DT RANTS

It was another lovely day. The field was a little dry and hard, but otherwise, a perfect day... except... we were short on numbers again. In fact, we only had 8 to start off, which was too short for even double or nothing. We decided on coning off CF and RF, and playing with 3 infielders (SS, 3rd and 1st) and 1 LF. But Patrick (We need a nickname for him soon) came up with a brilliant idea to hit switch instead. Everyone had to bat lefty. Considering that Heidi and the Sandman usually get the short end of the stick when we shut down a field, this was a fair arrangement so that Everyone else would be disadvantaged instead. As the cones were already laid, we decided on 2 infielders (2nd and 1st), and 2 outfielders (RF and CF). Anything to the left of the cones was dead. And to make up for a missing third baseman, we decided to call 3rd base the scoring base.

This arrangement worked brilliantly for the TWOs as they pulled 8 runs from this arrangement, taking a 8-1 lead by the 5th inning. But it was Prof Zen's idea that finally made our game perfect. He suggested a reverse double-or-nothing rule. Instead of being forced to reach second on a hit, the runner on second was forced to round third and head for home. However, the runner can still turn back to second if he had not yet stepped on third base. This made the game much more interesting, as it got much more difficult to score. The ONEs owned this rule, scoring 4 runs to the TWOs 2. But the ONEs could not rally for the win, and the score ended at 10-5.

Thinking that they had the second game in the bag, the ONEs faltered in the second game and only managed to bring in 1 run to end the game at 3-1.

The low numbers do bring out our creativity, and while it is definitely fun to be creative once in a while to mix up the game, it is still nice to enjoy a proper fully-manned game once in a while. We haven't had more than 16 show up in one day for months, and that's hard to stomach. Everyone needs to chip in and do some recruiting.

Hitting left was quite an experience. Everyone swung and missed at least ONCE. (everyone except Heidi of course.) Grandpa, Prof Zen and Marvelous struck out swinging. The ONEs finally started connecting with the ball, but the ball always ended up at the Generalissimo's feet. He had 4 double plays, and more than a dozen put-outs. The TWOs could really smack the ball though. Almost every hit from them went into the outfield. Seven was dominating. I've never seen him hit with so much power and consistancy. It's pretty clear that he's a closet lefty. It's time to come out of the closet Dom. Marvelous may have had the biggest hit of the day, but Prof Zen had the most beautiful. It was as if the ball he hit was laser guided to run straight down the fair side of the cones. It's proof that many of us can swing both ways.

There should be a new award in the blog. It will be called the "Hit Rickey Award". It seems that every week, for the past couple of months, someone has tried to hit, maim (and possibly kill) Rickey. My cousin Joanna started it with her killer line drive to stop him singing the backstreet boy song, DY tried the week after, and Dave the week after that, and I tried last week. The recipient of the first "Hit Rickey Award" goes to Patrick. He put a liner right up the middle when Rickey was pitching, and caught him in the left shin. Kudos to Rickey for staying with the ball, and making the play to get Patrick out. That was a stunning play, and it was also a stunning bruise on the shin. Let's see who can win the award next! The only downside of the hit, was that we lost our only "official" switch hitter. Patrick was so traumatised that for the rest of the game, he just hit the ball to the Generalissimo (and into three DPs).

Gunz, if you're reading this, we want photos of the restaurant that your colleagues have brought you to eat steak. Also, we want photos of the chicken fried steak that you ordered.

Cool Papa, if you're reading this, Rickey wants some soiled panties from the vending machine, and I'd like some pictures of your groupies.