Week 6, May 16, vs Tigers at Larchmont City Park
When I was a kid playing Little League, I found myself on some shitty fields, if I may be so blunt. At 12 years old, I rarely stepped foot on one with a grass infield, let alone one with smooth dirt. The fields were usually so bad (how bad were they?) that a ground ball once confused my face for my glove. But this was big time baseball, so playing on legitimate looking fields was the norm. So you could imagine my surprise when I saw the field we'd be playing on this week at Larchmont Park. The infield grass had more craters than the moon and was reminiscent of the terrain that Clark Griswold traveled over in search of a gas station. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYTdILs7-1Q&feature=related) The backstop was about 65 feet behind home plate, which meant a runner on first base had a great shot of going all the way to third base on a passed ball. There was no fence in the outfield either, but that's what you get at a municipal park. It didn't matter, however, because we're a baseball team, and to paraphrase Sir Edmund Hillary on why he climbed Mt. Everest, we played on it because it's there. ("We'll climb it because it's there.")
You know, Rosie Perez was onto something when she said the following in White Men Can't Jump: "Sometimes when you win, you actually lose. And sometimes when you lose you actually win. And sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie." She also said, "screwing is for carpenters", but that's not really relevant here. Even though we lost the previous week to the Grays, I think the boys learned something about themselves. I've been stressing to them all season that a positive and energetic attitude breeds good results. (Another life lesson.) If your intensity is at a high level, your performance will be the same. Besides that 1st inning, we played them pretty tough, and I could tell before the game started that these Eagles were hungry for a victory.
The first base dugout, if that's what you would call a bench chained to a set of bleachers, was actually closer to the parking lot than the field. It was a good 30 yards away. I'm not joking. There was no way Coach Jeff and I were sitting there. We would have needed a microphone and binoculars to coach during the game. We instead sat on a bucket about halfway between the "dugout" and the field. Actually, Jeff sat on the bucket, I mostly stood and paced. (Typical head coach/assistant coach chain of command nonsense. G-d forbid we get another bucket.) I'm just joking actually. I prefer to stand. I have too much nervous energy to sit for most of the game anyway. Plus, I'm constantly shouting out instruction and positioning the defense, so sitting is tough.
We had the usual large crowd of supporters with us. I've been super impressed all year with how many parents show up for each game. All of them actually show up every week. (Every damn night?!) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkdHC0hyLaU) In all my years involved in youth baseball, I don't think I've ever seen this much support from so many parents. It's great for the kids and great for the program. On the down side however, many of the fathers get a little too involved in the game. They stand behind Jeff and myself making comments, almost coaching along with us, questioning moves, suggesting player positioning, and sometimes, just flat out being annoying. So, in that respect, it was actually a nice change of pace to be sitting 20 yards away from them.
Colonel Sanders and his partner were our umpiring crew again this week. At least we knew right away that the umps wouldn't screw us. He may have been old, but he was fair. After the usual pre-game meeting at home plate to exchange lineups and go over the ground rules, it was time to play ball. I loaded up with some sunflower seeds as I do before every game, and we were off and running.
We looked like a completely different team in the first game. Focused. Energetic. Aggressive. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sasg1XmdXOc) Ned was absolutely dealing on the hill. (No pun intended on the previous clip. It's just how my mind works.) I was able to figure this out first hand as I had the unfortunate pleasure of warming Ned up one inning. Archie was getting his gear on and Jeff asked me to go warm up Ned. Now, I knew the kid threw hard, but how hard could he really throw. Afterall, he was only 12. Nonetheless, I told Ned to "take it easy on me" since I wasn't wearing a cup and hadn't caught a pitcher who threw hard in about 25 years. Except these kids don't know what "take it easy" means. You never know how truly fast a ball is traveling until it is coming right at you. I'd say he was throwing around 70mph, and the 2nd pitch caught me right on the bone under my ring finger. I couldn't yell "Oww" because that would make me look bad in front of the boys. But I was hurting on the inside. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-NPzpVrmAw) And the bruise that appeared about 10 minutes later and stayed with me for about a week told the story. Ned threw hard.
Anyway, the boys were making plays in the field and swinging the bats real well. Even the coaches were on their games. In the 4th inning the Tigers were threatening with runners on the corners and only one out. At this level of baseball, 99 out of 100 times, the runner from first will steal 2nd. And 99 out of 100 of those times, the catcher will not try to throw out the runner. It's just too easy for the runner from third to score.
A common play to counter that move, however, is to do one of two things. 1) Throw right back to the pitcher and hope the runner from third breaks, or 2) throw to the shortstop in front of the baseline, hoping the runner from 3rd breaks for home. We've ran #2 before and it worked perfectly. I leaned over to Jeff and said, "Hey, 1st and 3rd." Although we have only known and been coaching together for a few months, it's amazing how much we think alike. Right away, Jeff said, "Yeah, I'm with ya." He signaled to Archie behind the plate to put #2 on, on the first pitch. I just hoped that Albert saw the signal at SS. Sure enough, the runner from first broke for 2nd, Archie came up firing to Albert who caught the ball on the infield grass directly in front of the baseline, the runner from 3rd broke for home, and Albert threw a perfect strike back to Archie to get the runner. It was exactly how we drew it up.
In between one of the innings, I went to ask Colonel Sanders and his partner a question regarding their mechanics on a fly ball to the outfield and a runner tagging from third base. I figured if I prefaced the question by telling them I was also an umpire, it would sound more like a question and less like a complaint. So I asked them who takes the catch and who looks at the runner at 3rd to make sure he doesn't leave early. Before the Colonel had time to answer, his partner says, "If you're an umpire, you should know that." I think he was joking, but I had doubt. Sanders then told me the home plate umpire has both. A simple answer from a simple man. I liked this crew.
The Eagles won the first game 8-1 in perhaps their best played game of the season. And it only lasted 5 innings because of the time limit. We were feeling good about ourselves heading into game 2 that we could pull off the sweep.
Game 2 was one of the classics that you would have wished you were at. I was on the edge of my seat (just a figure of speech since I was still standing) the entire game. I was putting a new handful of seeds in my mouth every half inning. I must have eaten a couple pounds of those suckers. It was a good thing that Fred brought an entire box of the them. I even developed a system for eating them. In between every half inning, I'd walk over to the bench, pour some in my hand, put half in my mouth and the other half in my back left pocket. It became sort of a superstition when the game stayed tied at 2 from the 2nd inning on.
Albert pitched awesome. He's such a tough little, scrappy kid. He got into trouble a few times and kept battling out of it. We had opportunities to score in almost every inning but just couldn't break the game open. Once again, defensively, the boys were outstanding. Albert got into some trouble in the 4th with the score tied at 2, giving up back to back singles with one out. He got the next guy to hit a ground ball to Brad at 3rd, who threw in the dirt to Jack at 2nd. But Jack made a great play to dig it out and continue the double play to Archie at first. It was our first double play all year and it came at a huge moment in the game. I was so fired up I almost knocked Jack over when he came off the field. We had the momentum, I was confident we'd take the lead in the 5th.
Jeff was so fired up from the double play, he had to go use the men's room right as the top of the 5th was starting. I had to go coach 3rd base!! Wow, my first time coaching 3rd and we're in a nail biter. I mean, I've coached 3rd plenty of times during my softball games, but this was different. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous. I felt like Shooter when Coach Dale was thrown out of the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eToqHYKySI). I've never really given signs before. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind. Shit! What were our signs? All of a sudden I forgot them. What was steal? Bunt? Suicide squeeze? I took a deep breath as I stood in the coaches box down the 3rd base line. My heart was racing. I wondered if the fathers were talking about me? What if we got a runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs? Do I run the suicide squeeze? Maybe the picket fence? Just because I was coaching 3rd, was I all of a sudden in total control?
We got a runner on 1st with one out and I started to go through some signs. I don't even know what I put on, if anything. I think I touched my face in twenty different spots with a couple touches of the arm thrown in there for good measure. I ended the sequence with a clap, I do remember that. But after that first one, I felt better and things started to slow down. I put the steal sign on, which is touching the chest by the way, with the count 2-1. By this time, Jeff was back and now coaching first. This gave me a little bit of comfort as well. Sam fouled the pitch off, ruining the stolen base. With 2 strikes I took the steal sign off, and Sam struck out. Charlie was up next and on the first pitch he hit a double to right centerfield. I'm waving the runner to third and hold him up just as he rounds the base, as the throw heads home. Now we were cooking!!! The adrenaline was rushing through my veins. Eric was up now with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and third. We needed to get that run home. "C'mon Eric, you got this!", I yelled from down the line. I wasn't putting anything on with 2 outs, hoping that Eric could come through. Unfortunately, Eric struck out on 3 pitches and the inning was over. So close.
We stayed tied in the top of the 6th and threatened again. The Tigers walked Ned intentionally for the 4th time on the day to load the bases with one out. Who walks a 12 year old intentionally 4 times??! That's not only wrong, it's insane. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIPfbzzBg_8) I was back coaching 1st base and with Brad coming up, I wondered what Jeff was thinking of doing. I was hoping he'd let him hit away. Brad was one of our best hitters and hadn't really bunted too much, so a squeeze wasn't ideal. Besides, all we needed was Brad to hit the ball hard somewhere on the ground and the run should score. Well, be careful what you wish for because sure enough, Brad hit a hard ground ball to the second baseman who immediately threw home. Fred slid into home and the umpire called him out. I can't tell you how many times umpires have gotten calls at the plate wrong this year. From my angle he was clearly safe. Once again, the ump wasn't in proper position. One of these days, I'm just going to have to put the gear on and do it myself.
Not scoring would end up being our demise as we let the game get out of hand in the bottom half of the 6th. After Albert walked the leadoff batter, Jeff wasn't taking any chances and brought in a fresh Larry, who threw much harder than Albert did. Larry struck out the first batter but then couldn't find the strike zone and walked the next two batters. With the bases loaded and 1 out, we desperately needed a ground ball. Well, we got the ground ball. Unfortunately, it rolled right through Jack's legs at 2nd base, scoring 2 runs. The next batter hit a triple to right, scoring 2 more runs, and ended our dreams of a sweep.
I felt real bad for the boys as they played their hearts out, which is all we could ask of them. Jeff and I told the team we were proud of them and to feel good about the way they played. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and some times, it rains. Think about that.
Current record: 3-8-1 in league play. 4-8-1 overall.
Next episode: Chicken Bones?
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