Last night was softball. The game was near that pool I went to a couple weeks back. R came with me. Then we went to Banfields to drink, Blaine, Bill and me and R. I am still at work, but all management is gone. After the bar, R and I went to Borders. I got commentary on the torah by Friedman. They don't have Living Torah by Kaplan but Amazon does. I stayed up late, finished the grades and read Harry Potter. I am up to page 300 of the VB book too. My parents sent me $75 for a bike rack for my birthday. We are having students visit us on Sunday so fasting is iffy. They are medical students from UM's special program for learning health in a family setting. Mostly because of Z. We are planning Greenfield Village this weekend. Again because of Z we got free tickets. He did catch ammonia (sp?) when we went to Florida on make a wish trip so we get free trips to places all the time. After the bar R said remind me never to go to a bar again. At work I was a hero, see below. AF my goodness said I was a stud and shook my hand. I won't wash that hand for a week.
Tom sensing my Israeli gaza strip pull-out tendancies sent me this email and link.
Subject: Good article on Israel, terrorism, etc.
From the National Review, of course. This guy is a very good writer.
http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200507220816.aspBill gave this account of the game.
Subject: Desperate Jack Rabbits
Desperate Jack Rabbits...definitely described the Jack Rabbit Slims last night. Before the game even started, there was high drama. Would we get to play? Or would we have to suffer the dreadful forfeit? Fortunately, we had two things going for us while we waited for Ed and Don: an opponent that wanted to play rather than win by forfeit and an umpire willing to wait ten minutes (and not to mention Jim Tropiano's constant cell phone contact with Ed so we knew he was going to be there in minutes. Thanks, Jim!) Still, even though Ed showed up, unfortunately, Don did not. He may have suffered a bit of the Adam Rowe-syndrome, but I know whatever it was, he probably feels worse about not showing up than we did. I know he'll be at the next game.
So, we ended up with eight guys: three in the outfield, three in the infield and the pitcher and catcher. Yikes! (Maybe we should take the forfeit?) This is going to be a long game. We were the home team and the first batter showed us what it was going to be like. I was playing short, but there was no third baseman and sure enough, he hit a grounder right to the third baseman. Two more hits and they had the bases loaded (thanks to their conservative running). Blaine walked the first batter in, although I have to say, the umpire was calling an awfully tight strike zone. This would be the first of their many runs, we thought. But the next batter hit it right to Blaine who threw home to Pittsfield Jew for the force. I think that play showed things might not be so bad, after all. The next batter hit it to the right of me and I had only one play, beat the runner to third. Still, they had their second run, but also their second out. They loaded the bases again, but their next batter flew out. Only two runs, that wasn't so bad.
But in our bottom of the first, we had three hits, but didn't score. Mike had tried to stretch a double into a triple on the first hit and was thrown out. That probably showed us we better be more conservative, although it took a perfect throw and tag.
Ed suggested we move John V. from second to third, because too many hitters can pull the ball. Blaine could drop back to second, if need be. That turned out to be a pretty good move, as one of their runners tried to go from first to third on a hit to center and was thrown out at third (The throw was perfect and John definitely tagged the runner before he touched third. Good call, ump!) They didn't score in the second. We scored two in the bottom of the second, including walks to me and Pittsfield Jew. So, we're tied after two. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn't going to be that bad. They scored only one in the third. Then in the fourth, I think they were getting a bit desperate themselves and abandoned trying to place it in the hole between first and short (where the second baseman is normally,) and tried to hit the ball hard, ending up with a 1-2-3 inning of deep fly balls to center (Mike) and left (Ed).
In the fifth and sixth, they went back to trying to place it in the second base hole, but could only score two runs in each inning. The key to holding them to two runs each time was the fact that our defense was flawless. There were no errors, and this is not because of generous scoring. Every play that one of our players should have made, was made. Pittsfield caught a foul ball. Jeff made a pretty good play in right. John fielded third flawlessly. Jim played a flawless first base, even scooping a hard thrown ball from Blaine out of the dirt to prevent the only potential error from occurring. Mike and Ed made good plays in center and left. Blaine made the plays at pitcher, even snagging a hard shot that normally gets past most pitchers. They also had too many pull hitters trying to hit to right, who just could not do it and would end up confusing themselves into easy fly balls or grounders.
Still, going into the bottom of the sixth, we were down 7 to 2. With eight guys, it was a satisfying score. Then Mike, Ed, Blaine, Jim and John each got hits, scoring three runs (Blaine knocking in two and John one) and leaving guys at second and third. I grounded out to the second baseman, knocking in the fourth run, then Jeff grounded out to short on a close play. So that left Jew up with two outs and us down 7-6. We all started thinking, just hold the other team in the top of the seventh and maybe we can get another shot. But wait, Pittsfield lines it over the head of the third baseman for a line drive single?!?!, a good clean base hit, even though they played a short rover just behind the shortstop! John scored the tying run. That opened the flood gates as their defense finally collapsed and our offense woke up. Mike, Ed, Blaine, Jim and John had hits (and their fielders sometimes bobbled the potential third out) for five more runs. As I got up, I could see the other team's confusion as they ran first towards right, then hearing someone say he hits to short left, they hurriedly put their rover just behind second on the shortstop side and deep fielders in left and left center, leaving a huge gap between left center and their right fielder. What an opportunity for a guy who already lined two singles to right center! But the umpire called time. Why? She said time again, so I stepped out. Then she said that the game was being called on account of time, as we had already played an hour and fifteen minutes, and since we, the home team were ahead, the game was over! We won 12-7 with eight guys!
Now, some of you might be thinking that we could have really killed this team if we had all ten fielders, especially since some of us were playing positions we hadn't played before (Jim at first, John at third, me at short-second combo), but we had our chance against these same guys and won only 14-8 in that game. I think that they tried so hard to hit to right to take advantage of the second base hole, plus thought that it would be easy to get a hit to the outfield with only three fielders, that they ended up getting themselves out. Had they been hitting normally, they might have had better success. Plus, our defense played flawless. Maybe that was because each of us knew that if we didn't make this play at this time, we were going to get killed with only eight fielders. Whatever, the fact is, we won and I feel it was one of the best wins I've been involved in. {By the way, John V, I'm glad the umpire missed the bolt of lightning you pointed out in the top of the sixth. A feel good win is much better than a feel good loss!}
Bill C.
Configuration Analyst, M-CARE
