THINGS TO NOTE WHILE TRYING LIKE HELL TO GET A GAME TOGETHER ON ONE NIGHT'S NOTICE
-OCTOBER BASEBALL!!!
-This game would NOT have happened without the tireless efforts of Jay Cruzer and Wilson (among others) who called, texted and messaged several people well into Friday evening to assure full teams, thus foiling Alejandro the Baseball Terrorist.
-Despite the torrential downpour throughout the week and a pond covering more than 10 feet of the home plate area, the Cunningham grounds-crew worked to make the field playable. Yes, kitty litter was involved.
-The long reign of Cruzer the Benevolent ended this week in much the same way that his team prevailed the previous two weeks: Too many errors leading to too many unearned runs that the offense was not able to make up.
-In choosing teams, Cruzer attempted to keep as many members of the "Core Four" (himself, Alvin, John B & Wilson, who had all enjoyed Cruzer's previous 2 victories) as he could. Unfortunately, he was not able to retain Wilson.
-Wilson, feeling betrayed, swore revenge and allied himself with Chrissy The Greek. Wilson immediately regretted this unholy alliance while feeling bad that he wasn't on Cruzer's team.
-Showing his gratitude, Christos vowed to end Wilson's non-captaincy winning streak by not picking him next game.
-With that said, the reign of Christos the Malevolent has begun anew!
-Upon leading off the game with a single to right, Alvin was immediately declared Mr. October. This name will stick despite anything else that happened in this game or that happens later in the month.
-Despite Alejandro's best (worst?) efforts to sabotage the game, three of his boys (ours, now) came out to support the "Play baseball or The Terrorist wins" campaign.
-Three players made their league debut: Michael R, Jon and Sam. There have been 78 different people who have played in our league this year.
-Jason B came by with Tiffany and Nadia and was immediately inserted into the game to replace the departing Ricky. He "happened to have" his pj pants and baseball gear. No qualms here, much love to Mr. Blair.
-Speaking of, there were two ordained ministers in attendance instead of the usual one (Nadia & Wilson). Yes, I am an ordained minister and have been since 2002.
-TEN players had multi-hit days. Six players on I'm CEO Bitches recorded at least two hits, while four Cruzer Bruzers recorded two hits apiece.
-Everyone in the game reached base at least once, except for newcomer Sam. Tough sh...luck, Sam.
-Everyone on I'm CEO Bitches reached base via walk or hbp except Sam and Jason B (the latter arrived in the 7th inning).
-Half of I'm CEO Bitches' eight fielding miscues occurred in the bottom of the 5th. Not among those miscues was a fly ball to Northern Boulevard hit by Mike and caught by Jon. A humorous, vulgar rant followed (bat toss included!).
-Brian hit a legitimate, not a pop-up as usual, BOMB to left field. The multiple amputee ended up at second.
-Tommy the Cyborg made his 2nd league appearance and closed out the victory for Cruzer Bruzers. Everyone on the team likely felt uncomfortable with this except the amoral Chrissy the Greek.
-That said, I'm CEO Bitches strung together 3 consecutive hits in the 9th off of the Cyborg, plating their final run. This proved Wilson's theory incorrect: Frankenstein's monster (Tommy Cyborg) cannot destroy his creator (Cruzer), only aid in his defeat.
-In the 4th inning, Harris made a spiffy sliding catch of a Wilson popup to shallow left. John B quipped that Wilson had been "sexually Harris-ed".
-In the 8th inning, I'm CEO Bitches had two runners thrown out at the plate. There were almost two on the same play, but Wilson, catcher for the Cruzer Bruzers, saw a butterfly in the distance and stopped paying attention. HAD he paid attention, Wilson would have seen Christos throw the ball to the plate and potentially tagged Cruzer who scored easily despite THE BUTTERFLY THAT WAS RIGHT THERE, NATURE IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
-Roger was kind (and bored) enough to compile individual win-loss records for this year (minimum 4 games played). They are updated through this game:
Adam 4-1 .800
Reese 7-2 .778
CJ 3-1 .750
John B 6-3 .667
Jimmy 6-3 .667
Justin 6-3 .667
Pepe 5-3 .625
Cruzer 5-3 .625
Wilson 9-6 .600
Harris 4-3 .571
Christos 7-5 .545
Mike 7-6 .538
Sergio 6-6 .500
Jose C 4-4 .500
Mangan 7-7 .500
Scott 3-3 .500
Alvin 7-8 .467
Jason B 3-4 .429
Roger 5-8 .385
Kevin 3-7 .300
Mark 3-7 .300
Chun 2-5 .286
Sepulveda 1-3 .250
Alejandro 1-5 .167
-Upon seeing this, Christos was quoted as saying, "hah Alejandro"
-Five seconds later: Mike: "...[G]et out of my head!"
-Later in the weekend, Mark announced on the email string (before facebook!) that he is engaged to be married. Congrats? Congrats!
-For realsies, congrats Mark!
-OCTOBER BASEBALL!!!!
