Stopping at Third

We're going steaking!

2008-06-23T21:53:00.003-04:00

Man, is it tough going back to blog about a game that happened two weeks ago. Fortunately I started a couple thoughts before I took a hiatus, so hopefully we can pull together a vague outline of the day's events.

We played Game 3 against the Pioneer Red Stox. I don't get their name, but they probably would say the same about ours. The day was a hot one but apparently not hot enough for the woman who offered us firewood. Now, to go off on a bit of a tangent here, do you think there will ever be a day in your life, where you're in your backyard, and you see a group of 30 year old people getting ready to play softball, on a day that is 95 degrees and humid, and you offer them firewood? I'm guessing she might have been a few logs short of a campfire, if you get my drift.

Okay, back from the tangent. Because of the deplorable condition our field was in, we shifted over to a field that was more of a little league field than an adult softball field, and featured a yellow iron pole conveniently in right center field, supplemented by a telephone pole of some sort in right field. OSHA would have had a field day, if they decided to focus on making our recreational lives safer.

Anyhow... back to the game, as I look at the rumpled piece of paper that is our scoresheet, I'm reminded that I forgot the clipboard of power and had to ~~borrow~~ mooch a scoresheet from the other team. By the way, my use of "clipboard of power" is sort of an experiment, as currently there are only 8 results for this when you search for it (with quotes) on Google. Let's see how this blog does in the company of such sites as kivetonkatapultz.co.uk, dooyoo.co.uk, and six blog sites. Apparently only the English and bloggers would think to string those three words together. But I digress, yet again.

Looking at the rumpled piece of paper that is our scoresheet, I'm reminded that we ended a couple streaks on that fateful day. The first was the end of our 2-game streak without a home run, as Eagle and Pitts both homered in the top first, although Pitts was a bit more legitimate of a home run, as Eags might have benefited from prodigious base running and not so prodigious throwing by the Stox. So the game started out strong for the thirds, with five runs getting knocked in on 6 hits and a walk. We finished the bottom first with a 1-2-3 inning on five pitches, and rolled into the second with a strong 5-0 lead.

The top of the second was also decent with two runs scored on two doubles and what appeared initially to be a dead mosquito on the scoresheet, but upon closer inspection was a triple by Sean where he was left stranded on base. The Stox scored one on a semi-close play where the third base coach sent a runner home by yelling "We need the runs!" So it was 7-1 exiting the second, but I'm guessing either my foreshadowing or your memories will tell you how the game played out.

We fell apart offensively in the top third, with two walks, a strikeout and two fly-outs. And that's when the Stox began their offensive march, bringing it to 7-5. The Stox held us to an automatic out-2-3 inning in the top fourth, but added two runs to their tally to bring it to 7-7. We would score but once more in the game, and would lose by at least five runs, as that's the point when the scorekeeping for the other team stops.

In case you're wondering about the other streak that ended, I ended a 22-month streak without a hamstring injury resulting from softball. So more of a personal streak, and a rather specific one at that, but a streak is a streak.

On the bright side, we're now at a 2-game losing streak.

There were some other bright spots during the game, including an outfield assist from Sean in left to Ryan at third for an out. Lindsey also took one for the team, taking a hard slide into second and getting rewarded with a bloody ankle for her efforts.

And there were the areas of improvement, such as seeing Brian round second and have to ask the base coach mid-stride "What am I doing?!" I got a pretty good view of that one, given that I was standing by the bag, "coaching third."

Anyhow... so there it is. A delayed, rambling post. Hope you enjoyed it.

Discusson Question:

Is this image real or Photoshopped? Nevermind. I really don't want to know.

Fun Fact:

The frozen confection that Brian and Ryan were debating the name of is called a screwball. Yippee.

Update: I can't believe it. We're DEAD LAST in the Google ranking for "clipboard of power." We're even behind the curlerchik knits and Yarn Harlot blogs. Double-you tee eff.

Rule of the Week - The Infield Fly Rule

2008-06-08T22:09:00.005-04:00

So this didn't happen in this week's game, but it seems to be the most commonly cited arcane baseball rule. So here we go:

The Infield Fly Rule

When less than two outs
Force at third, fly to infield
Ump calls batter out

Recap: N/A
Explanation: Rule 6.05(e) with a definition in Section 2.00. I'll use the Wikipedia summary here:
The infield fly rule applies only when there are fewer than two outs, and there is a force play at third (runners on first and second base, or bases loaded). In these situations, if a fair fly ball is hit that, in the umpire's judgment, is catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort, the batter is out regardless of whether the ball is actually caught in flight. The rule states that the umpire is supposed to announce, "Infield fly, if fair." If the ball will be almost certainly fair, the umpire will likely yell, "Infield fly, batter's out!" or just "Batter's out!" Umpires also typically raise one arm straight up to signal to everyone that the rule is in effect.
Enforceable: N/A - I'm not sure how you could mess this up, since the ump is going to call it. Perhaps the ump owes a pitcher if he messed this up?

Eye of the Liger?

2008-06-02T22:11:00.004-04:00

Despair.com hit the nail right on the head with this one. I'm pretty sure they were talking about The Idiots, but figured they'd find more of a market tailoring it to the corporate world.

Plus, there's really not much in the way of photographic evidence of any of the more idiotic things we've done. The closest I could come up with comes from the Hot Dog Eating Contest of 2006, in which Ryan and I ate six Spike's Hot Dogs and got a t-shirt and our picture on the wall for our efforts. Derek wisely stopped after four and Sean couldn't get the last 1/8 of his hot dog down. And we all suffered meat strokes/hangovers after. So that could make a passable poster...But I digress... for those that missed the drink-up, this topic came up, which is why this is the lead-in to this week's recap.

Speaking of the recap (nice segue, eh?), we played but five innings out in Wayland, as apparently each team going through the batting order and drawing walks every inning takes a while. The IGMW bats opened big in the first inning--no, that's not entirely true. We recorded four singles and four walks in the first inning, with a sacrifice fly (Sean), a fielder's choice, and an automatic out to end the inning. This gave their starting pitcher a staggering 8.00 WHIP, 35.00 ERA. Brian's 18.20 ERA outing for the day looks magical. And yes Brian, I already deducted runs for errors.

Going back to the top of the first, we saw a very delayed example of tagging up when Eagle waited until the ball was on it's way back from the center fielder to start running from third. But he made it to home safe for the first run. And that's all for the top first.

The Electric Mayhem came back strong in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 5-5. The Thirds continued their mix of singles and walks in the second, until Mayhem brought in a relief pitcher who notched a fielder's choice and a fly out to end the inning, ending the Third's four-run inning.

Again, the Electric Mayhem came back and tied the game at 9-9, then got the go-ahead runs before the top third when the umpire assessed the missing women penalty. Fortunately, IGMW scored two in the top three to again tie the game. We then held them to a 1-2-3 inning featuring Pitts on a nice 6-3, Pitts again on a fly out, and then unfortunately Brian selfishly notched the 1-3 out to prevent Pitts from having an All-Pitts Inning. However, Mayhem retired our side just as easily in the top fourth. They scored 6 runs to give them 17-11 lead going into the top 5th, where we left two stranded to end the game.

Although we did have a couple of errors in this game, it seemed that Mayhem really knew just where--and how--to hit it. When we played at normal depth, they bombed it over our heads; when we played deep they dropped it in front of us. So perhaps this game was not to be.

So a couple other tidbits from the game:

Sean went 0-for-0 in three plate appearances, recording two walks and a sacrifice fly, for an infinite batting average! Okay that's not really true, the limit of his batting average is infinity as his At Bats approach zero. Baseball and Math Geeks unite!
There were no extra base hits; the Thirds are now strangely riding a two game streak without a home run.

We also had a further discussion on At Bat Songs at the drink-up... below are the latest additions/updates to the current lineup of songs. The general rule is that you're free to suggest a song you might like to hear as you're stepping from the on-deck circle to the batter's box. We're free to choose a more appropriate song, should we think of one. I know you're saying that we've often talked about this without getting it together, but there's one factor that could make it work this year... Brian has a boombox!

Brian - "Material Girl"
Kristen - "Thunderstruck"
Karen S - "Eye of the Tiger" - If you watch any of these videos, watch this one. This features Brian in a wig playing lead tambourine.
Lindsey - "Shipping Up to Boston"
Pitts - "Super Mario Brothers Theme"

Okay, this is a rather long write-up so time to call it quits. Also, in case you didn't notice it, I also posted the first Rule of the Week. I'm a blogging machine.

Oh, I guess you might be wondering about the title of today's blog. More likely you forgot, but I'll let that slide, it's a long post. So the title ("Eye of the Liger", on the off-chance you forgot) popped into my head sorta randomly, and then proving what a wonderful thing the Internet is, I found a YouTube video of the same name. This is also worth watching. It's shot using the gritty documentary-style camera work of the Blair Witch Project. I like that the actors decided to not sacrifice their artistic integrity, even if it meant posting a video that will be truly embarrassing in five years time. Stick around for the rocking song during the end credits.

Fun fact:

Smoking jackets were in fact intended to prevent the "sensitive and delicate nostrils of ladies" from being "assailed by the pungent fumes of tobacco clinging to everyday clothing." That's good work Lindsey. According to Cigar Afficionado, smoking jackets are an "all-purpose, at-home entertaining jacket." I don't know... this article was published 9 years ago and I still haven't met anyone rocking a smoking jacket at a social gathering.

Rule of the Week - The Ryan Rule

2008-06-01T22:06:00.007-04:00

So by popular demand at today's drink-up, we're adding a new feature to this here blog... the Rule of the Week. Hopefully it'll highlight a rule that came in to play during that week's game. Or it might just be a completely arcane rule. Who knows. And since we all love haikus, the rule will first be stated in haiku form, followed by bullet-point details, since I love bullet points.

I would like to propose that those rules deemed to be "enforceable" get added to the list of violations that result in owing the team a pitcher, the others being a strikeout and base running errors. Can I get a second? Thank you. All in favor? Motion carries.

Without further ado, I present "The Ryan Rule." I realizing this is sort of like naming a disease after the person who discovered it, but whatever.

The Ryan Rule

When catching flyballs
Running off the field of play
Advances runners

Recap: Ryan caught a pop-fly and his momentum carried him out of the area designated in play; the runners on first and second advanced.
Explanation: This is the result of 7.04(c) - "If the fielder or catcher, after having made a legal catch, should fall into a stand or among spectators or into the dugout after making a legal catch, or fall while in the dugout after making a legal catch, the ball is dead and runners advance one base without liability to be put out."
Enforceable: No. This seems a bit much to enforce it in D league softball.

Stay tuned for the regular recap, sometime later this week...

Worst. Write-up. Ever.

2008-05-25T11:20:00.006-04:00

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.

Gillette Way @42.610520, -71.163810

2007-07-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

P&G Field sits in the middle of a rather industrial area, with trains rumbling by every so often, and industrial-type announcements and sirens blaring somewhat regularly. The infield is covered in light growth, but the outfield is neatly mowed, with patches of brown indicating a shortage of recent precipitation.

This is not what makes the field noteworthy; what makes it noteworthy is a fence around the outfield, at a distance of about 280 feet from the plate. It is over this fence that Brian crushed a ball. That it was a girl's ball didn't matter. Nor did it matter that the ball was pitched by Lindsey; what matters is that it was out of the park. Lindsey was pitching only because the heat and sun had reduced the previous pitcher to lurching around after softballs on the ground, as if Frankenstein's monster took to the field. That pitcher was Eagle.

This was not a game, this was batting practice. The game had been called as we were one person short of being able to play.

To borrow from last year, when we borrowed from TS Eliot:

This is the way the season ends
This is the way the season ends
This is the way the season ends
Not with a game but a forfeit.

Signing off for the last time,

El Capitan

Doo doo doo doo, doo-doo, do-wah!

2007-07-24T21:53:00.000-04:00

Sunday saw the Thirds in a bit of jam, as always. No, Mario did show up. He was actually on time. Early, even. But we were down 5-4 in the bottom 6th, and needed a big win to keep in the Silver playoff bracket. Would the Thirds/Teals/Sapphires hold on? Or would they be demoted to the Bronze bracket? Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion of July 22nd Sunday D-League Coed Softball... but first, we start at the beginning!

Most of the team got there surprisingly early, which meant they were all in time to watch the dismal display that was the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment. What's supposed to happen is that when you put Footos, err Mentos, in a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, you get a big geyser that looks like this, or maybe even this. But not when we tried at Cabot field. Perhaps it was the lack of goggles and a lab coat.

We saw a lot of unusual happenings in this game. In no particular order, they are:

The use of the word "ergo" to explain to the other team why a dropped ball was foul... Ump: "The fielder was in fair territory, the ball was in foul territory, ergo foul ball."
A lack of errors by the Thirds
A game ball apparently awarded to me by Sean. I think this was a split decision between me and Ryan, who should receive some sort of film award for treating us to the first live slow-motion instant replay in the history of Sunday D-League Coed Softball, as he rounded the bases on his dinger in the bottom of the 4th

Now, back to our recap. The score was 4-4 going into the fifth, including the two penalty runs assessed for our one girl shortage that were awarded to whatever BSSC Indies team we were playing. The Indies went up by one in their half of the inning, with the bottom of the Thirds order, cemented by Basil-Mario-Automatic Out, going oh-fer. But we held the Indies scoreless in the top of the 6th which brought us to...

The bottom of the 6th...

Obviously.

Eagle stepped up to the plate and kicked off the inning with a single. Three batters later, we had tied it up and had the bases juiced. We ended up keeping the bases loaded, scoring six before the Indies recorded the third out, and managed to keep them scoring in the top 7 to end the game. Not to say we were flawless. We almost ended the rally in Yakety-Sax fashion (though we still would have won) when I was following Karen S around the bases and ran through an apparent stop sign by Eagle as I turned second. When I realized he was trying to hold us, I turned back towards second--to many screams of "Go back!"--to see the ball being thrown to third. Which is when I reached second and saw that Karen had left the safety of third and was also heading back to second. But fortunately the gods of comic relief had induced plenty of throwing and fielding errors for the Indies, and we both ended up safely on base.

So yes, we won. An astute reader would have realized we won due to the awarding of game balls several paragraphs up. Sorry if I ruined the cliffhanger. Jen took the victory, giving up just one earned run (1.17 ERA), while Brian gave up two runs in the first inning (0.00 ERA, according to Brian's scoring rules).

At the end of the regular season, our record stands at 4-4, which it would have been last year except for the two games we tied because of two-run penalties. And now, we move on to the Silver playoffs...

Not-so-fun fact:

The reasons behind why Diet Coke shoots in the air when Mentos get dumped in are many, but boring. I won't recap them here.

Fun, but debatable fact:

2007 is the 70th anniversary of the greatest moment in mankind: the invention of Spam.

Rain Delay!

2007-07-24T09:38:00.000-04:00

So, I told Basil I'd blog the game he missed. I don't know if that game was before or after the game Basil blogged about below, as I don't really remember many details.

I know we had a brief rain delay. We discussed playing in the rain, but the team was split. But we ended up playing.

Dave made a really great falling/diving catch (this isn't meant to be a slight, I really forget) and then promptly hit an opposite field homer onto the little league field in right.

I'm giving myself the good sport award for yelling at Sean and threatening to quit, in the middle of the game. Which we were winning. Stay classy, Ryan.

Finally, there was a play where a girl from the other team was running to third and half slid / half barreled into me that resulted in the two of us being tangled up in a borderline inappropriate position, involving my arm between her legs. I've spent a lot of time trying to forget.

This, no joke, is all I remember from this game. And I only just remembered the girl who humped my arm this morning, and that may not have been from this game. I suck.

Have you seen my softball... game?

2007-07-15T21:42:00.000-04:00

Nine of us showed up at the field for a 3:00 game against the Empty Pitchers. Eight of us showed up at right field (Forte). One of us (Mario) showed up at the wrong field (Filipelo). For those who might not remember, or weren't around, Filipelo was the site of our doubleheader game, where we tied two games because of the two-run penalty for missing a girl. This is also the field where Mario ran in circles in the outfield to get away from a bee. Just having fun with you, Mario! For the record, Mario did eventually make his way to the field.

You knew it wasn't going to be a picture-perfect game--not that they ever are--when the lead-off hitter was: Me. The game went downhill from there when it turned out that our 10th man was lost. Again. It took three of us, including the first base coach on the other team, who decided to help out when Sean tried to direct our wayward teammate while playing first, to bring Joe to Forte field. Which brings to four the number of people involved in getting Joe to a softball game, the first being Rebecca at Connell. When Joe arrived, he immediately contributed by taking to the field at second base. By actually standing on second base. Just having fun with you, Joe! For the record, Joe did eventually make his way to the correct position, between first and second, with a little help from Sean.

But our second baseman delivered... Joe was featured in a dramatic play--involving dust and a lot of spinning--that consisted of a dropped infield-fly, with Joe applying the tag to the baserunner advancing from first. Or he might have caught it... there was a lot of dust, and this was a while ago, but hey, double play!

Meanwhile, over at third base, I had let a sharply hit grounder by me, and then--proving what a well-oiled machine we are--I ran to the outfield as the cutoff man, where I was met by Sean and Ryan. So we had three fielders, starting at each other in shallow left, while third base was uncovered. That'd be scored E5, if scorers could somehow count mental errors.

In closing, I could have made this write-up a lot shorter by just linking to another clip featuring Yakety Sax... (Note: this clip is just plain bizarre).

Fun fact:

The notion that carrots improve eyesight was the result of a British disinformation campaign intended to prevent the Germans from learning about the development of radar during World War II.

Very Disappointing...

2007-07-09T23:25:00.000-04:00

Two Sundays ago was a disappointing day. Very disappointing, in fact. I'm talking, of course, of the 60% turnout for the drink-up following our softball game. I think we may have lost the game as well, but I haven't finished tallying the other team's runs. If the final count for them is more than two, then we lost.

We also had two surprise visits at our game... the first was by LoCo, who stopped by early in the game to walk her dog, and stayed to watching the spellbinding drama of Sunday D League softball unfold. The second was by Mario, who apparently showed up in the bottom 6th to play softball, though his attire (jeans and a polo shirt) would indicate otherwise. This is a contrast of sorts to one of last year's games, when he came en route to a skateboarding party where some generic punk-pop band (Sum 41, Blink 182, etc.) was playing.

A quick rundown of the other team. First, central casting called, they want their plumber back (second Google result, really!). Okay, that's all I got. It turns out this was an independent team (BSSC Indies 2) who seemed to all have been extremely modest on their application forms. But this didn't stop them from playing with the eye of the tiger, for the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of their rival. They came face to face--out in the heat--hangin' tough, and stayed hungry. Alright, I'm done. Anyhow, they thwarted our planned 43-run rally in the top 7th by drawing walks and taking extra bases to keep the game out of reach.

Unfortunately for us, the game seemed to consist almost entirely of the other team driving the ball into the gaps in our defense, which appeared at times to encompass the entire field. For this week's highlight reel, we can focus almost entirely on plays at second base, where we saw Lindsey roll the ball on the dirt to second to make the out, a batter on the other team fall off the bag and get tagged out by Derek, Jon drilling a baserunner in the back on a throw from first on at attempted double play, and a base running error by Brian which ended in Sean getting thrown out at first. Yep, I'm assessing you a pitcher B. Finally, we had a batter stretch a single to a double when the second baseman on the other team forgot that a tag needs to be applied on a non-force play.

On the plus side, we did see Derek make a Coco Crisp circus catch. We also saw Ryan move from third to left-center to rest his arm, which also meant that we got to see him run to and around the outfield... "like a gazelle," as one Thirder put it. I'm sure there were some more great things that our team did, but those probably happened on this past Sunday's (July 8th) game, which I'll let Ryan blog about.

Fun facts:

The moon is never really full. You can read the article, which uses words like "diametrically," "gibbous," and "terminator," or take my word for it.
The largest living rodent is the capybara, which can grow up to 55" long and weigh 140 pounds. From a theological, Lent-related perspective, they are equivalent to fish, in that they can be eaten when other meat can not.

Discussion question:

In 2004, when Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da was voted as the worst song ever, were voters somehow anticipating the 2006 release of this rendition of it?

Plonnnnnnnnn!

2007-06-25T22:03:00.000-04:00

We had a reunion of sorts this past Sunday. In addition to having four returning members make their first appearance of the season, we reconnected with our favorite umpire, as well as Miss Personality Plus from the Lime Green Crushers of last year. Apparently the rest of her team moved on, having had enough of her sweet charming demeanor, and she joined BSSC Indies Rec 1.

The good news about having this ump again is that we're beginning to learn about him. For example, it seems that if you make the call, he won't second guess you... as happened at a close play at first where I called "safe" and the ump seconded me, even though our batter should have been out.

As opposed to our last game, we did have some replay worthy events on Sunday... and in no particular order, here they are:

First, I'll take credit for keeping the game interesting by helping the Indies to score 9 runs in the bottom third. It all started when I misjudged a deep ball, then spent the rest of the game playing so far out that I was in the 60s or something. Sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyhow, I was deep enough that had this been in Fenway, I would have been in row 37.

Ryan would get at least a couple seconds of highlight film for:

His "circus" catch where he called Derek off on a pop-up in the infield, letting the ball fall out of his glove before regaining control of it and throwing to first for the double play (Miss Personality Plus was caught off of 1st and was pretty psyched)
Playing a game of tag with the guy who spent so much money on his custom BSSC jersey that he couldn't afford a decent pair of shorts. Sure the episode of watching the Indies player run around his base coach took quite a bit longer than the "couple" seconds I mention above, but in the highlight reel, this would have been done Benny Hill style. Here are some more examples to get you going: Simpsons, Baseball

Then I'd probably be back up on the film for my failure to advance from second on a slowly rolling ball hit by Karen S down the first base line. I'm not sure why I stood there leisurely watching the ball. But I think I was still confused from the previous play, where Briggs lined out to third, forcing me to slide back to first. Except she was also at first, and when the dust finally settled I was somehow at second.

Since we should end on a high-note, we turned a couple double plays and our bats did well, with three people going three-for-three, and dingers sprinkled throughout. But this week's game ball (and 20 seconds of highlight reel) goes to John P for his solid defense at first base and for hitting two of those home runs. It's just unfortunate that "Plonnnnnnnn" doesn't work as well as "Youuuuuuuk". Or maybe it does...

Fun fact:

The Mattapan High Speed Line, an extension of the MBTA Red Line, uses cars that are 60 years old. In true MBTA fashion, these trains are not red, and are also not running due to station renovations.

Discussion Question:

When was the last time you heard someone use the words "nifty" or "outta sight"? Was it you? Are you 60 years old? Are you a subway car? Explain.

I'm like Magellan, I'm so gellin'! Except lost.

2007-06-17T22:06:00.000-04:00

It was like one... MILLION... degrees. A couple notes on that... first, I think that Ryan sings it infinitely better than TMBG, and also, I'm awe-struck that someone took the time to record this off their TV on their digi and upload it on the interwebs.

We returned to Hyde Park and reunited with our favorite random strike-zone umpire. You'd think that having been there just last week, it would have been easier to find this time. Well, not for Team Eagle-Basil (I'll leave Karen out of this, since she was just a passenger), nor for Joe "Central Time" Lemay. Fortunately, Google Maps Mobile brought Eagle, Karen, and me safely to Hyde Park, and Rebecca was able to successfully direct Joe to the park via phone. And for the record, I will state that I missed a turn that caused us to wander 3 miles into Dorchester... which has convinced Eagle that I am directionally challenged, a statement at which I take umbrage. For the record, that's a word from the Verbal SAT Flashcards that Eagle sometimes still reviews to keep sharp (not really).

At first pitch, the Thirds had seven people in the starting lineup, to Sweet Team Bodega's eleven. As the away team, we went through six batters, sending Eagle home, before a 4-3 groundout retired the side. Fortunately, at that very moment, Ali rolled up and we were able to take to the field, with a catcher borrowed from STB.

We brought a new look to the field, with Jen taking pitching duties in replacement of Brian. The good news is that she did quite well. The bad news is that we may now have a "Starting Pitcher Controversy" on IGMW. The mitigating factor is that Jen was not overly enthusiastic about her new position (although she did notch a K against one of the other team's big bats).

This game was relatively highlight/blooper free. With the exception of the bottom third, or "Rebecca's Inning". Playing at second, she caught a line drive with the runner on first way off the bag. Rebecca threw to Ryan, our first baseman for the day. And then, the following events unfolded:

Ryan stepped on the bag
The umpire called two outs
The runner headed off the field to his bench

Except that it happened in reverse. Obviously. Whatever, I'll still call that a 4-3 double play. With two out, the next batter hid a grounder to Rebecca who fielded it and sent it to Ryan, who was on the bag for the out.

Other than that, not much sticks out in my mind. Except for Eagle striking out and owing us a pitcher... so now we just need to find a drink-up spot that has pitchers and we'll have three (or four) headed our way courtesy of our special K'ers.

Oh right... we lost 8-3, including the two runs we got because the other team was missing a girl. But, on the plus side, we did get together in a toilet for a few frosty beers after the game. Well, we weren't really in a toilet (it was actually the Midway Cafe in Dedham), but if you closed your eyes and took a deep breath and had even a slight amount of imagination, you could pretend you were. Amazingly, Zagat hasn't reviewed this place yet. But yes, they do cater! Ryan, you know I'm just playing, thanks for taking time out of your busy day to provide us with directions to the drink-up. How do you feel about taking that on for the rest of the season? Thanks buddy!

Fun facts:

An ounce of gold is heavier than an ounce of feathers. Really.
Karat and carat are both measurements related to weight. The first gives the overall purity of gold and platimum alloys by comparing the mass of pure gold or platinum in the material to the overall mass of the material. Then inexplicably multiplying by 24. The second is the measurement of weights of gems and pearls that most people are familiar with.
You cannot board a plane wearing Dr Scholl's Gel inserts. Gellin' like a felon, indeed.

Suggestion:

Fellas, here's a place to get your special lady a 24-karat gold ring at a very special price! Three dozen for under $65.00 with a FREE display case! Great for birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine's Day for the next twelve years! Tell Tye that Basil sent ya.

So you wanted a post?

2007-06-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

So a few days go by without a post, and all the readers (both of you) give me hard time.

Alright... we finally got the season underway, with a doubleheader in Hyde Park. The field was a little muddy... no, not muddy... covered with random patches of water... if by random you mean home plate, the pitcher's mound, and second base. But we made do with a field where the bases were definitely not the regulation 65 feet apart. That said, Joe decided the field wasn't un-regulation enough, and tried to move home plate to his liking on his first at bat (first game, 7th inning; Joe doesn't regularly check his email to find out game times). That's good work, Joe.

We took to the field first in both games as our opponents were short people to begin the game. Brian handled the pitching duties for both games, coming away with a win and a loss. In the informal post-game analysis, we decided we didn't play as well in our second game as we did in the first... so going forward, we may need to play an unofficial scrimmage ahead of our official game, just to get in the swing of things.

Sunday's games showed us yet more insight into the world of the rec league ump. Our ump called a fairly wide strike zone... while standing off at a 45 degree angle to the plate... although at one point I'm pretty sure he was standing between the catcher and the batter. He also seemed to decide close calls by alternately ruling in favor of the team he last ruled against. The most memorable of these plays was Ryan getting called out on what should have been a home run. I think you all remember that play, where Casey "Ryan" Jones drove that freight train towards the plate despite the third base coach waving him off. No, that was last year... he should have been safe this time, except the ump had just ruled a ball as a strike, so he decided to make a call for the other team.

I think the rust from a long off-season came through in this came, as we witnessed:

Basil's inability to understand what the score was (despite holding the clipboard)
Basil's inability to distinguish between Brian and Eagle; that said, a player from the other team asked them if they were brothers... and another player from the other team asked them if they were twins
Basil's inability to understand a joke made at Brian's expense by Lindsey, even when it was repeated solely for his benefit

Wait--who's writing this? In any case, we also saw:

Joe's ability to do a double axel while playing rightfield. As majestic as it was, it took away from his ability to field the ball, as he ended up splayed out on the grass with the ball lying a couple feet away from his inert body.
Brian's ability to give Joe a hard time for figure-skating routine. Only to follow in the steps of a baserunner coming in from third and take an unexplainable digger, allowing a run to score.

That said, we did have some highlights from our games on Sunday. We had a fascinating opportunity for a 9-6-4-5-1 out, which didn't materialize because we were all too mystified by a batter's attempt for an in-the-park home run on a shallow outfield hit. Which made sense--in retrospect--due to the automatic out they were going to accrue. To quickly recap our other highlights: (crickets)

I keed! No, we actually got it together during our second game. The bats were active, the fielding was good, yadda, yadda, but that doesn't make for as much fun of a blog. Or perhaps I just forgot because it's been a couple days. On to the honors...

Eagle gets a game ball for running all over the outfield and his 1.00 OBP. Nice work, Eags. In an unrelated note, if anyone has access to a cheap oxygen tank--or knows a good deal on a gym membership--please send me an email.

Per the byrules of our slow pitch softball team's charter, the following people owe the team a pitcher of beer:

Dave (strikeout)
Joe (strikeout)
Someone else (strikeout?)

(Editor's note: I have no idea what that picture linked to above has in relationship to "slow pitch softball team's charter", but that was the third Google image result for that search term).

There's the round-up. Sorry for the delay, but you can't rush this kind of journalistic quality (feel free to nominate me for any meritorious journalistic awards with large cash prizes).

Looking forward to June 17th at 10:30am in Hyde Park,

I remain,

El Capitan

Fun Fact:
- Apparently eye black does work. But it has to be the grease kind, not the tape kind. Not that this mattered on Sunday, what with the overcast skies.

A new season, a new post, a new name?

2007-03-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

As we get ready to embark on a new season, an important question needs to be answered: should we keep our name?

I Gave My Word to Stop at Third, or IGMW2SA3, or even IGMW, came from a t-shirt from BustedTees.com. And it served us well.

Do we continue the tradition?

Or find another name? Perhaps something more compact?

Well, it's time to decide... the polls are open!

But a whimper...

2006-09-20T01:56:00.000-04:00

It seems like just four months ago (HAR!) that we stepped onto a field in Wayland for the inaugural IGMW2SA3 game.

We were a ragtag crew, with softball experience and skill varying widely; we had former varsity players, people that would be playing in three different leagues, as well as those who quit little league after 3rd grade.

We started with a roster of 23, and picked up four free agents along the way.

We stretched ourselves to the limits, and we saw just how much the human body is capable of when severely hungover (not much). But that didn't stop us from going out for beers after the game.

We faced almost continual rainouts, right down to the season-ending playoff rainout. We decided not to play our rescheduled consolation bracket game, and never got to see if we truly were the best of the worst.

We endured roadblocks, 96 degree heat, and Billy Ocean.

We protected this house, learned about charcoal, and sang some god-awful rap.

We butchered the works of Thayer, countless Japanese poets, and now, TS Eliot:

This is the way the season ends
This is the way the season ends
This is the way the season ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

See you next May.

We must protect this house!

2006-08-16T22:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure where to begin on this one. We didn't lose this weekend, but we also didn't win. Well, we should have won, except for the two run bonus both of our opponents received because of our lack of girls. As far as protecting the house, I think we can say we did, although we didn't necessarily destroy or even infiltrate theirs. We're now 2-4-2, staying steady at .333, despite my prediction from last week.

In any case, a non-loss or a technical win is reason enough for me to award game balls. As we played a doubleheader, today there are four game ball recipients.

A game ball goes to Holly for showing up to spectate, only to be called into duty as the third girl on our roster. Despite having not played softball since high school-ish, she reliably got the bat on the ball and also did well in her stint at catcher. Had this been filmed, right now you would be watching a highlight showing Holly chasing down a pop-fly, all the while saying "Ohgodohgodohgod" until the ball was safely in her glove. Kudos.

Emily gets a game ball for pitching 2 full games for a total 14 innings, and taking a no decision in both only because of a technicality... and not complaining about her ERA (*cough*Brian). She also fanned at least two, including one of the other team's better players, which resulted in a spontaneous chest bump between Sean at first and the other team's first base coach.

Eags gets a game ball for playing well and running all over the field despite being more hungover than any of us. Some nay-sayers may fault his misjudgment of a fly to center, but I say that gave us the opportunity to see a dramatic 8-6-5 play at the plate: Eagle fielded the ball, threw to Derek on the relay who sent it to Ryan who was covering home. Yes, we do have some interesting plays... and they all seem to involve Eagle for some reason. A hungover Eagle at that.

Sean "Kraft Easy" McElroy also deserves a game ball for digging out some tough balls to get the batter at first. Not as much color to add on this one. I should have given him his game ball first.

There will be no true recap of Sunday, as 1) I was hungover and 2) it was a doubleheader. It's going to be more just memory fragments... we'll see how this goes.

For those of you who missed the games on Sunday, you missed the opportunity to see Ryan demonstrate the similarities between him and a freight train, when he turned the corner at third on a deep fly and headed for home. If you weren't there, you might think I'm referring to his ability to turn like he's on rails. But if you were there, you'd realize I'm talking about the fact that it takes a whole lot of track to stop a 100-car train. Score that as a triple, 8-5-2.

Meredyth demonstrated a chase down of a pop fly from the catcher's position, flinging her hat off like a catcher's mask. Way to be Meretek.

I demonstrated just how out of shape I had become, pulling my hammy while running out a grounder to first. I was safe, but after consulting with the team's medical staff, it looks like I'll be on the 10-day DL with a grade I strain.

We collectively demonstrated the importance of base coaching, as we got ourselves into a few base running errors. The key here is that the base coaches should actually be near the base, as opposed to the more laissez-faire style Sean and I used. Had this been in a screenplay, it would have looked like this:

At a dusty softball field, two men sit on the bench watching as their team is batting. The batter hits the ball into the outfield. As the fielder scoops up the ball, a runner approaches a base.

Basil, at a conversational level, to Sean: She should hold.
Sean: Yeah, hold.

Both men watch as the runner turns the corner and is tagged out at the next base.

Sean: Ahh, well.

So while I'm on the DL, I plan on attending games and taking over coaching duties for at least one of the bases. Whichever one is closer to our bench. Hey, I got a hamstring to worry about, I can't be traipsing all over the field.

Sean demonstrated the correct way for two men to do a chest bump: run towards each other, jump in the air, and bump chests together, with the "naughty bits" as far apart as possible. We'll use some graphical examples to explain some of the do's and don'ts of a chest bump:

DO

Get some air
Keep your arms back

DO NOT

Attempt to hug in the air
Look like this while chest bumping. For that matter, do not chest bump while playing tennis

As a last example of a train wreck of a chest bump, I offer this.

Now, there's stuff I missed so I'm going to try to rattle them off: Derek apparently has it out for Eagle, sending three heaters down the line at him while he was on third. Fortunately Eagle is nimble. Mario really dislikes bees, to the point of dancing like a raver in at attempt to scare them away. Emily apparently doesn't like percentages over 100%, as she shaded out on yet another drink-up, keeping us from achieving the 111% drink-up turnout (including Holly) we would have had, had she attended. BSSC likes orange. Opponents liked hitting down the first base line. And I'm out.

Discussion question:

Is Basil as a base coach worse than having no base coach at all? Explain.

Fun fact:

The longest freight train ever was made up of 682 ore cars, and was pushed by eight locomotives. It was 4.5 miles long.

We are the Thirds

2006-08-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

We returned to that field in Newton to play the Team in Grey That Was Undefeated (not their real name). As it turned out, they didn't need to change their name, fictional as it was. And our team nickname (the Thirds) is somehow more fitting given our record (2-4). At least until next week's double-header...

TiGTWU brought some pretty strong batters to the field, which found gaps in our defense and ran up the score in the bottom of the first. Unfortunately our bats weren't as heavy as they have been in past games: Sean "Bueno" McElroy went oh-fer; "Sloop" John B struck out swinging, which many people might have missed, but which I have captured for posterity in the blog. Even Brian ended a two-out three-hit rally:

The outlook wasn't brilliant for I Gave My Word that day,
The score stood 10-5 with but one inning left to play.
And with one out left to go in the top half of the seventh,
There stood no chance of the Thirders scoring their eleventh.

Mario came up to bat, and Basil would come after,
The rally cry soon faded, into halting laughter...
But Mario let forth a single to the wonderment of all
And Basil hit one too, into center it did fall.

Emily soon would join them with another hit!
And who came next but Brian (who thought he was the sh*t),
And Brian settled in the box and pounded on the plate;
He then stepped back a little, just to make the pitcher wait.

And now the pitcher holds the ball, and he now he lets it go
And now the air is shattered by the force of Brian's blow...

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,

but there is no joy in Newton --
mighty Brian has popped out.

But there were some bright spots from Sunday's game:

Meredyth learned her lesson from last week's game (click link for Brian's haikus, or Bri-kus as he likes to call them) and ran down the first base line on a ball that dropped in fair territory about a foot from the plate... and was safe!
Mario won the Rudy award for tripping/sliding into first base. Well, actually, not so much for that play, but rather for repeating his trip/slide into third to convince us that the first time was deliberate. Rudy! Rudy!
Apparently, Eagle was able to sell his $50 Radio Shack-special to a Newton resident, who tried several times to get the plane airborne. A soft toss resulted in it... crashing into the ground. Another attempt at a soft toss resulted in it... crashing into the ground. A hard toss resulted in it... making a graceful loop. Then crashing into the ground. After trying for ten minutes to fly the plane (accompanied by Sean's soothing laughter) our friend retreated. And came back with his family. And this time, when he tried a soft toss... it crashed into the ground. So that was amusing at least.

Some statistics:

82% of the team went out for beers after the game (Derek and Emily, we're coughing and looking in your general direction)
0% of the team could say with any authority what the difference between a homophone and a homonym were. The internet was no help here, as it seems that no one agrees on what a homonym is
Alan Cooper has at least 73% too much interest in homonyms
33% of the team admitted to using their T Pass to floss
67% of the team are either liars or don't ride the T
Sucking on a T token is 6.25x as lucrative as eating one of Sean's nose hairs

Fun fact:

Polish and polish are Capitonyms (there's a bunch of them). I'm not even going to guess if they're homonyms.

Helpful fact:

You can send text messages to Google (466453) to find the address and phone number of bars, etc. For example texting "Buff's newton, ma" returns the location of our last drink-up.

Did you know?

Brian and Sean both have web pages. Check them out, they're pretty sweet. As a warning, Sean's gets a little weird.

The game before this one...

2006-08-07T22:06:00.000-04:00

Some of you have commented on the lack of posting following the last game. Yes, there was quite a few occurrences that... occurred, but in the end the blogging just didn't occur. Occur. I'm in a weird mood tonight.

To catch everyone up, here's a brief run-down of the game vs the Lime Green Crushers. In haiku format.

We walk on the field
Wearing camo as eye black
You'd think we're better

9-4 double play
Karen threw to Rebecca
Runner should have tagged

Catcher in lime green
Yelling at teammates and Sean
Needs to get out more

We're in River Gods
Eat skewers, laugh at Brian
Reason's forgotten

That's it for now, I'll be posting about our last game soon...

Turning Japanese...

2006-07-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-07-16T12:49:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-10T20:58:00.000-04:00

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.

Everything is to the back with a little slack...

2006-06-18T18:52:00.000-04:00

The first thing I'd like to do is apologize for the title of my previous post. It is awful. I'll stay away from hideous puns like that in the future... unless it's a really, really good one.

For those of you who were unable to attend the game, I'll start with the good news. We no longer have to worry about preserving our winning streak. Now, on to the recap...

In 92 degree weather (heat index of 96), nine members of IGMW2SA3 played the Last Placers at storied Cochituate Field. It was not destined to be an easy game, starting with the Wayland police conveniently setting up roadblocks on RT-30, to make getting out to the field even more fun that it normally is. But the straggling Thirds found their way to the field, so game on.

With nine people on the field, we played without a fourth outfielder, which came to haunt us as the Last Placers found the holes in our defense. This was something I made easier for them by offering up pitches that were either three feet wide of the plate, or meatballs so juicy they would make an Italian grandmother proud. Still, some good defense was played, with Jon looking sharp at first and some nice catches on long balls in the outfield (Susan, Derek, Mario).

But the Last Placers also played some solid defense, retiring the side in the fourth on three consecutive 5-3 grounders (third baseman to first baseman). In the end, the Placers prevailed with heavier bats, beating IGMW2SA3 10-5 after five innings.

As in our first game, we had to provide a catcher for the other team... it's too bad we don't get runs for that, as it can be a hot and dusty job (thanks Meredyth!).

The first pitcher of beer at our next drink-up is on me, for 1) forgetting my cleats (having shown up in sandals) and, 2) going Kris Kross and wearing my shorts backwards. I'll point out that these were gym shorts; it wasn't like I had zipped up a pair of Mario's skater shorts backwards.

Fun facts:

Bill Murray's first film appearance was in the movie Meatballs.
Jermaine Dupri, who discovered Kris Kross when they were performing in a mall in ATL, was the youngest charting producer at age 14.

Orange you glad?

2006-06-07T22:41:00.000-04:00

So, I think there were some people who weren't psyched about our Texas Orange color. I have a few thoughts on that:

At least we're not that poop brown color that the Piranhas were sporting
Texas Orange is very easy to spot when trying to find the apres-game watering hole
Texas Orange can't be too bad if two teams in our league chose it (see BSSC softball teams)
Why in the world did two teams choose the poop brown color?

That is all...

Game 2 reminder and directions

2006-06-02T10:55:00.000-04:00

Game 2, Sunday, June 4. 3 PM. Tufts Park (1 - it's the field near the pool). Yes, we're playing the lime team, which pretty much assures us we will see the ugliest combinations of uniforms ever on a baseball field. (Only the 1976 Chicago White Sox (yes, they wore shorts) may have looked worse.

Anyway, here are the directions to the field. (Check a map - it's the corner of Morton Ave and Main St in Medford). The BSSC directions are notoriously terrible. Also, if you're taking the bus, you automatically win some kind of dedication award.

From the North:
93 South to Exit 31 for Route 16. Move into right lane and turn right following signs for Mystic Ave. At lights go straight, crossing Mystic Ave/Rte. 38. Go thru next lights, at 2nd lights go left at Main St. Tufts Park is ahead on right. Turn right after Park onto Morton Ave and Park here if playing at field 1, for field continue down Morton Ave and Park or enter parking lot at end of field on right.

From the South:
93 North to Exit 31 for Route 16. Take Main St/Medford Square exit on right. At end of ramp go left at lights, go thru flashing light and bear right at Mobil Station onto Main St. Follow Main St for 1 mile. Tufts Park is on right. Turn right after Park onto Morton Ave and Park here if playing at field 1, for field continue down Morton Ave and Park or enter parking lot at end of field on right.

By MBTA:
Take the Red Line to Davis Square, then take the 94 or 96 bus. Or, take the 94 or 96 bus out of Medford Square.

Game On(e)!

2006-05-23T23:42:00.000-04:00

So, just wanted to give some recognition where recognition was due.

By the power vested in me by Ryan, who added me as co-blogger, I'd like to award three game balls for last Sunday's game. The first goes to Pitts for making a difficult 6-3 out (shortstop to first baseman). The second goes to Cher for pitching 5 innings after I bailed, and getting the save. Or possibly a win. I wasn't really keeping track. Finally, Shannon gets a game ball for sacrificing her wrist on a heated liner to third to get me out of the second inning. Nice job, all.

Somewhere along the line it was decided that there were a number of offenses that would make the offender responsible for a pitcher of beer. One was striking out. Probably another one is an egregious fielding error (e.g., Eagle calling a ball he clearly couldn't get to in center field). But a definite pitcher offense is a base-running folly. We had two of those on Sunday. One went to Joe for running on a fly with one out, and getting thrown out after the ball was caught. The other went to Mario, for not running on contact with two outs... even considering the 5lbs of change in his cargo shorts and his skater shoes weighing 6lbs (per cubic inch) he would have been safe. Not that it mattered, as IGMW2SA3 beat the Piranhas 14-6, with some big bats knocking big runs in.

Lastly, I want to bestow on Sean the Almost Sportsmanship Award (ASA), for contemplating offering a lefties glove to the gloveless Piranha's player as a joke. As it turned out, he was a leftie, which we discovered when he pulled a Jim Abbott on us after fielding a ball out in right. Yes, it was accidental, but for Sean that seems like a step in the right direction.

You stay classy, Boston.

Fun fact: Jim Abbott batted .095 in 21 appearances for the Brewers in 1999, and knocked in 3 RBIs.

Game On!

2006-05-21T17:40:00.000-04:00

So here we are...undefeated! It was a wild and woolly start to the season, played in a fascinating mix of cloudy/sunny/hot/cold/rainy weather. Defense was played, bases were run and balls were smashed all over the field. All told, a solid effort all around, considering any attempt at practice was rained out. So good job. Yeah.

Providing the other team a catcher is a fantastic rule. You don't want to harass the other team, so a chance to do mess with your own team is pretty fun. I'm kicking myself for not using the "How's your wife and my kids?" line at a good time.

We also learned a valuable baseball lesson: when on first base with two outs, you should run on anything.

We also learned to not skip out on beers after the game. How did I get this job? I would have paid far more attention if I knew I was chronicling it. Next time, I'll pay better attention. Or, I'll make a liar out of myself. One or the other.

I will start wearing earmuffs so I can look more like this guy.

I was going to add the date and time for the next game, just so this wouldn't be a terrible waste of the intarweb, but it's not on the BSSC website. Sorry. You just wasted a few precious minutes of your young life and have nothing to show for it. We'll try and use this space better next time.

Should we keep our name this season?
Yes -- it's such a super name!
No, I've got a much better name!

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