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!

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