Important Infield Factoid

This little fact is important to all those who play in the infield, particularly to those of us who play Pitcher, Catcher and First.

When we are in the field and the other team is at bat, if one of their players takes long lead-offs and lingers getting back to the base after the pitch, the ball can be thrown to the person at that base (eg, First Base) and that person can tag them out if they're not standing on it. SO, if you have the ball, it's in-between pitches, and the opponent is lingering, throw the ball to the person at the base (who's paying attention!) and we can get ourselves a quick and easy out.

WP4B

Ahhh, VICTORY!!!! Yesterday, we beat Will Play 4 Beer with a score of 15-7. We started off strong with 5 runs in the first inning, thanks to their pitcher throwing a lot of balls. I think we even batted through the lineup the first inning. Their team was lacking a second baseman, but they had some decent hitters and were able to keep it fairly competitive. Our own Lou Santini showed off by hitting TWO home runs in the game. He gets his own sport coat w/ embroidered patch and VIP parking next week.

All in all, a pretty strong showing by THE TEAM!!!

The Geezers.

Turns out, The Geezers were not a bunch of old men and they had a couple of young guys on their team. One of which might have been a ringer. He hit a bomb to left in the first inning, but Dan was there to make a sweet catch. We actually held them in the first inning and scored too, so we were ahead. Until the second inning. Turns out they can hit. A lot. Unfortunately, we were not able to give The Geezers a heart attack and we lost something like 10-5. It was a good effort though, and there were many excellent plays. CJ handled a tough throw to second to end an inning. Mimma had a pretty good stop in right field. We also managed to hold onto the ball and didn't make a bunch of dumb throws. So, that's a good thing to build on. Baby steps.

Against the A-Team

This week's game brought a disappointing loss to all the players of THE TEAM that were present. The A-team was a good opponent matching our skill level in ways that other teams have not succeeded.

We started off on fire, good defense, good offense, runs coming in and holding 'em. And then we started to win and we started to slack off. Maybe we got lazy, maybe we were bored, or maybe we just got a little careless in our excitement.

Mid-game we had a couple of errors where the other team got a couple of runs (much undeserved). In the last inning it was down to the wire, the score was 8-9 and we had a man on third for the tie. Unfortunately, the third out came first and we lost.

But hey, as a wise man once said, at least we know what to do next week, right?

Game 2 - 1 and 2

I feel like someone should write something about this game...but honestly I don't remember much of it. That was TWO days ago. So much can happen in just two days. I guess I'll just outline it.

We played a team who's infield fielding was good (but not remarkable), outfield fielding was not so good (they just weren't catchers), and batting was spectacular (they could hit anywhere).

And so we played.

And we got some runs.

But not enough.

We lost.

1 and 1

This week's game was a dream come true for The Team. We won! That's right, we played for all of you that weren't there, we played our hearts out and we won! We ALMOST could have won by 10 points or more, but unfortunately there was a bit of a mixup mid-game that, with any other team (such as the Salem Heat) would have been ridiculously poor sportsmanship. However, with this team and our team combined, it ended up being a bit of confusion.

The scene:

There is a player on first and another on second. A pop fly is hit to the pitcher and it is caught (but to the ump it looks like it is just picked up because it is caught so close to the dirt). The runners are completely confused. The person on second doesn't touch back but runs to third. The person on first never runs. The ball is all over the place -- thrown to first (runner out), thrown to third (safe) thrown to second where nobody is (an out?).

Teacher Time AKA Forgetaboutit sees 3 outs and all the runners leave their bases but a new guy goes up to the plate to bat. There is confusion and a conference ensues between the coaches and the ump. The Ump says there are two outs--the Forgetaboutits conference and say it is possible three.

Finally the ump explains himself:
1. The ball was not caught
2. The batter is out at first
3. The people at 1st and 2nd should go back to where they were
4. There is 1 out

So in reality...there are at least 2 outs:
1. The ball is not caught but the batter was out at first by throw
2. The guy on first never ran to second and so when the base at second was touched the other guy should be out.
3. Even if the guy on first isn't out at second, he's out at 1st because he was still standing there during the batter force-out.

The Team continues to play and the Forgetaboutits make 6 runs against their foes who are immensely confused by the previous play. Luckily, like every other team we play against usually, we were up by a lot already. So, suddenly the score was 11-7 and we just had to hold 'em.

And we did! They got 1-2-3 outs on our batters and went up thinking they were tied but then disappointed when they learned they were losing by 4. We held them with some fabulous plays by everyone on The Team.

So next week, let's remember our victory and play like we mean it the whole way through. Go The Team!

Yes!

Do you guys think we could play at this field next week?

Awesome.


These guys really know softball!