DT Rants

After last week's stellar congregation, the baseball gods beamed down their pleasure on us, blessing us with a perfect field and perfect weather. It had rained on Friday afternoon, moistening the ground and giving the grass a lush green texture. Because of the harsh sun over the last few days, the field did not turn soggy after the downpour, there was a lovely bounce to the earth and every step had a spring to it.

Sadly, with the temporary departure of Marvelous, and the sickly absence of Diana, our numbers came up short. We only had 12. Normally, with 12, we would shut down one field (usually right), and play with 4 infielders and 2 outfielders. Recently, we've even used cones to shut down centerfield, leaving left and right open (also known as Rubane rules) However, since our creative juices have been sparked over the last few months. We decided on some role reversal. We shut down left field instead, and played a 3 infield (SS, 2nd 1st), 3 outfield formation. We also implemented Prof Zen rules, meaning one had to score from 2nd base, and once the runner had stepped on 3rd base, he was committed to going home.

Shutting down left field will now be called "Rube Rules", for two reasons. 1. This rules totally suits his hitting style. He completely dominated the game hitting deep into right/centerfield with back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back (thats 5) home runs. And 2. Because when we play this game, Rube rules. As Rickey mentioned in the last post, Rube scored 12RBIs in the first game and 3RBIs in the second. Considering the final score, the games should have been much closer without Rube's dominance. The best (or worst part depending on the team you're on) was that no matter how deep the fielders stood, Rube managed to send the ball past them. It didn't matter how much hustle Jason and The Mick showed to get the ball and it didn't matter how quick the relay was turned. Rube made it over the plate to score, and advancing both runners ahead of him. We even tried to Kill the Rube to stop him from scoring. Jason smacked a hard liner up the middle towards Rube's chest, but somehow Rube caught it, protecting his own life, and making the out (It was exactly like the one he pulled last week). The ONEs had no chance. It was ONES vs The Rube, rather than ONEs vs TWOs. Even with the difficultly of scoring from second base, the TWOs scored 15 runs to mercy the first game.

There was a new guy on the field yesterday. Bertrand, a Frenchman who grew up in Switzerland (but from now on, we'll call him Swiss to avoid complications), recently arrived in Singapore for a 6 month internship at one of the NUS research faculties. He's a friend of Fabien's so his soul has been promised to SAS even before he touched down at the airport. It helps that he played a year of baseball in the US when he did an exchange programme. He has a solid swing, a good arm and glove. He did strike out 3 times, but that was because his bat was too quick for the ball. He's going to be a power hitter once he acclimates to our slowpitch speeds rather than the hardball's 80mph delivery.

I haven't ranted about myself for a while, and I must say, I had one of the worst defensive games of my life...for my team, and one of the better games, for the other team. Frackazoids. I fielded every ball for the other team when I pitched for them, but missed everyone when I was on my own. Frack!

After ball at Joes, amongst the strings of karaoke, a discussion of bowling came into play. I'm not sure what happened, but a gauntlet was thrown down from the Mick to the Rick. Rickey claimed a game average of 147, the Mick challenged him to a duel. Though we've threatened to go bowling after softball for years now, it has never come to fruition. For the first time in history, the bowling gods got a piece of the softball gods' action. 6 of us piled into my car to throw another kind of ball. Rube, Rickey, Seven, the Mick, H and I popped down to the brand-sparkling new lanes at the SAFRA at henderson road (built over the location of our former alternate, alternate field) for a showdown of epic proportions between the Mick and Rickey. Just like the ONEs vs Rube, Rickey had no chance against the Mick. He didn't have any fancy hook shots, or curve spins down the lane, but he had power and accuracy, nailing the ball down the center with laser precision. He had more strikes than Rube had HRs. The first game was a fight for second place, but no one could even break a 100 nor could anyone sniff the Mick's score.

The second game on the other hand was much closer. The Mick did not run away with the win this time. Seven, to the suprise of all attending, showed some decent bowling skills too. He fought the Mick tooth and nail for the lead throughout all 10 frames, and it came down to the wire in the last frame. The Mick had 115, and Seven had 105 with his last frame to bowl. His first ball only managed to drop 1 pin, and there was a huge gagging cry from the crowd when everyone put their hands on their necks and yelled "choooooke". Somehow, Seven pulled some magic dust from his pocket and spared the next ball, tying the game with the Mick. All he needed was 1 pin to fall for him to win. To the loud cries of "choke, choke, choke,", Seven rolled his last ball, taking down 5 for a 125 total and the win. The others weren't that far behind either. I rolled a 108, and Rickey a 105. Rube and H had high 90s. Great Game

Sadly, we had to stop our fun after the second game as Rube, the Mick, H and Seven had a date with a microphone at a Karaoke bar. But that's something completely different...