RRBS Softball 2 - Game Log
Game #6

August 5, 2008

Players: Rob Baughman, Kelly Davis, Beth Harsany, Mike Jennings, Andy Lang, Katie Puls, Laurie Silbernagel, Jon Stropes, Jamie Tate, Matt Thompson

I hadn’t really thought much about the previous week’s game until Monday night when I realized I had never quite gotten around to practicing my pitching like I promised myself I was going to do after leaving the mound in the fifth inning last Tuesday.  Every day I said I was going to go out and work on it, something always seemed to come up, I can’t remember what any of those things were off the top of my head, which means in retrospect, they probably weren’t all that important.  Regardless, it meant that I was going to be going into Tuesday’s 6:30 game cold.

To make matters worse, it was, as I said, a 6:30 game.  In the history of RRBS softball, we had never performed well in the early games.  In fact, the last time we played the early game, we were beaten to a bloody pulp, and then shit on for good measure.  Now we were set to play another early game, coming off of one of our most deflating losses of all time.  All signs pointed to this being a really bad week.

To make matters worse, my knee had still not healed from the week before.  I still had a gaping wound that looked like raw hamburger on my leg, and I needed a way to cover it so that it wouldn’t fill up with dirt and bacteria.  I went to Wal-mart, my favorite game-day shopping spot, and bought these new plastic looking bandages that promised not to stick to the sore or the hair around it.  When I tried them out, they seemed to work fine… except that it looked like I was preparing my leg to be put in the freezer.  So, I wasn’t going to look that great, but at least my leg wasn’t going to have to be amputated after the game.

Other than that, I didn’t really have much time to do anything but suit up and prepare to leave for the practice field after I got home from the office.  Again, these early games suck!  I had told everyone to meet at the practice fields around 5:15 so that we could get some sort of warm up in before the game, but I really wasn’t expecting too much of a turnout. 

I almost didn’t even make it to the field in time because not only was I fighting rush-hour traffic, and my uncanny ability to hit every freaking red light, I also ended up in a two-mile long traffic jam on Kessler Blv.  I should have known better than to continue on that road after I saw a couple of cars make U-turns and go back the other way, but something inside kept me on that road.  I think part of me wanted to see what the hold up was, not believing that it could be anything too bad because traffic coming the other way was fine.  I texted everyone else I knew that might come this way, telling them to take another route as I sat there steaming.  As I inched along, the rage inside me began to grow because I knew it was going to be some dumb ass responsible for this.  Thank god, people never disappoint.

When I finally got up to a four-way stop light, two miles from where I began in traffic, I saw that one dude had stalled at the light, and everyone else was slowing down to get a good look at him.  You’d have thought it was a panty-less Britney Spears sitting in the car the way everyone was stopping to gawk.  I was hoping at least the guy was giving out free lemonade as I passed by him.  As I turned to give him my meanest face, I came to the realization that I had also slowed down to look at him.  Sometimes I hate irony.

When I finally got to the field, only Rob and Andy were there, throwing the ball back and fourth.  I was hoping it was early in their warm up because they couldn’t have been more than 6 ft apart.  I don’t know what kind of drill that is, but it looked like they were having a contest to see how many times they could throw it without dropping it.  Instead of joining in that fun, I made my way to the port-o-let again, to continue my streak of relieving myself in portable urinary facilities.  

On my way to the pisser, two cars containing one person each passed me.  They then drove down and parked way back by the trees and just sat there.  Nobody moved, nobody got out of the car… they just sat there.  Now why would someone pull into an empty parking lot, go all the way to the back by the port-o-lets, and just sit there?  That was the question I asked Rob when I got back to the dugout, and his answer was anal sex.  I then discovered that for some reason, whenever I ask Rob a question, anal sex is always the answer.  I don’t know who was more disturbed by this realization, him or me.

As the three of us began tossing the ball around, I noticed two things.  The first was that due to a recent bit of rain, the infield was the same consistency as quick sand.  I almost sank into the mound when I walked over there.  The other was that none of our throws were as crisp as they should have been.  In fact, they were awful.  Maybe that’s why Rob and Andy had only been five feet apart.  Then, when Jon and our new sub Katie (a friend of his from work) showed up, things got even worse.  Jon’s first few throws to people were about a far away from people’s gloves as you could possible get without throwing the ball backwards.  This wasn’t a good sign for a guy wanted to make this game about redemption.

Andy wanted to begin batting practice even though I said we should warm up more.  He protested and said we’d be fine, so I marked off what I thought was 53 feet and began pitching.  Andy’s first shot went right to Katie who was able to stop it quickly, but had a little trouble throwing the ball.  As it turns out, throwing was not her suit.  Her first toss made it about halfway between first and second, but fortunately Jon was there to run it down.  Jon then tried to throw the ball to me on the mound, but overshot my head by a mile. 

The second pitch was sent, and Andy knocked it out to Rob who dropped it, then got it, and threw it to Jon who missed it badly at first.  Jon then threw it to Katie who missed it.  I turned to Andy and frowned.  “Maybe we should warm up a little more,” he said.  I agreed. 

Fresh off of her vacation, Laurie came strolling up just in time to toss the ball around a little bit before we left.  All in all, we really only got to practice four about 20 minutes, but I can safely say, it was the worst practice we’d ever had.  I was worried beyond belief.  We looked horrible.  I had this aching feeling that it was going to be another early game massacre.  Half of our team hadn’t warmed up yet, and the half that did didn’t seem to have their heads in the game. 

The one good thing we had going for us is that before we left I checked the schedule to see who we were playing.  To my delight, the schedule presented me with the best news we could have gotten.  We were set to have our rubber match with The Hartford, the team we’d beaten in week one.  The only team we’d ever beaten!  Yes, the Hartford… we were playing the freaking Hartford.  But then, my heart sank… what if we lost?  What if we lost to the only team we’d ever beaten?  What if we lost to the freaking Hartford?

After a short (and traffic free) trip to the field, we walked over to field three where Beth soon joined us.  As the memories of out last outing on field three came floating into my mind, everyone but me had grabbed a ball and headed to the cages to warm up their throwing arms.  So here I am the pitcher, the guy whose arm should be the warmest, and instead of practicing, I’m on purse duty, making sure nobodies bag gets stolen.  Finally, Jamie showed up and I asked her if she wanted to toss the ball around.  Andy joined us in a three way while Katie took over purse guarding duties.  At first, watching Jamie throw worried me even more because our weekly MVP was throwing like it was her first time with a ball.

She explained that she’d been water skiing earlier in the week and was now extremely sore.  She really didn’t have to add that last part though; I could tell she was sore because every time she threw the ball she winced in pain.  Again, not a good omen.

When I’d had my fill of throwing, and Jamie looked to be in agony, we stopped and walked back over to join the group, where Mike was filling us in on his adventures in Kokomo at the world-famous hip-hugger.  I mentioned that I’d never been there before, to which Rob and Mike replied that we needed to make it a team outing.  We might have to save that for when we win our first title.  Laurie then began filling us in on some of the details of her trip as I began coming up with a new batting order. 

This week, I had to figure out where to put Katie and Laurie now that Brie and Stephanie were gone.  That last order we had worked so well, I didn’t want to screw it up this time.  Once again, I decided that Mike would lead off, followed by Beth, Andy, Kelly, Stropes, Laurie, Me, Jamie, Rob and Katie.  As I finished marking down the line up, the ump began calling for captains.  I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to his drivel again, and Andy was nowhere to be found, so I grabbed Rob (who happened to be the closest guy to me) and told him he was going to me honorary captain for the next few minutes.  His first and only job was to go out there, listen to the ump, and participate in the coin toss.  Less than a minute later he was back in the dugout, telling us that for the fourth week in a row, we had lost the coin toss, and were going to be visitor.  That meant we were going to get to test out my lineup earlier than I had hoped.

Around this time everyone noticed that guys in the maroon shirts with the big buck on them across the field, and I could fell the energy pick up.  Yup, it was the Hartford all right.  Now everyone knew who we were up against.  But was that a good or a bad thing.  With the way we’d been playing so far, over confidence could be our worst enemy.

As Mike walked up to the plate my first thought was, I really hope this goes well.  My second thought was, where the hell is Kelly?  Laurie told ever since they were kids, Kelly had been late to everything.  That comforted me in the sense that I thought she was only late for softball because she didn’t like me… but worried me because she was our fourth batter, and still wasn’t here.  It was then I made the executive group decision to have Laurie take her place if she wasn’t back by then.

So Mike steps up and Knocks one into the outfield to get us going.  Judging by the way the guys in maroon shirts fielded that hit, this was the same old Hartford… minus about 20 players.  Next up was Beth, who wasn’t as lucky at the plate, but Mike was still able to get to second.  Andy then did his usual walk routine, which not only put him on first; it meant Kelly got to walk too!  Well, it would have if Kelly were there.  Instead, it was Laurie who got to take her base.  Now we had the bases loaded and Stropes was up next.

This was good for us because Stropes was up next, and he’d been vowing to crush the ball all week long.  We all looked on anxiously as Stropes walked up to the plate for his redemption.  I’m guessing he was just as disappointed as the rest of us were when his redemption turned out to be a dinked pop foul, which was caught by the catcher.  Doh!  Fortunately Jamie was up next and the pitcher for the Hartford forgot how to throw a strike.  She walked to first as Mike walked home to score us our first run.

So, with two people on base and two outs, I yelled out to see who was next.  Turns out it was me.  I hurried up to the plate while trying to put on my gloves with my teeth.  Now, as the only guy left on the team who used The Hammer, I stepped up to the plate.  I figured I’d get into the pitcher’s head by not swinging at the first pitch, which turned out to be a mistake because he threw a perfect strike.  I wasn’t going to make that mistake again, so I reared back, swung, and did the exact same thing Stropes did.  Three out’s three left on base, up by one.  So far we hadn’t looked too bad, but it still didn’t feel right… and where was Kelly?

With no Kelly in sight, we were forced to take the field with only nine.  Laurie went over to second base as Katie found a spot in the outfield between Rob and Mike.  Everyone else was in their usual spots as I threw my warm up pitches, most of which were fairly close to the plate, without going over.  If I had been a contestant on The Price is Right, I would have been spinning the big wheel by now.

The first batter came up, and wouldn’t you know it, he crushed one into the outfield, right where nobody was.  This was followed by a shot toward Andy, which he missed, that rolled into the outfield giving them two base hits in a row.  Finally, we looked over and saw Kelly walking very casually toward the field.  Laurie yelled at her to hurry up while I did my best to stall.  Kelly eventually made her way to right field and I went ahead and pitched again.  This was another shot to the outfield, but this time Mike was able to get too it… too bad Laurie dropped it at second, and they were able to score a run.  Couple this with a walk, dropped pop fly and a good shot out to the outfield, and we were quickly down 4-1. 

This was not how I wanted things to be going.  It was all coming back to us.  The early game blues mixed with the horrible practiced mixed with the hangover from last week was all adding up to us not doing well at all.  And the Hartford of all teams was now up on us.  Our field looked horrible, our batting wasn’t all that great, and we were getting beat by the worst team in the league.  Pretty soon, we were going to own that title… again. At least, that’s what I thought.

Kelly made her way up to the plate and immediately got things going on the right foot, or in her case, the left foot.  Knocking a great shot out to right field, she began the inning with a double, and we never looked back.  Rob went up next and began his domination of all things round and yellow.  Every since his shaky game back in week three, Rob had been on a tear at the plate, crushing everything into the outfield and becoming a single machine.  Katie was up next, and we were all a little worried as to what might happen.  Little did we know that in this small package was a solid batter with unbelievable speed.  Katie was so fast that all she had to do was make contact with the ball, and she was almost for sure going to beat the throw to first.  Mike then once again crushed it, sending Kelly and Rob home and Katie to third.  Andy popped out and Beth walked, which meant once again Stropes was headed to the plate with loaded bases.  Unlike last time though, he was able to hit a pop fly out into the outfield, which was caught, but at least it was good enough to get both Katie and Mike to the plate, giving us four runs in the inning. Jamie then earned her second walk of the night, which meant I was up again.  Once again I was unprepared as the relentless hitting spree had caused me to spend almost all of my time with the scorecard.  I grabbed the hammer once more and strolled to the plate.  This guy was awful throwing to Jamie, so I thought for sure I had a walk.  Nope.  He once again threw a perfect strike, and I was down in the count.  His second pitch was way off, which I had to force myself not to swing at.  His third one was back on line, and I crush a shot toward second base.  This was going to be great.  It was good enough to send two runners home… that is, had the second baseman not caught the damn ball.  With that, the inning was over, and we were tired.

Now it was up to our fielders… something I was really worried about.  Up by one once again, I took the mound.  But something was different this time.  The first person up to bat hit a line drive right for me, which got past me, but Andy was able to stop it and throw it to Stropes for the out.  Then, after a couple of good shots to the outfield, I was able to strike out a batter, which was followed by me throwing a guy out at first after he hit a line drive right to me.  We’d managed to right the ship, and stayed up by one.

Our next up at bat was huge.  We were able to drive in five runs in a row before going getting three outs in a row, two by strike out.  Stropes, of course, took his biggest swing of the night, the swing of all swings, at a perfect thrown ball and whiffed it so bad it blew a guy’s hat off his head.  This was followed by Jamie, who hadn’t had to swing the bat all night, swinging at two pitches and fouling them both for the out.

We were now up by six, and the Hartford looked rattled. From this point on, it was a back and forth struggle.  Over the next two innings, they tried to get something going, but were never able to.  Our fielding was too good, and I must say, my pitching was one it.  There were a couple of times that I almost walked someone with a full count, but almost every time, I was able to get it over the plate and forced them to swing.

On our end, the batting also slowed down a bit.  We were still getting hits, but just couldn’t get people to score.  Twice poor base running was the culprit.  It didn’t help that our third base coach, Stropes, was busier talking with the other team than he was coaching our runners.  At one point, Mike and I both yelled at him to pay attention because it looked like he was applying for a job at the Hartford. 

Speaking of Mike, he did pull me aside after my previous at bat and told me that he thought it was time for me to retire the Hammer.  He said I should be using his bat, that it would help me pop it a little farther.  I laughed it off at first, but thought I’d humor him and give it a shot.  Turns out he was right.  My next time up, I crushed the ball down the left field line all the way to the fence.  It was the best hit I’d ever had.  I was excited and saddened at the same time.  Here I was with a great shot that drove in a run, and the Hammer wasn’t there to share it with me.

I had two more good shots after that, but all three were negated because Kelly must have picked up my old playbook and kept hitting shots right toward second base, which meant I was thrown out every time.  While she kept getting to first, I was thrown out at second.  One time, I probably could have made it if I had slid into second, something Andy reminded me of when I got back to the dugout.  I wish I had slid that time, because instead of sliding into the bag, the second baseman tagged me right in the bag.  Finally, my lack of a cup had come to haunt me.

When here we were in the bottom of the sixth inning.  We were up by seven and the Hartford was up to bat.  I could tell that everyone was tense, remembering what had happened last week.  We looked even tenser when the Hartford hit their first couple of shots into the outfield and filled the bases.  They were able to drive in one run before I decided, in an Atlas type manor, to put the world on my shoulders and struck out three batters in a row.  It helped that two of the girls where horrible batters and whiffed at pitches, but there was the one guy I got who was trying to walk and I snuck a strike in there on him. Getting out of that inning, it felt good, but I was really hoping we were going to pad our lead to put it out of range. 

Well, we didn’t.  We went 1-2-3 and out with our last at bat, putting the Hartford right back out there to try and take our lead away.  Now everyone was tense.  You could cut it with a knife.  Flashes of blowing an 11 point lead drifted through out the field, except for left and right field where Katie and Laurie luckily oblivious to the pain we had gone through last week.

The first batter came up and starred me down.  “Wait for you pitch” came from the Hartford dugout, meaning that they might be ready to test out the Chillie Willie walking method from the previous week.  I threw my first pitch, and it was a horrible, horrible ball.  Uh-oh.  This could be trouble.  “You’ve got it Thompson, go get ‘em Tee” was echoed throughout the diamond, even though I knew they were all thinking, “here it goes again.

I lined up, and fired my second pitch, praying it was going to be a strike… but it wasn’t.  Another ball.  Shit.  Beth threw me the ball, and once again I tried to focus.  But then it happened, I threw a strike.  The batter stood there with her bat on her shoulder waiting to walk but it didn’t happen.  Instead, it was a strike, and now we had a full count.  With my next pitch I threw another strike and the girl swung, hitting a shot right at Andy who was able to grab it and throw her out at first.  One down, two to go.

The next batter got lucky and knocked a shot down third and was able to get to first.  This hit was followed by another batter who knocked one toward second.  Kelly was able to get to the ball in time and toss the ball to Andy who was already standing on second base.  We might have been able to make a double play, but Andy was smart and didn’t tempt fate.  We had two outs now, with only one to go.

The next girl and guy up to bat both got singles, which loaded the bases so, we weren’t quite out of the barn yet.  This was still in reach for the Hartford, especially if I walked the next guy.  And of course, the next guy up was a slugger.  He walked up to the plate and didn’t waste any time in crushing the ball I had sent him.  It was a deep, deep ball going straight out toward left field.  The ball looked like it was going to land behind Laurie, which would have spelled doom for us.  If that ball landed on the ground, it was going to be an easy triple, and three runs scored.  I prayed for Mike to be able to get to that ball, but there was no way he was going to be able to.

The ball flew back, back, back, and Laurie stepped back, back, back.  We all collectively held out breath as the ball came down toward her.  Then, with her arm outstretched, and clove high in the air, the ball crashed down, sending her arm flying backwards.  I thought for sure the force of the ball was going to be enough to cause her to drop it, like it had last week with Stropes… but I was wrong.  With determination on her face, Laurie stabilized her arm and caught the fly ball, giving us our third out, and our second win of the season. 

The team erupted in excitement as we all ran out to congratulate Laurie.  Andy was first out there to give her a big hug, followed be me.  Stropes then ran up and handed her the game ball, telling her this was hers to keep forever. I told her that she had to take vacations before every game, because this was an all-star moment if I’d ever seen one. 

Excitedly we all stood out in the field as we had Coa come over and take another team photo.  Sure the roster had changed a bit since our first win, and the world had beaten us down a tad more, but the feeling was just as satisfying.  It had been a long, hard battle, during a hot early game, but we’d done it.  Finally, by god, we’d done it again! 

You could tell everyone was feeling good because for the first time ever, the entire team went to BW3s to celebrate.  Yes, even Kelly came, though she was of course the last one to arrive. 

Stropes was only one not present at the post-game celebration.  Turns out he had stayed behind to play in another softball game… and to talk about investments with the Hartford.