DT Rants

When I talk about the baseball gods, some of you might take me for an evangelical idiot, preaching about my heathen gods, but if you have doubts that the baseball gods exist after yesterday's game, then there's nothing I can do to save your soul.

Yes, we lost the field to cricketeers. Yes, we were forced to play in the alternate field that was riddled with bumps and potholes, the earth cracked in places because it was soiled in clay. Rocks and debris strewn along the base paths. Yes, it looked like we were badly short of numbers. We were tested, but we showed our mettle. The clouds loomed overhead and threatened to open a downpour of herculean proportions, but we stayed. And the baseball gods looked down on us, saw the mighty 15, proudly worshipping the holy game, and they were pleased. The chorus of the faithful resonated to the heavens. In return, they blew away the storm, and they hid the sun behind the clouds, leaving us with clear weather. I have never seen the like. One moment, it looked like a thunderstorm, the next, the winds changed and the clouds were swept away. In return, they made the ball bounced, hopped, skipped, jumped, fooling infielders and outfielders alike. In return, they gave the meek strength, big bats and basehits. They taught the strong humility and showed irony to the skilled. In return, they let both teams win with mercy scores. The baseball gods had no favourites this day, blessing both sides with brilliant plays, bonehead errors and monsterous hits. It was a wonderful game. It IS a wonderful game.

Jason had a career day, pounding out two homeruns, numerous basehits and making good stops at third. He is the man to watch out for in the near future, and while he is still a good ultility man to put in any defensive position, he needs to find a place to call his own. His fiance (We just found out) Diana, has carved her niche at second base. She's got a good glove and arm, and as she proved yesterday, a hell of a bat. She was batting in the high 800s in the first game and got on base 5 out of 6 times. All she has left to do is to stop Rube's opposite-infield-homerun. Not one to settle for second place, Horfun turned around and showed her bat in the second game, taking a leaf out of Diana's book. Horfun's may be improving slowly, but she's doing it at her own pace, and slow and steady does win the race. She has amazing reflexes behind the plate, catching foul tips with aplomb. All she needs now is more power in her throw and we'll soon have a celebrity deathmatch at second base.

Rube and Gilbert proved that hustle is all you need to score runs. Rube, scoring a homerun off an opposite-field-infield-grounder. Gilbert was outstanding, he led the TWOs to a mercy win in the first game, and then, when he got traded, he led the ONEs to a mercy win in the second. He is our own version of Ichiro, taking extra bases on singles, and scoring at home on doubles. He runs down every ball in the outfield, and he never lets up. It's too bad we don't see him very often. His work ethic is amazing. Seven aka Scooterboy proved again, that he swings the other way. He batted 5 for 5 on the left side of the plate, and 0-3 on the right. He's not a switch hitter. He's a lefty. Come out of the closet Dom.
There was a face-off in the TWOs outfield, with Marvelous and P-Daddy dueling each other for the tinglove. In the end, Ironman ran away with the award for the ONEs. Most of it was not his fault though, the ground played havoc with the bounce, and many a easy one-hopper was deflected or veered away from his glove at the last minute. All the outfielders were tormented by the ground. Most of the time, they had one eye on the ground watching for potholes that would sprain ankles, and the other eye on the ball, and the third eye on the bounce. Needless to say, a double into the outfield usually meant a homerun for the batter. The infield was equally plagues by bad hops, but not as much. In fact, the best fielding position was the pitcher's as he didn't have to deal with an erratic bounce.

The kill-Rickey award goes to Gilbert and Rube. Gilbert hit a linedrive right up the middle, towards the pitcher's chest. That hit would have blown a hole in anyone's body. If it had been Rickey at the mound, he might have died. As it were, Rube made one of the best reflex catches I have ever seen. He seemed to have plucked the ball out of the air nanoseconds before it made contact with his body. It looked almost like Darth Vader's deflection of Han Solo's blaster shot on Baspin city. The ball was struck so well by Gilbert that the ping of contact and the thump in Rube's glove was almost instantaneous.

Overall mercy wins for both teams meant that the teams were quite even. The only difference was Gilbert playing for the winning team in the first game, then being traded to the winning team in the second game. The TWOs also lost Guppy in the second game. Mostly, the ground was the deciding factor for both games. The ball bounces both ways and for the first game, the ball bounced for the TWOs, and it turned around and bounced for the ONEs in the second game.