30 July 2005

This week we played a friendly with a group from NTU. They were 5 generations of NTU students from Hall 5. It was an even affair. Either side could have won, as the score went back-and-forth.

Our lineup:
1B: Rickey/Rube; 2B: Diana/Rickey; SS: DT; 3B: The Generalissimo; C: Hor Fun; P; Seven; LF: Heidi/Male Jo; CF: WeiXiong/Heidi; RF: Jason; Rover: Diana

Game One:
SAS: 14
NTU: 13

Game Two (3 innings):
SAS: 5
NTU: 3

The game was played on a wet field. The areas around the bases were often lakes, and were quite muddy by the end of the game. The two teams were remarkably even. WeiXiong played for us in the first 2 innings before Jo and Rube showed up. It was a day where we could have used a couple of utility guys (shout out to mi hermano in Canada), and Jo and Rube's arrival helped. The NTU crew had a number of good catches and plays (sorry I don't know the names beyond WeiXiong and Rabbit - if you'd like to write up your impressions, put something in the comments section). They are welcome to come by any Saturday, as a team or individuals. They showed what we would call "Saturday Softball spirit". Fei showed up for the second game.

Notes/Observations:
3rd base saw a lot of sliding, water and mud flying. Truly the hot corner; Diana got a good mud spray at second; Jason had some drops in the outfield, but also had some good hits (clutch game winning rbi in the bottom of the ninth). Good job of not getting down; Hor Fun had some major singles. Nice hitting; The guy in center robbed Rickey and Heidi of sure hits in the 2nd inning of game one; The NTU woman at first robbed some sure hits; Second game, bottom of 9th. Roger (rabbit) comes up to bat, Hor Fun catches his foul tip, we call it "not high enough", then he proceeds to whack a 3 RBI HR on the next pitch.
But...

Ultimately it was the Generalissimo's game. He just let us play along. We got our own Bobby Abreu. Damn. He was hitting the ball with some skillz. Two homers, a double, and more. I lost count.

MBP (Mostest Bestest Player): The Generalissimo
MVP (Most Venezualan Player): The Generalissimo
Biggest Bat: The Generalissimo, with special mention to Hor Fun
Gold Glove: Weixiong or the guy in CF who stole Rickey and Heidi's hits
DY: Rube
Bonehead play of the day: Runners on 1st and 2nd, grounder to Rickey at 2nd. Should be double play. Rickey freezes. Runners now on 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Where oh where have my first basemen gone?

SAS needs firstbasemen like Ben Afflek needs acting classes.
Where is Rube, Heidi and Indiana when I need them?
It's not like I'm throwing at your head....catch the goddamn ball. And when you catch it, close your goddamn glove. Use TWO hands. Bring your non-glove hand to close the mitt so that the ball doesn't bounce/drop/slip out. If I have to rush the goddamn throw cos of a slow roller, get off the goddamn bag to stop the goddamn ball. Ball-goddamn-first goddamnit! Why are you standing on the goddamn bag and trying to stretch and miss, rather than taking a step off, catching and THEN stepping on first base? Gupdroppa strikes again, and I wasn't even suffering from knoblochitis. Fucking hell, my goddamn throws were spot-goddamn-on.

23 July 2005

Ones: 1B: Michael/Fei; 3B: Rickey; LF: Fei/Michael; CF: Grandpa; Rover: Jason
Twos: 1B: Guppy/Rube; 3B: The Generalisimo; LF: Nomar; CF: Rube/Nigey-pooh; Rover: Nigey-pooh/The Shark

Note: Gino came in the 4th inning. Before that DT played shortstop for both sides. After the Shark arrived, DT joined the Ones and Nomar moved into SS for the Twos.
Note #2: Diana arrived in the 8th, and joined the Ones. The Twos got Francis, the ESPN anchor and Channel 8 personality.

Final Score:
ONES 9
TWOS 12

Notes from a Game:
Low turnout, once again. It was a rainy day, particularly in the first few innings. The first 8 innings were played with Right Field being out-of-bounds. Scoring came in spurts. The Ones took a big leap in the 2nd inning, scoring six runs. Fei and Rickey each scored two, and Rickey had one of his patented triples (meaning he ended up on 2nd base), which included the rare RBI of self (ghost runner on third) on a double. Unfortunately for the Ones, they had to play 7 more innings.

The Twos kept it close - scoring a run or two over the next few innings - and then exploded in the 9th, another Saturday Softball standy. During that inning, some of the highlights included a Rube homerun and the Generalisimo's equally impressive triple. The final chance at bat for the Ones ended with DT striking out Fei for the 2nd out, and weak pop-ups.

Other highlights:
DT didn't clock anyone with his throws; Ipoh Assassin's absence in LF was noticeable. Many hits would have fallen into his glove; Twos had some bad running decisions, with two innings ending with their runners being tagged out at 3rd, including Guppy's back-pedalling slip (To paraphrase a quote from the Saturday Softball DVD of the week: "They needed a 3rd base coach the way Ben Affleck needs acting school"); Diana had a nice stop at 2nd; Play of the Day for me was a minor fielding play. Ball goes past the LF, and Grandpa fields it on the run - as the backup - and rifles it into second to keep the runner - on an easy double - at first; No other awards this week - no one stood out.

16 July 2005

ONES:
1st: TS, 3rd: Jason, SS: Nomah, OF: Diana, TH, Fei

TWOS:
1st: Heidi, 3rd: TK, SS: Dan Collison, OF: Horfun, DT, WeiXiong

Game 1: ONES 7 : TWOS 14

Short numbers. Shut down right field and second base. Twos scored 9 runs in 2nd inning, but could not capitalise to get a mercy. Horfun was on a hitting streak. Smacked 2 OVER TH's head. Heidi hit righthanded. Dan Collison cut short his vacation in Puhket specially to come play softball. He just got back from a year in Afghanistan.

Venezuelan wins Home Run Derby

He hit 41 homeruns to set an all time record...

read more HERE

Misty is ONE year closer to DEATH

Dear Friends,
Please proceed to bomb the hell out of matthew.underwood_AT_gmail.com and wish him many happy returns of the day.
Go here and see what his other friends (gosh, I never knew he had other friends) did for him.
Matt's Big Mac Show

BTW, Misty is now 29. If you wanna see a BIG ONE well up, say something abt missing him...

This is the email from Eliza (Matt's fantastic gf), which I wasn't allowed to post earlier, due to the fact that I blew the surprise LAST YEAR

Greetings from Hong Kong!!

Hope you all are doing well.
This is Eliza, gf of Matthew Underwood.
For those who met me before: Hihi, it's me!! Yes, I am still enjoying
the distance thing with Matt. (well, obviously my choice)
For those who never met me, pls don''t think this is a spam, instead
a big mission behind. Check photo attached, w/ Matt this May a trip to
Amsterdam. Guarantee no virus (normally virus w/ extension like .exe
or .zip)

You're receiving this mail cos you are either relatives, frens,
ex-colleagues, workmates, ex-collegemates, IM mates of Matt and you
all know that Matt is now having his "adventure" in Vietnam for almost
2 years.

He has been doing fantastic in VN, built TQPR Vietnam from scratch
into a nine consultant with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, won
big name clients: Airbus, O2, DHL, Kimberly-Clark, Nestle, Enterasys
Networks, Canon, BenQ, Acer….etc. So proud of him!!

However, I've been to VN visit him for several times, it's definitely
not an easy place for expats; especially for Matt, he missed Christmas
family dinner in Adel, driving in Mel, weekend softball game in NUS,
martial art in SG, Big Mac and fries at McDonald (probably he missed
the most!!)….and numerous other civilized enjoyments.

As you may or may not notice, Matt's b'day is around the corner, 10 July!!
I am preparing him again a b'day surprise, a b'day e-card with all you
guys' greetings or updates.

To add a bit more fun on this, I am going to do a "Big Mac run" for him, too.
Should you will drop by McDonald in the next week, may consider to
take a snap shot (with your cell phone) while you're enjoying the
meal, then email me together with your greetings, sure Matt will love
but kind of jealous, haha!!!

Honestly, I am a computer idiot, it took me 2 days to consolidate 30
greeting messages, this year I got more name on the list, it will take
even longer to compile, so if you can send me your greetings before 6
July, that will be great!!

Thanks a trillion!!!

Cheers
Eliza

OT : Federer wins

Fantastic. The cool Swiss putting down the loudmouth American.
Only the cool icemen dominate on grass... Edberg, Sempras and now Federer. Not a spark of emotion, just brilliant, brilliant tennis. A joy to watch.
And Agassi only won AFTER he cut his hair and lost the flashy, neon clothes...

Hassie says hi

2 July 2005

Not a very long post this week.
Basically I was still drunk from drinking on Friday night, so didn't have the energy to keep track of the game. I don't even know the score cos I had to go puke in the bottom of the 10th(I do know it was extra innings), I think ONES won.
My apologies.

ONES:
1st: Gupdroppa, 2nd: Princess/Hassie, 3rd: DY, SS: DT, OF: Swat, TK, Fei, Michael

TWOS:
1st: Heidi, 2nd: Diana, 3rd: Grandpa, SS: Nomah, OF: TH, Jason, TS, Cool Papa


Highlights.

Bottom of 3 : DT suffers from a severe case of knobloch-itis and throws one smack into Princess' cheek. For the record, this is the 3rd female second baseperson DT has hit in the face(blood included), and the fourth person DT has hit in the head with a thrown ball.

Gupzilla becomes Gupdroppa. He does not catch a SINGLE ball the entire day. Every play was 5-E3, 6-E3, even bloppers to 1st base were dropped. Either his glove is not working properly, or he used up ALL his skills last week saving SAS from the scoring run. Total dropped balls : 9 (at least)

Top of 9 : Nomah makes a brilliant unassisted 6-3 double play, fielding the ball, running to 2nd and throwing to 1st (making one of his best throws ever IMO). I believe it is his 4th career DP. It SHOULD have been the play of the day....

...except 1 pitch later, Fei makes the most incredible over-the-shoulder-no-look-fully-stretched-leaping catch off a deep deep fly ball by TS(TS has NEVER hit that far, and he was robbed....no normal human could have caught that ball) for the play of the day. And then, he goes and hits the game leading HR

Cool Papa was hitting like nobody's business. To quote : "Why can't I hit like that last week?"

MVP: Fei
Biggest Bat: Fei
Gold Glove: DY
Play of the Day: Fei's over-the-shoulder-no-look-fully-stretched-leaping catch
Bonehead play of the Day: Guppy putting on a glove
DY Play of the Day: Swat running into a mishmash of bags, stepping on some, to catch a foul pop against his own team (and not dropping the ball)