If Epic was the word I used to describe last week's game, this week, the word should be Effort. Everyone was hustling hard, taking extra bases, diving for balls...etc. It was Saturday Softball in its purest competitive form. What Rube said was right, we needed the last couple of weeks of great numbers to put back the competitive spirit into our game. We've been going through the motions for most of this year, due primarily to the lack of numbers. But with the recent resurgance, everyone is back out enjoying the game, and it makes a huge difference to how the game is played.
Even Rickey was taking extra bases, and that in itself is a testament to how much fun we had on the field. Aggressive running was the name of the game for the ONEs. The stretched singles into doubles and doubles into triples. They grabbed a massive 5-0 lead within the second inning, and from the looks of it, they were going to take the win. The TWOs ran equally as hard, but they had three secret weapons. 1. Rugburn, 2. Grandpa and 3. Rube. The three of them were destroying the ball. I've never seen the ball hit so hard for a long time. It brings me back to the day when Nigel Kennedy aka the Kiwi was around and when he generated so much bat speed, the ball seemed to break the sound barrier when he made contact. Rube was his normal hard-hitting, hard-charging self, but Rugburn and Grandpa really put some meat on the bat. Where were these two guys when we needed to cruise to an easy victory in the tournament...
The Frisbee Idiots were on the field early this time, so I headed over to the other corner to lay the diamond. Turns out, it was a blessing in disguise. The other corner is actually much better than our usual corner. In fact, we should switch to playing over in the other end. The ground is much more even, and home plate is further away from the cricket turf. Which means there is more space in centerfield. Also, since the cricket monkeys like to hit the ball towards the carpark, we only saw 2-3 balls the entire afternoon hit into our side. Before the cricket monkeys appeared though, the frisbee idiots had the run of the field, in fact, they even set up a picnic stand complete with beach chairs and umbrella on top of the cricket turf. It was too tempting and many a fly ball was hit in that direction to take out the umbrella. Rube tried hard, but his bat failed him. He was still pounding the ball deep into right field, but he couldn't seem to force the direction to the umbrella. Rugburn on the other hand, managed to yank one directly towards the umbrella. It was a thing of beauty, and I was glad I was witness to it. The ball hit the ground about a meter from the beach chair, bounced up and smacked a frisbee idiot right in the back. He was bending over in pain (probably crying as well). It was a beauty. He was still rubbing the mark a couple of innings later. He actually took off his shirt to have his girlfriend inspect the injury, and we could see the bruise from way over in our corner. Kudos to Rugburn. You'd think that after a hit like that, the frisbee idiots would move their rest area. Well, we don't call them idiots for nothing... they stayed, but this time, they had a lookout who watched our bats, and protected the umbrella from any approaching ball. What a moron. They could've just moved into the shade of the walkway.
The cricket monkeys soon arrived (after tea and cucumber sandwiches I'd bet), and as the assholes they are, demanded the use of the bowling green. And most of the area used by the frisbee idiots. That was like a dream come true, watching the cricket monkeys displace the frisbee idiots. And the frisbee idiots could not argue because the cricket monkeys had the field booked. Watching the frisbee idiots pack their things and move away was even better than seeing Rugburn hit the guy. The only thing better was if I could've hit a linedrive to right field and take one of them out in the head, with oodles of blood flowing. That would've made my day.
Sadly, because of our late start (3pm ish), we were soon beset by soccer hooligans. They usually are quite alright, waiting for us to finish, or playing ourside the foul lines, but this time, there was a new bunch. They insisted on playing through our left field, right behind third base and short. They even moved the goal posts to play a full-on 11 a side game. The audacity of it all. Bloody Bastards. We really have to start earlier to avoid these people. If we could start about half an hour earlier, we should be easily in the middle of our second game when the hooligans arrive, and we should finish the games on a high note, instead of arguing with these uncouth, ill-bred, discourteous arseholes.
I digress....
Back to the good stuff.
Highlights.
Rugburn lays the smack down on a frisbee idiot.
Rickey hits a 2 base homerun, and manages to get to 3rd instead of stopping at 2.
Rube, Jason, Generalissimo and Rickey turn doubles into triples with extremely aggressive running.
Burma Girl had a gold glove day. She stopped everything coming her way. Though, she was robbed of two infield flyballs, once by DT, once by Indiana. (In our defense, she didn't call for the ball)
Sandman made more plays pitching for the other team than for his own team.
Generalissimo flashes some leather.
Grandpa kills the ball, 3 times.
DT burns Cool Papa, hitting a blooping fly ball over his head in right field.
Swiss Miss had a gold glove day too. He was catching everything. It was a sight to behold. He even ran down a Sandman hit and caught it inches from the ground.
Jason and Diana showed what a little love can do to improve the right side of the field. If Diana missed, Jason covered... Jason actually made a brilliant play to hold Rube to a single instead of a double. Rube hit a line drive to right, and Jason snagged the ball on the first bounce and threw it quickly in to Diana, and Rube was held at first. Rickey had nothing to talk to Rube about because he's never met him there before.
Cool Papa came in during the 4th inning, and the TWOs lit him up. They scored most of their runs when Cool Papa was on the mound.
Game 2 : ONES 0 : TWOS 4 (3 innings)
The Mick, Burma Girl, Indiana, Rube, Horfun, Heidi, Swissmiss, Clement and DT played basketball after drinks at Joes. We headed down to Kent Vale to get some court action.
Rube was unstoppable under the rim. No one could match his height, and he hustles as hard on the court as he does on the field.
The Mick has got some skills. Probably picked up while selling crack in the back courts of harlem.
Indiana has the stamina and energy of a 18 year old. He was running and running and running. DT (who's half his age) couldn't keep it.
Bruma Girl tackled Heidi to the ground. Whoops all round. Catcalls and requests for Jello and/or Mud to be involved. Sexy...
Horfun is officially more dangerous than DT in IT. She hacked into several wifi networks in Kent Vale.
Next Week...
The Redneck Triathlon.
Softball followed by Basketball, followed by Bowling. Insert beer and plenty of mayonaise. Fried Chicken and Watermelons will be ordered if Cool Papa gets permission to enter.
We're going to try for a 2.45pm start this coming weekend, so we can squeeze basketball before Beer. We'd really appreciate it if folks can start arriving about 2.30pm.
Seeya.
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