Foes are Four and One! (5/27/08)

We won, but it was because the other team forfeited. The evening was not without excitement, however!

All the weather forecasts we had been checking all day predicted a rain-out, and indeed, after 20 or 30 minutes of playing catch the sky blackened and the wind picked up. Clouds of dust were blowing off the field and getting in our eyes, and I had to keep my non-glove hand on my cap to keep it from flying off. To our credit, we carried on with the warmup and then moved to batting practice.

Huge fat drops of rain came down, but we kept playing, pausing only to cover some stuff on the bench with plastic bags and umbrellas. Then after about five minutes the storm blew over, and a rainbow came out. But Geekballer never showed (not even one person!) and so the ump declared us victorious and took off.

After that it was perfect weather for a softball game--the brief squall had lowered the temperature and humidity and it felt and smelled great out there. We had ourselves a nice sweaty practice followed by some nice cold beers, but overall it wasn't a terribly satisfying experience.

Maybe Geekballer was too intimidated by our awesomeness to face us--and with a 4-1 record we'll be that much more intimidating when we take on Mayhem next Wednesday, June 4. It's a late game (9pm start) at the East River Field, so that should be an interesting change of pace.

Despite the non-game last night, we had a great turnout (including a would-be cheering section!), so thank you to everyone who came out because if we hadn't had a full team ready to play we wouldn't have gotten the win on our record. We are now tied for first place in the league standings! I'm looking forward to sending a more action-packed write-up next Thursday morning, so stay tuned!

GTF

Human After All

A wise woman once said, "You can't win 'em all."

Oh wait, I said that. Last night. After we suffered a definitive loss (12-3) at the hands of El Destructo.

We may have been lacking in runs, but happily we had an abundance of players, guts, and enthusiasm! First props go to Willy, who not only shuttled the equipment and a couple of lucky riders in his "ultra-filthy Truefoemobile" (his words, not mine!) but also stepped up and pitched the whole game, which was not made easy by the fact that the El D players were plenty happy to stand without swinging and take pitches until the cows came home.

This may have been the most challenging game yet for Jason, who had the difficult task of cheering and coaching first base, under doctor's orders to keep his injured wrist off of the pitcher's mound. It's no easy task to keep your chin up while your team is taking a beating, but morale was still fairly high in the True Foes dugout and we believed until the bitter end in a rally that just wasn't realized.

Though we were short a couple of regulars, we were happy to be joined for the first time this season by Sarah Finklea, and we also welcomed Issa back to first base. Thank you to ThinkFilm for lending us three of their finest--Mike, Wendy, and Alex--whose dependably good fielding and hitting are always appreciated. The other Alex (Laviola) hit a handsome home run, and it's just too bad the bases were empty when he did or we would have racked up a couple more runs then. Not that we necessarily need power hits to move around the bases, as Shortstop Brian proved with his crafty base-running, steadily advancing on even the most modest of hits.

The front office was representing last night--Tyson, Danny, and myself were all in attendance and took some good hacks at the ball. Ryan proved that he is a versatile fielder, doing an awesome job of covering second, and he was also joined by fellow audio dude Michael Wiese, who flew in from New Mexico to play with the Foes and whose smiling face will be missed when he has to go back!

On the bright side, our score was the only thing that compares unfavorably to last week's game: we were again blessed with perfect softball weather, and this time we had an ump who, while his calls were not delivered as dramatically, was quite accurate. El Destructo was a good team to play against, and though I do fiercely believe in my heart of hearts that we could have beat them if we'd brought our "A-game," they won fair and square and we wish them well.

I had this theory that we would drink less beer, being unencumbered by the heady jubilance that accompanies a victory. Turns out my theory was completely bogus, and the beer goes down just as smoothly when you're dirty and defeated. You can't keep a True Foe down for long though, and the conversation quickly shifted from the theme of "If only I hadn't gotten out at third..." to more important topics such as what's the best one-liner from "Point Break," and when are they going to bring our French fries?

We still have a winning record, and we're ready to go from 3 and 1 to 4 and 1 when we play The Watchdogs next Wednesday. Come join us for the last (for now) of our Navy Yard games on the 14th, and witness our first official comeback!

GTF

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