Monday, April 25, 2016

4/17/16 Cop Field

It was a beautiful day out, very little traffic, and as usual, crappy parking all around the field.  Seriously, ever since they re-did Balboa Park, it has been harder and harder to park.  The teams faced off, Satch throwing for the homers and Carter for the visitors.  Carter however, lasted one inning and then gave the ball over to Greg.  We never heard why.

I had a much better first inning than last time, which felt good.  And in general, the arm felt fine.  Except when I was pitching to Lattig, and then I couldn't throw a strike to save my life.  The same with Carter, who only was there for one or two at bats.  Both of them chose to take their walks after 7 or 8 balls in a row.  No explanation, other than lack of use and concentration and skill, that I can come up with.

We had a good group, a couple of new guys that both seemed to have some good skills, and a returning crop of new talent as well, including a few younger recruits. Gaspar was also out for the first time in a while, and made an amazing catch in right field, the first of many of his defensive gems of the day.

The game went along in a bit of a teeter-totter, 1-0, 2-1, 4-1, 5-4, that kind of thing.  I bowed out after 6 innings and gave the ball up.  Then we realized that the other team had lost a player, making it a lopsided, 9 on 7 game, so I volunteered to switch teams, since I had done all the damage I was going to.  I left the homers in a 5-4 deficit.

We had a number of people who had to leave early, so we skipped the 7th inning and moved to the 8th.  Low and behold, the team I left suddenly came alive and started hitting all over the place.  The team I joined went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th.

So I got to lose twice in one game.  That's something.

Final- Homers- 8-6?

Highlights

* Gaspar's catch in right was the play of the game

* Elon's catch on his own team in left was a close second

* Thanks to Greg, John and Carter for the catching

* One of the new guys had an amazing arm

* In jest, I cocked an elbow out on a first pitch and it actually hit me.  It must have been chest high, but Greg was indignant and insisted that Carter call it a strike, to teach me a lesson about fucking around, I guess.  I hit the next pitch about 410 feet to left-center and had a stand-up triple.

* Greg said he didn't mind the hit, but he took exception to the triple, since I had to exert effort and actually try, he took umbrage with that display of spirit.

* Chris Powell made a great catch off of the mound

* Abe accomplished something, but was not lauded for it.

* Bob had three real solid drives, one on a pitch he had to go down to get

* Powell's defensive rehab is continuing to improve (see above) though he made another error on a routine play at SS.  We think he may be the victim of the whammy or even a malicious curse.  Its the only logical explanation for his errors....

* Parking really sucks at Balboa.


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