Worst. Write-up. Ever.

Okay... the first post of the 2008 season. You're going to need to bear with me here, I've got a couple factors working against me: first, it's been a week since the game I'm about to blog about, and second, I'm hungover. I'm used to playing this way, but not blogging. Let's see how it goes.

Looking at the scorecard, we won 8-7 over the TBD's, with Brian pitching the complete game victory (1-0, 4.00 ERA). I'm arbitrarily knocking a few runs off for Brian's ERA to account for a few errors that occurred during the game. More on that later. I'm also arbitrarily electing to state that all plays happened in the second inning for convenience reasons.

Only one game ball is being awarded this week, and it goes to Shannon who was optioned off of Class A Boston to help fill gaps in our lineup. Shannon played a solid first base, including making a nice stretch for the ball to record the second out in the bottom 2nd. At the plate, she went 3 for 3 with a walk. Nice job.

Overall, it wasn't our strongest showing defensively. There were a number of missed grounders, including double misses when both the fielder and their backup(s) missed the ball. Our middle infield had trouble converting double plays, or even single plays for that matter. To be perfectly fair, it was more with one side of the middle infield than the other, but I don't want to point fingers at anyone, not even Mario.

At the plate a few people had trouble adjusting to the 1-1 starting count and the umpire's pitcher-friendly strike zone. As one of those people, I owe a pitcher at our next drink up for striking out. What else... Sean went 4 for 4... I don't think anyone got a home run... Briggs did her best Kevin Youkilis impression, drawing two walks for 0.500 OBP... Pitts was called out for stepping out of the batter's box in an attempt to protect the strike zone. That's sort of all I remember/can come up with from the scorecard.

Moving on, there was the umpire. Nice, friendly guy, pleasant demeanor. All words you wouldn't use to describe him. Interesting, perhaps. Crotchety, certainly. He did threaten to keep us for fielding practice after witnessing Mario's the middle infield's meltdown. And then he marched out to the field and appeared to offer their middle infield tips on turning a double play. This was after berating them in the 2nd for switching positions while our batter was in the box.

It was unusually quiet during the game, as Ryan wasn't there to provide his brand of infield chatter, commenting on Brian's pitching, passing clouds that look like ducks, what he had for breakfast (Hot Pockets), etc. Even though our infield was quiet, we were a team. The same can't be said for the TBD's, whose pitcher threw a hissy fit in the second and refused to throw to first after a failed 1-3 play. Stay classy, TBD second-string pitcher.

Well, that brings us to the end of the inaugural post. Hopefully the next post will go a little smoother.

Fun facts:

• The lead guitarist for Cracker, who resurfaced from well, I don't know where, to play at Earth Fest on Saturday, is named Johnny Hickman.
• Also performing at Earth Fest were the BoDeans who sang the song "Good Things" and Cake who gained fame in the 70s with their hit song "I Will Survive." Or perhaps the 90s by covering someone else's song. Whatever.
  

Discussion questions:

• Is it strange that the purported hick from the first fun fact is wearing a "got root" t-shirt? Does this imply that he is not truly a hick, or does it imply that he is some sort of hick-geek hybrid?
  
• Remember back in college, you thought it was so unique that your school had a capella groups and chalk drawings on sidewalks and blue lights? What a crock.