Three and oh-so-sweet!

That's right, your favorite softball team has done it again and remains undefeated!

It was a perfect night for a game, and we really lucked out weather-wise as there is rain in the forecast for pretty much every day this week except yesterday. We had blue skies with fluffy clouds, green fields with fluffy clover, and a warm but not-too-hot sun. So there was no apparent reason why the umpire was so keen to leave, but he was praying for a forfeit or a no-show so he could go home, and for a while there it looked like he might get his wish. Then, in the nick of time, Wendy ran across the field and we had the minimum of eight players to start the game.

Our opponents were the Resident Magazine "Rockstars," but the only thing they were stars of last night was striking out. I know I always say that Jason did a great job pitching (because he always does) but seriously, last night he Threw. The. Heat. There were so many strikeouts from the Rockstars that we stopped counting them! And they were really satisfying strikeouts too! As Jason told us in the bar, "they were particularly susceptible to change-ups," and so you'd get this guy who's really stoked to smash the ball and he'd swing super hard and then: WHIFF. Followed by some cursing.

They really had dirty mouths, this team, especially their pitcher, whom the ump kept threatening to bench if he didn't shut it. I wish he had benched him, because that guy was out of control. He was even yelling at his own team the whole time, and finally their catcher stood up and yelled back at him "Stop shouting at me and just throw the ball!" The Rockstars were understandably upset though, because not only were they getting walloped by a team with only eight players, but the umpire really did make a lot of bad calls. He didn't see stuff (like when Brian got the guy out at second for leaving the base), or he just flat-out called it wrong (like when Ryan totally got that guy out at first but the ump said safe), but the calls were bad pretty evenly between the two teams so we mostly just shrugged it off. It's a rec league, so whatcha gonna do?

The whole game was well-played by our mighty few last night, but there are a few highlights that merit revisiting:

-Alex Laviola's grass-in-his-teeth nosedive in left field that looked impossible but he totally caught the ball!

-Shortstop Brian expertly covering more than his share of the infield due to our aforementioned shortness of players.

-Glenn Baken's home run (and first game this season!) and all the fly balls he caught in center field.

-Ryan's home run (though it was a bit on the sloppy side, it still counts!) and awesome debut at first (not an easy position). Oh yeah, and a killer line-drive!

-Jason's numberless strikeouts and playing with an injured wrist (he took a hard hit to the wrist early on, and the bruise is NOT pretty)

And then there was Wendy's consistently good hitting and base running, and coverage of right field, and Softball Dave on third base (we will definitely miss his dependably solid hitting and base-covering over the next two games!) and last but not least Alex Mabilon--who brought his son, and more importantly, the bases! Willy and his family also appeared during the exciting final inning and he managed to make a cameo at first base--without even having time to change his shoes!

Going into the seventh inning we were ahead 14-7 so all we had to do was hold them. They got lucky and managed to eke out a couple of runs, but then we shut them down and were declared the victors with a final score of 14-9! Oh, it felt so much better to win a "real" game, compared to last week's "automatic win" resulting from an absent umpire. We tested the waters at Superfine (they were cold and tasted like beer) but ultimately set up camp at the Water Street Bar where, oddly enough, our sweaty selves felt quite comfortable amidst the live jazz and white tablecloths.

The bartender jokingly offered us free drinks if we would start an old-fashioned "Irish style bar brawl" but we were far too merry to pick a fight with anyone. We were a small but thirsty crowd, and between devouring piles of french fries and gulping down one too many beers we relived the best plays and worst calls until everyone could practically recite the entire game by memory. And now we work, hungover and happy, counting down the six short days until our next game:

Tuesday May 6 (on the very same field) against "El Destructo."

You don't want to miss it! Win or lose, it's going to be a great game, and whether we number eight or eighteen, you can count yourself lucky to be a True Foe!

GTF