29 Jan 2005 - Gimme a Break

On a beautiful day, inside the running track, we played Lloyd's kids again. If something could go wrong, it did: balls through the legs, bad throws, funny bounces, missed catches. All were guilty. They beat us once again, and this is getting frustrating. One day - I predict - we're gonna open a can of whuppass on this group that they'll never forget. Whether that day is in a few months, or when Beyonce turns 80 years old, I don't know.

Lineups:
Lloyd's Kids: The 3 Stooges plus Lloyd's kids.
SAS: 1B: Rube; 2B: Princess/Rickey; SS: DT/Sandman; 3B: Generalissimo/DT; P: Swat; C: Jason/Rickey; OF: TH, Beyonce, Fei, TS, Gunz, Jo (male), Diana, Horfun, Andy

Scores:
Game 1: 18-6 (Mercy, 7 innings)
Game 2: 7-6

Highlights:
1) The Generalissimo is back. By the second game, new players could finally understand the magic of the Venezualan Jaguar. Gotta love that flick of the glove when he comes up with the ball; 2) Pop up city. In the first game everyone was hitting horrendous pop ups. Finally, we had to institute a "jug at the BBQ" rule if you hit a pop up; 3) Fei is (silently) becoming a solid member of the outfield. Nice hitting too; 4) Gunz' arm continues to amaze. He often held runners who should have advanced with just the threat of a throw.

MBP: The Generalissimo
Best Bat: No one
Best Glove: The Generalissimo (the only one who was consistent)
Worst Play of the Day: All of our fielding, 2nd place goes to our pop ups
DY play of the game: TH backing up 1st base when he was playing in Right Field. Tremendous hustle.

Little Miss Furious

Little Miss Furious watching Paul play shortstop

Startin' em young

Lil' Coyote

Legally R(A)

Birthday Girl, not yet a woman.

The Few, The Proud, The Brave

Some faces to the names
Top Row : Fei, TH
3rd Row : Jason, Diana, Princess, Beyonce
2nd Row : Monk, Scooterboy, Rickey, Sandman, Boss of Sandman
1st Row : Cool Papa, TS, Swat, Money

Photographer : DT

22 January 2005 - Who's (still?) Your Daddy

After two excellent games on a public holiday Friday, we met again the next day to take on Lloyd's kids. While they whupped us a few months ago, Lloyd brought a new group, although some of the usual suspects (Gilbert, Shaun and Clement) were there. The games were much more competitive this time, with the SAS crew putting up a good fight. The key moment was when Cool Papa turned traitor, moving over to play with Lloyd's kids. More on this later.

Our lineup:
1B: Beyonce/Rickey; 2B: Princess; SS: Money; 3B: Sandman; P: Swat; C: Monk/Jason; OF: TH, TS, Fei, Seven, Jason, Diana, Horfun, and Sandwoman.

Game 1: 9-16
Game 2: 6-0 (3 innings)

The first game was a tale of innings. SAS was up 8-0 after two innings. Everyone was hitting well, advancing batters, and taking the next base when available. All was running smoothly. Then Lloyd started coaching. He moved his players around, started shutting us down. Lloyd's kids quickly scored 11 runs in two innings. SAS offense shut down for 6 or so innings, and couldn't come back.

Highlights of Game 1 include: A) Rickey taunting Cool Papa, who hits a scorcher down the 1st base line past him for a 3-run homerun. The next time Cool Papa was at bat, Rickey continued to taunt. The Princess told him to shut up, but (of course) he wouldn't. Cool Papa went to the well too many times. He hit a line drive toward Rickey, who caught it. B) Swat hit a (for sure) homer to left field. This one went so far a stewardess was on the flight. The only problem was: Cool Papa ran it down and snagged it out of the air. Amazing catch. C) The batting of Sandwoman, Diana and Horfun. Kept us rolling in the rallys with their tricky hits. D) TH expertly coaching the outfield and overseeing substitutions.

Game 2 was a bit like the first one. SAS hits to an early lead, but game was called due to concerns over interfering in the outfield with others using the field, and having such young, impressionable minds on the other team. I would count this as a win, but others will probably disagree. We had the momentum and upper hand in this one. Highlights include: A) Princess punishing the pitcher with a line drive off his shin. He'll be limping for days; B) Sandwoman continuing with her hits and rbis; C)Final play of the game. Money throws to Beyonce at first for routine ground-out; Gil at 2nd takes off for 3rd. Beyonce nails him with a great throw to Sandman. Game over.

MBP (Most Betraying Player, this week only): Cool Papa
Gold Glove: TH
Biggest Bat: Sandwoman
Best Play: Cool Papa
DY: Cool Papa (played hard for the other side)
Bonehead Play of the Day: Rickey (for taunting Cool Papa)



Both teams.

--- commentary by Rickey
[edit] Due to immense pain, this reporter did not partake in this day's festivities.

21 Jan 2005

ONEs :
P : The Cheetah/Dom, C : Monk, 1st : Beyonce, 2nd : Princess, 3rd : The Generalissimo, SS : Money, OF : TH, Andy, Horfun, Clement, Grandpa, Gino

TWOs :
P : TS/Swat, C : Jason, 1st : Rickey/Rube, 2nd : Leo, 3rd : DT, SS : Jo, OF : TK, Cool Papa, Diana, Sandman, Gilbert, The Rube

Game 1 : ONES 10 : TWOS 8 (9 innings)
Game 2 : ONES 11 : TWOS 12 (9 innings)

Public holiday games are always fun. We start at 10am when the weather is not too hot, the fields are empty and we can usually manage to squeeze in a full 9inning double-header. We don't lose the sunlight, and no one whines about having to go home or to be somewhere or meet someone for dinner/movie.
Friday was Hari Raya Haji, and as customary, the SAS crowd gathered at the NUS field for a great public holiday game. Ironically, we started the game by 1030am, even though it's morning and most people are half-awake, yet we can't do this on a saturday afternoon at 230pm.
Both teams were exceptionally balanced, with a good mix of infielders and outfielders on both teams. Bats were also fairly distributed, and the two games turned out to be immensely fun.
The games went by very fast, with many 1-2-3 innings, and this reporter could not keep up with the speed of the side-overs to cover the games properly. Thus, I'll just put up the box scores for the games. This reporter apologies for his lack of commentary.


Game 1
                 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   Score
TWOS :  0   0   4   0   0   0   0   0   4     8
ONES  :  1   0   3   0   6   0   0   0   -     10

Game 2
                 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   Score
TWOS :  3   2   0   0   0   0   2   4   1     12
ONES  :  2   0   0   5   3   1   0   0   0     11

15 Jan 2005

Game 1
SAS vs KR
SAS 18 : KR 2 (5 innings)

          1   2   3   4   5   Score 
SAS 3   0   2   8   5   18 
KR    0   0   1   1   0   2 


Game 2
ONEs vs TWOs

This reporter refuses to comment on this game as this reporter feels that the spirit of Saturday Softball was defiled by an action of a lone player.

               1   2   3   4   5   6   7   Score
TWOs   4   1   2   0   4   2   0    13
ONEs    0   0   1   0   7   0   0    8

Hassie Klaus

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile, lost it's wheel
and Hassie Klaus is coming too late.

Congratulations to the Windmill

New to the SAS family
We'd like to welcome Mariska Stulemeijer-Ting.
Heartiest congratulations of Roeland and Shirley.

Lil' Guppies

Guppy and Lil' Guppy.

Sad News

I have to break these sad news.
One of the stalwarts of SAS, and one of it's oldest members is leaving us for good.
Kyle "Kitty" Latinis will be transplanting himself and his family from our shores to Cambodia. This move is scheduled to take place in Febuary, and as tradition demands, we will be holding a farewell BBQ for him.
The farewell BBQ is scheduled to take place on Feb 19. Please take time out from your busy post-softball schedules to partake in this momentous event.
Final details will be sent to you via email.

8 Jan 2005

ONES :
1st : Beyonce/Geok/Monk, 2nd : Geok/Monk, 3rd : Andy, SS :Money, Outfield : Jason, Gunz, Monk, TH

TWOS :
1st : Rube, 2nd : Princess, 3rd : Rickey, SS : DT, Outfield : Swat, TS, Fei

Game 1 : ONES 23 : TWOS 28

As you can see from the score, it was a day that the big bats came out to play. With the wet weather and lousy drainage of the NUS field, we were forced to relocate to West Coast Park for our game. As usual, the numbers only started showing up at 3pm, and we moved off from the NUS carpark at about 3.15 to make our way to West Coast Park. A shortage of numbers are expected during this period of the year, and we were lucky to muster 15 players for a good game of saturday afternoon softball. With the intermittent drizzle and the length of each inning, we only managed to complete one 9-inning game before calling it a day. And what a game it was....

The TWOs took at an early lead with 6-0 at the top of the first, and held on to it all through the game. They even took 2 mercy leads in the 6th and 7th, but the ONEs fought back valiantly, but it was no contest as the TWOs won the game convincingly 28-23. Of noteworthy mention, the only inning where NO ONE scored was the eighth inning. where the score remained 28-22.

The tempo of the game was set down by DT's lead off hit in the first inning. Smacking a line drive HR (the first HR off his new bat), this laid down the precedent for the game to come. High scores notwithstanding, it was not a game of defensive errors. In fact, there were barely any defensive lapses to speak off, with nary a boneheaded play to mention. The game was about pure offensive batting. Long, deep hits, gap hits, and blooper singles was the name of the game. There were about 11 or 12 HRs in the game, many of them with 2 or more RBIs. There could have been more HRs, if not for the great relays from the outfield to home. 4 HRs were robbed because of good arms and accurate throws. Both teams had 2 OF-SS-C relays that got the batter out at home, and even though the catcher was from the other team, he still made the difficult tag. A good show of integrity by both teams (though slightly marred by 2 catchers intentionally dropping the ball on foul tips). A worthy mention was Fei's HR ; he hit the ball into the gap between RF and CF, and Gunz chased down the ball. When he picked up the ball to gun it home to get Fei, a LOUD "AHSHIT!" was heard emanating from the catchers position. It came from Princess, and rightly so, an automatic reaction when Gunz is about to throw the ball to you. She had sensed that Gunz was about to fire home directly to get Fei out, and fearing for her life, her hand and her glove, exclaimed the choice word loudly. The ball did reach the plate at extreme velocity, but Fei managed to beat it out by half a step.

Swat deserves an honorable mention, as he almost single-handedly swept the awards. He showed his amazing running ability in LF, running down and catching practically every hit, and making outstanding throws when he failed to catch the ball in the air. Similarly, he made a big impact on offense as well, hitting 4 HRs to lead his team into victory. Best play of the day was made by him, running down a deep fly ball in foul territory, catching it centimeters off the ground.



MBP : Swat
Gold Glove : Swat
Biggest Bat : Swat
Best Play : Swat
DY play of the day : Andy
Bonehead Play : None

Moonlighting

Caption contest. as usual, click comments and post your captions, or for those of you less PC-inclined, click HERE to submit your caption. Click HERE for a full page.

Retraction

Seems that there was an error in my reporting of the previous game.
Rickey did NOT make the attempted double play. Money fielded the ball and made the throw home, not Rickey. Rickey only asked for the ball to tag Gunz out (again).
My apologies to all parties involved.

01 Jan 2005

ONES:
1st : Guppy, 2nd : New guy/Monk, 3rd : DT, SS : Teck, RF : Andy, CF : Gunz, LF : Monk/New Guy

TWOS:
1st : Beyonce, 2nd : Scooterboy, 3rd : Rickey, SS : Money, RF : Fei, CF : Rube, LF : Fye

Game 1 : ONES 16 : TWOS 22

Bad weather and short numbers turned the game into another old school fiasco of hits and misses, lots of great fielding followed by bonehead plays make a delightfully wet, muddy and soggy saturday afternoon softball.
It was a game of double plays as 4 different individuals made 5 doubleplays (though on 3 counted). Money had a career game, making not 1 but 2 unassisted double plays, both times, fielding a grounder, tagging the runner at 2nd and stepping on 2 to get the force out. He had a close triple play, firing a sizzler to 1st after the tag/force, but the runner beat the throw by barely half a step. DT also had a double play, but a 5-3 double, scoping up a down-the-line dribbler from Rickey, stepping on third and making the throw to first to end the inning. Speaking of Rickey, Rickey made a spectacular grab at 3rd, with bases loaded, fired home to get the force out, called for the ball and proceeded to tag out the runner for his triumphant double play. Much to the chagrin of the batting team, Rickey swaggered off the field to celebrate his play that ended the inning. If only it were so simple. The truth was, that Rickey made the double play on Gunz, twice. Gunz was on 3, so Rickey got him on the force out at home, then he yelled for the ball and tagged Gunz AGAIN. It would have been a great double play if it 2 different runners... And it wouldn't have been as funny if Rickey didn't suanter off the field... And it wouldn't have won the award for the bonehead play of the game if his entire team DIDN'T stand on the field and say "hey, that's not right...that's not a double play?". Finally, last but not least, Scooterboy aka Seven got the last "double" play of the game. Snagging a bunt towards the pitchers mound, with a runner on third, Dom turned to fire 1st to get the batter out, then turned to throw home to get the runner out as well. Miracles never cease on the field of play, how Dom made both throws is beyond this humble reporter. Pity the ball never left Dom's hand, on both "throws". The second contender for bonehead play
Not forgetting Gunz's running-sliding catch ala Manny, though in this case, Gunz actually made the play, instead of falling down like Manny. That was the best play of the game.
Sadly, Money's stellar performance at short was marred by his Buckner impression. Actually, that was the best Buckner impression by anyone on SAS, ever... A slow roller by DT straight back to Money at short. Money glove down, ready to pick up and throw. The ball rolls, slowly through Money's legs, and instead of turning around to chase it down, he stands there (quite knoblochesque if I may say so) and a easy out turns into a triple bagger. The Rube had some choice words, which I'm not allowed (by law) to repeat. Our third nomination for the Bonehead play.
Defensive errors aside, the TWOs had the best hitting of the game, taking an early lead in the first inning of 6 runs, and pulling ahead several times to threaten mercy on the ONEs. The ONEs, in a show of never-say-die spirit, did not hang their heads, but rallied back at every at bat, to shrug off every threat of mercy. Once at the bottom of the 7th at 17-7, to bring it back to 17-11 and at the bottom of the 9th, 22-11 down to bring it back to a respectable 22-16. Though they still lost the game.

Due to popular demand, there is a new award to be given at the end of the game, the Bonehead play of the game, or Bonehead Play for short.

MBP : None
Gold Glove : None
Biggest Bat : DT
Best Play : Gunz
DY play of the day : None
Bonehead Play : Too close to call.

Yes, I know this has nothing to do with softball.