Turning Japanese...

There's been talk for a while about getting at-bat songs together for the team. So far we've only been able to figure out songs for a few people. We'll need help coming up with songs for everyone else. Just a note, these aren't your typical at-bat songs. For example, my at-bat song (chosen by Eagle) is "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors. Eagle explained it as having to do with my being half-asian and the opening riff (aka the cliched 9-note Oriental riff, the teriyaki-flavored riff, etc.). Since you're all wondering, his song is "Sailing", just because he really, really likes Chris Cross (not to be confused with our fun fact honorees from a month back). If you don't believe me, check out his post on this page... his screen name is Rubik.

As a side note, is anyone else sort of scared of the voting break down? "Simply Amazing"? Heh?

As another side note, Eagle is not really a huge fan of Christoper Cross, and he does not post as Rubik. He just really likes that song.

So here are the people who have songs so far:

• Eagle - Christopher Cross, "Sailing"
  
• Sean - Billy Ocean, "Caribbean Queen"
  
• Basil - The Vapors, "Turning Japanese"
  
• Ryan - The Something About Mary Soundtrack, "Close To You"
  
• Mario - Avril Lavigne, "Sk8er Boi"
  
• Derek - The Commodores, "Night Shift"
  
• Brian - Vanilla Ice, "Ice Ice Baby"
  

Clearly, not an all-inclusive list. So if you have an idea for an at-bat song post a comment and the At-Bat Song Blue Ribbon Commission, made up of whomever attends the next drink-up, will evaluate the nominations and put it to a vote. It'd be helpful to include why the song is appropriate... for example, Mario's song was chosen based on his attire at the first game (cargo pants and Airwalks); Ryan's should be obvious. Hopefully, we'll get these songs together before the season ends, thus securing our place as Most Obnoxious Team in the BSSC Spring Coed Softball Sunday League, D Division.

Fun fact: A single gram of activated charcoal has the surface area of two tennis courts. This fact is even more off-topic than usual, but hey, I was watching Good Eats this morning.

Ice cream truck? No, church bells...

I don't know what was hotter... the weather or the ump's wife (*rimshot*). I can't take credit for that gem, that came to you courtesy of Derek. Again, today provided another fascinating look into the world of the rec league umpire (although our guy has been umping for 28 years, in all combinations of leagues). Nothing like screaming across the field to your wife who is walking through the outfield while the game is live... all because she forgot the dog biscuits. Moving along...

The Thirds showed up to Harrington field in Lexington, MA at 9am sharp, only to find the entire Team With No Name warming up on the field. So much for winning by forfeit.

After waiting for the umpire to show up, IGMW2SA3 took to the field as the home team. Newcomer Brian Serafin took the mound, allowing two runs due to early inning jitters. The Thirds gave Brian some heavy run support in the bottom of the first, going through the lineup and knocking in 11 runs.

A couple quick innings went by with the score remaining nearly unchanged with no truly memorable plays except for Meredyth hitting the batter in the back as she was attempting to advance to first on a squib hit. In Meredyth's defense, the runner was in fair territory. But that doesn't make it any less funny.

The No Namers made up some ground in the fifth when the left-side team of Eagle and me combined for a handful of errors, including a double error on a worm burner that Eagle nimbly avoided, in a style reminiscent of Manolete ("Ole!"), that I then Bucknered. Fortunately player-manager Sean "John" McElroy instituted a shift to break up the defensive hole, and we ended the inning without too much further damage. To be fair, Eagle did make a nice play today, tagging a base runner in the face who tried to take third following an out at first. Way to show them what's what, Eagle.

In the bottom of the sixth, the bats knocked in four runs, bringing it to 16-10. In the top of the seventh, the Marooners rallied, bringing it to 16-15. With two outs, Serafin grabbed an infield grounder and threw to Eagle to end the inning. A loud cheer went up, and we celebrated our second win--no, that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, Eagle decided to prolong the drama by dropping the ball, allowing the batter to reach safely. Fortunately, Ryan took a grounder to second to end the inning, and the game.

That was the recap, here's some color commentary...

• Sean gets points for his Manny-esque belly-flop slide into third, when there was absolutely no chance of the play being made
• Sean loses points for screaming like a little girl when the Maroons threw to third as he tried advancing... "Don't throw it! C'MON!"
• Derek gets points for sliding twice, into third and home. Some day he'll slide into second, third, and home, and we'll call that a cycle
• Eagle loses points for deciding it wasn't enough to have Ryan as third-base coach, and sending Emily home on a very close play
• Emily gets points for scoring safely after Eagle's miscue, and for her impressive blast in the sixth
• Ryan loses points for going in the bushes to try to make himself throw up, and in the process almost making the rest of us throw up
• The Ump gets points for giving Brian a healthy serving of smack talk, and for referring to Ryan as Warren... though he probably didn't understand the relevance

As much as I hate to do anything to grow Brian's ego, he gets a game ball for pitching a complete game victory and making some nice 1-3 outs. A game ball also goes to Katie for deciding to join our roster just to give us the four girls we needed to avoid tacking on two runs to the other team's score.

We are now 2-2 on the season... so far, it seems that the difference maker has been Ryan. He shows up, we win. That's something to think about.

Fun fact:

• The lyrics to that Bubba Sparxxx song we heard on 94.5 on the way over go "Booty, booty, booty, booty, rockin' everywhere." Profound.

Game three

Game Three. What to say. Well, we finally had normal weather... no rain, no 96 degree heat. We had enough people to field the team, thanks to Diana hanging up the clipboard to take to the field. And we played the second of two brown teams, the Knight Crawlers.

So on to the recap: The Thirds took to the field first, with yours truly stepping on to the mound again by default. I gave a 100 pitch performance before Coach Sean "Daddy" McElroy figured it was best to pull me. Unfortunately all 100 pitches were in the first inning, which gave the Knight Crawlers a healthy lead going into the bottom of the first.

Emily took over as pitcher for the Thirds at the second inning, and filled in admirably. However, the inning was made longer than it needed to be by a few two-out errors that added some unearned runs for the Crawlers to the scoreboard.

We started coming back in the third, with the gloves and bats finally coming to the game, including dingers from Eagle, Sean, and John. The final tally had the Thirds losing by a controversial 20-15.

As much as I hate to do this, a pitcher at the next drink-up is on Rebecca, for stepping off of third base in the fourth inning when she thought the third out had been scored (rules are rules, I'm just the messenger). It was in fact the first out that was made, and the Crawlers tagged her on her way back to third for the second out.

Eagle again dazzled us with his play in center, tumbling to the field after making a hard throw. He redeemed himself with a couple key plays at third in the third inning, and for turning the 2-5-3 out. As this is not a common play in baseball, I'll break it down:

• The batter hit a pop fly that Meredyth couldn't quite get to, but managed to touch and keep fair
• Everyone then stood around for a couple seconds, including the batter
• Finally, Eagle's single non-hungover brain cell fired and he picked up the ball and sent it to first for the out

So the batter on the other team (Pete) owes us a pitcher. Which I think they would have bought for us had we managed to find the bar they were talking about.

Fun fact: 253 is the area code for Tacoma, Washington, which despite your opinions to the contrary, enjoys much less precipitation in the summer months than the US national average.