the bases loaded and two outs. Up strode Chuck, our defensive whiz and heart of the team. Chuck has been struggling, at least in his mind, which means his average is in the same realm as the rest of us. But on this pitch, trying to hit a line drive to just give us a run to take the lead, he caught one and froze Mark Hayes in center field and before he could do anything about it, it was over his head and the double plated three runs.

There was still the matter of getting six outs from Pinky's to make sure there was no comeback, but at that moment you just knew this game was over. As it turned out it ended emphatically with a G to Chuck to D double play.

It sets us up with the advantage of winning just one of two, and we can end the tournament by winning the first game today. Most of you won't read this until after the game or games today - I don't know what will happen. But I do know that after we have drubbed Pinky's two straight, and Advance taking them to the limit yesterday in the elimination game, doubt has crept in, and the swagger is gone. David is gonna take down Goliath!

See you in an hour.

The Ale That Cures Ya

The Mr. Conehead trophy is over there, staring at me. Mocking me. It's Larry's now, but it remains on the mantle. It's giving me a different kind of stink-eye, one that doesn't get all sweet and emotional when the season is over, and brings charms from across the world for luck. This one is just constant, it keeps staring at me, accusing me - how could I allow the Coneheads to get to the two thirds point of the season with three losses! Three losses, how dare you! That's the total of all last year!

The low point was unconventional in that it occurred in a win. It actually happened on that cold Thursday night at Wilder 1 at 8:00 against the President's Club. The winds were howling, our fans were freezing. We managed to score all of five runs, and escaped with our lives and our health and a 5-4 win. We hit a very unConehead .414 as a team that night. Usually the low point doesn't come in a win, so we will take it. 

So it was no surprise that we got clocked against the Old Scouts the next Monday, 20-8. Another makeshift outfield. Some key defensive mistakes which gave the Scouts their version of a Conehead inning. It was really over by the second. The Scouts took a 12-3 lead and suddenly coming back with nine runs seemed like a foreign concept. We scored one run in the last four innings.

But the beautiful thing about the bottom of the curve is that it is the bottom. And at the bottom we were still over .500, and in this year, where the Wailisters are undefeated and Areolas had only one loss til this week, anything is still possible.

There were signs to believe in - Chuck and Ol' G and Chopper made one out between them. If the rest of us just returned to normal (and some just returned), anything was possible.

And just in time, on cue, the (former Santa Maria) Reds showed up. A warmer clime at Wilder Monday night. Conehead inning in the first to go up 6-0.11-0 by the top of the third. Derek and Chopper each 4-4, and Haz matched Chopper's team leading four RBIs on three hits. We were downright cocky be the sixth and moved positions around with a 17-2 lead, and gave up five runs. But it did give us the defensive highlight of the night, Chopper just nailing a smash to his left playing third on the turf, gunning a short hop to career outfielder Gene playing first, which he scooped up like he had been doing it his whole life (well there was a popup over my head that I made look really difficult due to age and slowness and Gerry yelling "yours Heffe, yours," with extreme panic in his voice). And of course our comic relief on a mostly routine popup to the catcher, which he ignominiously dropped, and who was....Sting! Doink! Back to the outfield with you sir!

So all is not lost in Orinda this season...remember 2004, we were 8-6 in the regular season, and didn't lose again through the playoffs and all of that fall season.

Three games left, third place is not out of sight, but it's not going to matter much whether we finish 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. It's all about getting in a groove going into the playoffs now. Starts tomorrow night against the Usual Saps, er Suspects.

Milestones:
7/8
Ol' G        350 h (#14)
Markley    50 g (#22)
Chopper   20 2b (#23)
7/11
Chopper   250 ab (#19)
7/15
Pope         800 ab (#8)
Ol' G        600 ab (#14)
7/22
Joe           80 bb (#7)
Sting         350 r (#11)

Cliche

We love cliches. Well, as a writer you hate cliches, but in sports the cliche proves the rule.

In Transdyn's case, here it is, stolen from football:

On any given Tuesday in the playoffs, anyone can beat anyone. Or, in our case the damn Ringers can beat us.

We had a tremendous season. I mean how many times do you go 12-0? And in dominant fashion. There was one weird game, the one when Jason got hurt and we had about three guys show up late, we only won 10-8. But other than that, we flat out dominated. We won one game by three over the true next best team (and eventual playoff champs) the Brew Brothers, and no other game by less than seven. My strongest recollections of the season were guys patiently taking pitches until they got theirs and then smashing it somewhere there was no one to catch it. Guys unselfishly letting the next guy be the hero. And Sir Guy inducing poor swings, or guys making diving catches. And of course, Monty getting twelve straight hits or whatever it was.

It was assumed that we would make the championship game. But the Ringers had other ideas. They put up six on us in the first, but this didn't even phase us, and we answered with 15. And therein was our downfall. We stopped scoring after that, in fact only two the next three innings. We can speculate on why - my pet theory is that we were so used to walking against their horrible pitcher, we were lulled to sleep, and he started suddenly throwing strikes. Or we started swinging at crap, I'm not sure. Last time we played them he walked twelve of us and this time nine. Maybe we just did lose patience after getting a lead.

But you have to give the Ringers credit - they hit around to get back in the game after our big inning, and then to take a lead they did not give up; We certainly had our chances.

So the other cliche is what is the silver lining. Well, we proved we can go 12-0 and it's awfully tough to go undefeated all the way through the playoffs. Now we can focus on the other goal, the one we have every season - be the last team standing. We haven't won the playoffs in two years, so it is time.

And the other is picking up Donnie and Rene. We thought losing RB would be a huge deal, but we didn't skip a beat with them, and even though we might lose Donnie if his old team re-forms, I think we hooked Rene for years to come.

Stats highlights: Tim setting records for at bats (50) and hits (38), and Derek tying the record for RBIs in a season (34). And the team smashed the records for team batting average (.630 over last fall's .604) and OBP (.652). Nice!

Two weeks we re-start the quest for double cotton. Longest 'between season' in memory. I need my bibimbap! See you there!

Milestones:

Sir Guy      200 rbi (#8)
Hama        150 ab (#24)

Crank It Up

I was in a daze all week, well maybe for the last couple. The hint of things to come when Transdyn, my Tuesday team, after going 12-0 in the regular season, then got our lunch handed to us in the playoffs by the fourth place team. To that point, my teams were on cloud nine - Transdyn was 12-0, JFT had won about 10 in a row, heady days.

Then last Sunday it got ugly. I played in a charity tournament, the same one in July called Softball for the World's Children (equipment and fees donated to children that need help) I have played in for years.

We lost four in a row. I came back to the East Bay for JFT to lay our egg last week against pesky Corona, losing 9-3. Oh and five in one single day of softball. Then the Coneheads lost Monday and my Wednesday team, although making a valiant effort, came up short as underdogs in the playoffs by one run.

0-7 in a week. How do you do that? They said I was cranky all week. Can you believe that?

And we were staring up at Pinky's Pizza, who hadn't even had a close game all season, and came in 13-0 to our 11-2.

The game started as expected. Pinky's was blasting it to right, to center, to left, shaved bats or not, the singles hitters were hitting line drives, and before we knew it, it was 11-2 going into the bottom of the third. In the mean time, we are taking strike three, and hitting into double plays.

And then something happened. I don't know what triggered it...somewhere deep down we were just mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Arrogant Pinky's decided to go with three outfielders and five infielders, daring us to hit gaps.

So there was nothing to do but do it. Talk about crankin it up - we batted around two innings in a row, while shutting down the juggernaut twice, and in the end we sent eight guys to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, and they all scored. Chopper ended it with a home run to right - I am not sure if the slaughter rule was called or if we ran out of time, but the great Pink Dragon was finally slayed.

You could argue that it means nothing. Thanks to losing to Corona's last week, we couldn't catch Pinky's in the standings (which is a shame because we took the head to head run differential advantage with our outburst), and ended up the regular season a game behind them. The game was meaningless technically.

But for us it had all the meaning in the world. For one thing, we had to prove to ourselves that we can beat these guys after taking it on the chin five times since they showed up in the league. Last year they accounted for four of our total of five losses. This year our only loss before week 13. We needed to show both teams what we can do.

For another thing, we have been in a funk offensively and to a degree defensively. We broke out of that in a big way against a quality team tonight - try 25 unanswered runs, and we weren't finished when time and/or the score ran out. We might still be out there if they hadn't called the game.

It will be a challenge next weekend in the playoffs, no doubt. Playoff tournaments are different, and Pinky's is a tested tournament team. But now they have something different to think about - watch out for JFT when we awaken out of our slumber.

Everyone contributed, Chopper had the walkoff home run, and a triple and six RBIs. Only my snail-like running kept him from a perfect game. Chuck, Reg, Heffe, Haz, and Dizzy D made no outs between them. Tim and Haz had a couple of very clutch hits in our innings when we batted around, and Gene started both off with singles. Lefty and Greg had nine RBIs between them.

On defense as usual Chuck made a couple of great stops and the Knight turned an 11-3 DP. Gene made a fantastic catch in his inning in right field to cut off a rally with no runs.

What this underscored is that these guys really just want to come out and hit only. To them playing defense is a nuisance. We can beat them by making them play defense, whether it is on one of my bloopers or Derek's laser shots, if we make them stretch, they can't handle it. And if we play our strongest defense, it will take away some of their hitting prowess.

Ready? Just five days from now, more or less. As Reg said, we are due!

Milestones:
6/16
Haz              10 2b (#11)
Dizzy D        50 rbi (#13)
7/07 - None
7/14
Chopper       10 2b (#12)
7/21
Lefty            20 sf (#1)
Knight          300 ab (#5)
Tim              100 g (#7)
Joe              20 bb (#7)

What's In A Name?

The Orinda Summer league started out topsy turvy, well sort of. At least for three of the dominant teams from the last several years - the Coneheads, Old Scouts, and Bay Alarm. We lost our first two, the Scouts are 1-3!

And Bay Alarm? Who the hell are they?

Of course you know that they were once the runner up Pennini's late of last year's finals. I just looked up last year's results - actually the Waitlisters and St. Mo's hot starts are no fluke - they ended up last season making the Elite Four (Coneheads, Pennini's, Old Scouts and Cal Bronco) into the Big 6 with records of 9-5 and 10-4 respectively. Pennini's dominated the regular season at 13-0-1, the only blemish a tie with Cal Bronco. The Waitlisters eliminated both Cal Bronco and the Old Scouts last year and you know what we did to Pennini's.

But Pennini's - they are no more. The funniest thing that happened at the Managers' meeting was that the manager of the returning Wrecking Crew said they had Bay Alarm as a sponsor. Does this mean that Pennini's stole the sponsorship? They at least stole the name.

Ah but Karma will get you...Bay Alarm seems to be a shell of their former selves, and we beat them badly 15-1 Monday.

We started off well enough. Four straight hits, and before you knew it, it was 3-0. And then we shut down. One run in the next four innings. Where did you hide the Coneheads? It didn't matter as Joe had the Alarms reaching and popping up and grounding out. Our defense was steady, a great play here by Chuck and Heffe actually got off the ground to make a leaping catch on a high throw, and managed to come down on the base in time. The only threat Pen..er Bay Alarm had was the fabulous Mark Hayes, and Joe pitched him outside and the results were can of corn to Sting in LC, and a grounder to Chuck as SS. He did get a triple but was stranded at third.

And so it came to the top of the sixth, we were only up 4-1 and Joe was nervous. But we finally, finally put together a Conehead inning - Six straight hits including a gapper by Dizzy D, and then six more hits with two outs to bring in the last six runs. If Knight hadn't gotten greedy and got thrown out at the plate, we might still be batting.

Bay Alarm had no answer, just slunk off into the night, and we finally had a meaningful win. Don't count us out just yet.

Sting led the way with four sharp hits, D had two doubles out of three hits, and Knight, Joe (who burned the drawn in outfield) and Heffe also notched three. Knight and Joe led the game with three RBIs.

Milestones:

Chuck        120 bb (#1)
Heffe          1300 ab (#2)
Joe             700 h (#4)
Don            300 g (#5)
D                40 2b (#15)
Knight        100 rbi (#21)

Arrogance Attitude Humility Pride and Are We Having Fun Yet?

After Monday's Conehead game, which we lost 15-12 to the Waitlisters to go 0-2 for the first time certainly in my time with the Coneheads, perhaps in team history, and certainly in the 'modern age' of the Heads, I went out to dinner at the Hofbrau in Orinda with my girl.

Across the restaurant were Johnny's Gang - a team that has never finished with more than three wins in a season for as long as I have archives of the standings and probably any time in my 13 years in the league and beyond. They had just lost, yet again, to the Usual Suspects, the other bottom feeding team, 18-15. It must have been frustrating - a game they clearly had a chance to win, only to lose once more. These guys were chatting away, drinking beer, eating sandwiches, having a grand old time. You would have thought they won by a landslide.

Across town a few minutes earlier, after Chopper got ignominiously tagged out trying to stretch a single into a double with two outs in the seventh and the tying run coming to the plate, the heavens opened up and it was raining steadily by the time we got to the parking lot. The Coneheads parted one by one, no beer, no eats, barely a goodbye.

The two teams were, by the end of that night, tied for last place at 0-2, the only teams that had not won a game yet. Setting up a match tonight whereby the loser would be in last alone. Alone. How the mighty fell.

I sometimes wish we were made up like Johnny's Gang. We take losing so damn seriously. It's only rec league softball. Why can't we go out on the town, win or lose?

It is who we are - we are Coneheads and we expect to win every game, and we don't like it when it doesn't happen.

Oh, we had our excuses - We had too many players in the lineup in the first game, we were missing four of our power hitters and best defensive players in the second, the new mat is too small, keep 'em coming. But we just weren't playing well, like the team that has won five straight championships. We were tight, and I don't mean like a tight defense.

So tonight the stars seemingly could have been aligned for the most embarrassing loss of all, to the lowly Gang. We still were missing both Gregs, Lefty, Dizzy D, and Chopper. That's a lot of firepower. Not to mention D's bat which a lot of us use. And Haz is still hobbled, leaving us with really just two true outfielders. On top of that we had that insane umpire who was actually voted out by the managers, and somehow managed to keep his job torturing us. He actually made up yet another rule tonight - if you stretch over home plate, scoring becomes like a running back breaking the plane of the goal line in football, any part counts if it beats the ball. Really? And the mat is still too small.

We started off well enough, batting around and scoring six. Sting had the biggest hit, a triple (was that a Conehead triple?). As it turned out that was enough, but we didn't know it. We gave away three in the bottom of the first - of course our outfield was playing in the next county, and they snuck in a couple of soft liners and bloopers and we contributed with a couple of errors, and they closed to 6-3. The next four innings almost no one scored. In fact just the Heads with two. In the second it took us two hits and two outs just to get a single run - certainly not a Conehead Inning. Same in the fifth - took us five batters to get a run. It was as if we were waiting for Johhny's Gang to come up with the upset.

But in the top of the sixth we finally, finally, broke through with a Conehead inning late. Joe and Haz started it with singles and after Chuck hit a hard fly ball for a sac fly, we got five straight hits and seven of the next eight reached base. Don got a clutch two out two run single in there.

In a bit of comic relief, Will the Pill umpire decided the game was over - the ten run mercy rule after six. The guy really wanted to go home. I was sure that he was making up more rules. I looked it up - dammit if he wasn't right - fifteen runs after five innings, ten after six. But the teams have the option of finishing the game if there is time, and we took that decision right away from Will the Pill, we had tasted of the Conehead inning and it was good.

Of course what did we do - one, two, three, and nothing across. But then so did the Gang, aided by (finally) our signature double play Chuck to Chuck to first. Game over 15-5. Disaster averted.

Who knows, perhaps we are over our funk now. We will find out Monday against Bay Alarm nee Pennini's, in what should have been our first real test of the season - now they all will be.

Kinda glad - will keep us on our toes. And perhaps Monday, since we can't drink at the JM field any more, we will go enjoy life, and a few of us will take in a roast beef sandwich at the Hofbrau or pizza at Round Table. Relax and even enjoy each other's company, life is too short to just hop in our cars and go off into the night.


Milestones:
6/17
Gene        350 r (#10)
6/24
Chuck      350 g (#2)
6/27
Joe           1150 ab (#3)
Ol' G        300 rbi (#13)

MVP Season

Post Season awards are voted on before the playoffs. So it is time to select the best of each category for Transdyn's FIRST UNDEFEATED season in team history.

We came close in the fall, but now we have done it. Tonight we got a scare against perhaps the next best team. We had a 5-0 shutout through five, and Sir Guy was dealin', and our defense was solid - Hama made a leaping catch at SS, Rene made a running catch in shallow RC, and Pauly snared a very hot shot right at his head. But the two infield line drives were the only hard hits through five, that's how good Bill was. There were a couple of warning track fly balls as the Brews Brothers tried to hit five run home runs time and time again, but Timmy and Rams kept us out of trouble by tracking them down.

In the bottom of the sixth, the BB's suddenly discovered our secret - the long balls are good but so are grounders past the infield and line drives with runners on. They plated seven, and with our last chance looming and the Brewsers holding the hammer, it didn't look good. We just weren't hitting. But Rams and Heffe and Pauly set it up with three singles and up strode Mario, mired in a sort of season long slump (although as I told him he has gotten clutch RBIs all season - he is among the team leaders even though he hasn't hit for average as usual). He put the hurt on the Brews Brothers, clearing the bases with a drive over the right fielder's head, and then we added enough insurance that made a final comeback impossible for the Brothers. We led 11-7, and their lead-off hitter tried to hit a four run homer with no one on, and although he hit it out, they couldn't get another run, and the undefeated season is ours.

Dizzy D had a game with a towering home run and a laser double for an insurance run in the seventh. Hama couldn't let D overshadow him so he made it back to back after D's big blast. Rene proved he could lead off, getting on three times.Timmy had his usual three hits, and Pauly and Heffe two each.

There is only one vote for these awards so they are all unanimous. Some of the awards are easy: Rookie of the year: Rene. Comeback/Most Improved: Monty. Coach of the Year: Yours Truly. Cy Young: Of course Sir Guy. (Note, no competition in last two). Best Season derailed by injury: Jason.

Best Defense: hmmm, Tie, Nick and Rene. Nick still gets to balls no one else does, and has the best arm around. Rene has those young legs and has had chances to show off his speed and done so.

But MVP...you could make a case for Sir Guy. We just aren't where we are without his pitching, he has guys reaching all game just to hit cans of corn and weak grounders. You could say Timmy for his consistency at the plate and in LF. He actually caught a ball tonight without falling down or running into the fence, although he did the latter too. You could say Cage for his presence in LC - guys just don't run on him. And you could say Monty for his hot streak, 12 for 13 with two walks thrown in, and for making my mantra true - the bottom of the lineup hits, we win. Don't overlook the way he works with Bill behind the dish too - it's 'only slowpitch softball' but he and Bill have some chemistry as a battery. And he talks the other team and the umpire to death.

Jason was certainly on his way to an MVP season when he got derailed by injury. He finished the shortened season at .900. And then there are the two best hitters around any softball park anywhere. Hama hits the ball wherever he feels like in any situation. If you need a pooch single he's got that. Grounder through the 5-6 hole, got it. Home run over the fence, AOK. You don't hit .700 or better every season for no reason. And then there is Dizzy Heavy D. Guys lose sleep worrying about his swing. He almost never gets a pitch to hit, and when he does he hits these frozen ropes that have movement that causes good and great defensive players alike to lock up. That happened tonight on his double - if the RC fielder got a good read he might have been able to chase it down near the fence - but he just couldn't move. And it was hit so hard he probably had no hope anyway. D just completely ran away with the team RBI lead this season, tying Cage (last fall) for the best season ever with 34.

The rest of the team showed a lot of consistency this season, Pauly, Rams (who almost singlehandedly won last week's game and seems to never miss a fly ball), Heffe with his bloopers, Coop who always does what's asked, and of course Donnie Softball, who was a Great add for hitting and all around talent and his team first attitude (and by the way I have been opposite him enough times that it was sure great to be on the same side for once), and his patience and leadership.

Who did I leave out - just Rene, but he is already Rookie of the Year and his time will come.

So bottom line - my vote for MVP is divided into 14 pieces - everyone contributed - was patient, played defense, got their hits, and played unselfishly all season. That's how you go 12-0.

Enjoy the season ending stats but remember we still have something to prove next week - two more, double cotton and the rare undefeated season - we have half of it down, now let's do the rest.