ONES: Indiana, New John, H, Brian From Korea
TWOS: DT, Horfun, Burma Girl, Rugburn
All time: Rube
Game 1: ONES 12: TWOS 11
Game 2: ONES 5: TWOS 0
We were about to call the game. At 3.15pm, there was only Rube, Rugburn, Horfun, H and myself. But when Burma girl called and asked if we were on the field, we decided to get in some batting practice. Turns out, that was a wise decision as New John showed up and Brian, a Korean Traveller on a business trip asked if he could join us. He was actually seeing the sights in Singapore, and NUS was one of his stops (crazy... I know, but it was a blessing in disguise as he put on an awesome batting display) Seeing us warm up, he asked if he could join us, and we never turn anyone away (especially when we have no numbers). With 9+1 and only 4 batters per team, we decide to play Indiana and Prof Zen rules with a ghost runner thrown in if runners were on first and second.
Rube volunteered to play in the field all time (he said he didn't want to run too much...which was ironic since he probably ran more than if he had actually hit). DT did the count, and trying to balance Rugburn's bat, he elected to put Burma Girl and Horfun on the same team. With Brian an unknown quantity, and New John not yet proving his bat, DT thought that this would make the teams more even. Little did he know that Brian from Korea had a massive bat, hitting two home runs back to back (including a base clearing 3 run HR), over Rugburns head. New John also showed his stuff, finally getting accustomed to the slow pitch. He made some monster hits deep into left and centerfield. Defensively, both Johns built a brick wall in the infield. Nothing that hit the ground within the diamond got by them. The TWOs had to depend on Rugburn's big bat to score runs. Ironically, it was DT who scored the first 3run HR for the TWOs. But all the other points were put on the board by Rugburn. To counter this, the ONES decided to put up the most interesting defensive shift I've ever seen. They did an infield-outfield shift. Rube, H and Brian in the OF, and Indiana joined them, leaving only New John to defend the infield. The strategy worked as Rugburn was held to singles, and on his final at-bat, he was caught out by Indiana.
The ONES actually led the entire first game. Putting runs early on the board within the first 3 innings. However, in the 4th when DT switched from SS to CF with Rube, the TWOS defense suddenly took on a whole new life. For 3 consecutive innings, the TWOS made 1-2-3 outs with barely 6 pitches made. Rube stopped everything bouncing to him, and DT and Rugburn caught everything flying towards the OF. The TWOS finally caught up, one run at a time, and actually tied the game at the top of the 9th (with a 3run HR from Rugburn... there were about 4 of them today). However, the batting lineup of New John, Brian from Korea, Indiana and H proved too strong. With Brian getting on base, he was finally knocked in by a huge hit from New John.
Moving to the second game, it was the same thing. The ONES combined strong hitting with solid glovework to hold off any chance of the TWOS winning a game. Looking back, tweaking the lineup by trading H for Burma girl might have made the teams more fair.
Sadly, we will be losing Brian this weekend, as he returns to Korea on Friday. However, his company will be sending him to Singapore quite often, and he promised he will join us whenever he's in town. We lost the Generalissimo for 6 weeks while he's on a study trip, and we've also lost The Mick for 3 weeks as he goes back to New York to NOT watch the world series. Rickey had to give a talk to his groupies at some museum and Sandman's folks are in town, but hopefully we'll see them next week. Superdad needs to start showing up. We haven't seen him for a long time... (but if he's busy, he should send SuperMom instead)
The Haze was not that bad, although it got pretty awful come late evening. Hopefully it will clear up by next week. Our rule is quite simple, unless there is lightning threatening to strike our bats, we play.
On to Next Week.
No comments:
Post a Comment