Repeat!

We da champs again in 2009!

NEXT OUTING

NEXT TIME, WE'RE GOING TO SACRAMENTO, TO SEE THE TRIPLE AAA AFFILIATE OF THE A'S, THE SACRAMENTO RIVERCATS. WE WILL BE GOING BY TRAIN FROM RICHMOND, THERE'S LOTS OF SHOPS IN OLD SAC WALKING DISTANCE TO THE RALEY FIELD. THE TRAIN RIDE IS VERY NICE. BUT I KNOW SOME OF YOU ARE ON LOCK DOWN AND HAVE MICHAEL VICK BRACELETS ON AND CAN'T HANG OUT. JUST LETTING YOU'ALL KNOW. HAVE A NICE DAY!!!

Stockton Ports Game

Grandpa (Gary), Darlene, Mamie, and I went out to Stockton last night to see a minor league baseball game. The Stockton Ports are the Oakland A's Single-A level farm club in the California League. They hosted the San Jose Giants, the Single-A farm club of the San Francisco Giants. The Ports' play at Banner Island Ballpark which sits next to the deep water channel in the Port of Stockton.

Master Batters vs. Terminal Digits

I took a bunch of pictures at yesterday's game which you can find here.

There was some discussion in the stands about three controversial rulings in yesterday's game. I witnessed two of them and one of them was definitely a blown call by the umpire. I didn't have a clear view of the second one but my impression was that the umpire made the correct call. The third one I did not witness because I was beyond the centerfield fence taking some pictures. I'll get to that one last.

From the Bleachers at Nicholl Park

I thought I'd share some pictures from Wednesday's game. We have a pretty good time watching the other teams play. Come out and join us Tuesday for the game between the Terminal Digits and the Master Batters.

A Request

When I set up this blog, my primary goal was to establish a place where we could chat and exchange ideas freely. Another goal was to reduce our use of office email for non-work related communications since it's frowned upon by management. In recent weeks, I have received requests from a couple of our teammates (who shall remain anonymous) who wish to reduce the junk email generated by our team. Basically, it goes like this: I don't appreciate coming to work and opening my email to find my inbox filled with junk. Sometimes there's 20 or 30 messages of you guys putting each other down and LOLing. I shouldn't have to sort through these junk messages to get to my job related messages and messages from my family. So can you tell everyone to save it for when we get to the park or take it to the blog? While I personally enjoy the banter (most of the time), I respect this point of view. We do let it get out of hand sometimes and I can see where management (should they ever become aware of it) might wonder if they're giving us enough work. It's possible to set up filtering in Outlook to direct messages with certain content or senders to a specific folder but it may not be something everyone knows how to do. Besides that, the burden should be on the senders, not the recipients. So to accommodate our teammates who don't want to receive these messages, I'm asking everyone to please restrict their use of the "Reply to All" button to those situations in which your message really needs to be seen by everyone. Also, if you just want to joke around or pile on Grandpa, let's do it here on the blog. It won't hinder anybody's work or communications with their family. Let's please respect the wishes of our teammates. Much obliged.

Interested In Batting Practice This Weekend?

Last week we considered meeting at Blue Sky Sports in Pinole for a Sunday afternoon BP session. Scheduling conflicts and short Sunday business hours at Blue Sky kept us from following through. How about this Sunday? I'm working overtime on Saturday and I'd be free after that also. The batting cages are open until 6pm on Saturday and 5 pm on Sunday. It's a 35 mile ride for me but if we can make a team outing of it, I'll be there. Saturday would be easier because I'll be in Richmond for OT but Sunday would be cool too if that works better for everyone else. There's a poll in the right column to show where you stand.

PLAYOFF GAME VS MOD SQUAD

THE COACH/GRANDPA HAS TWO THINGS TO SAY. ONE: WE WANT MR. BLUE TO UMPIRE OUR GAME NOT THE LIGHT SKINNED UMPIRE WHO LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY ROBINSON. TWO: ALL PC BRICKS IT'S TIME TO STOP SLEEP WALKING ON DEFENSE AND LET'S PLAY SOLID BRICKS DEFENSE. WE NEED TO SETTLE DOWN AND STOP DOING ALL THESE CHANGES. ALSO WE NEED TO TALK ON DEFENSE AND LET ME POSTION THE OUTFIELDERS BECAUSE I KNOW THE HITTERS ON THE TEAM. THE MOD SQUAD WILL BE GUNNING FOR US. IT TIME FOR US TO PLAY LIKE WE USED TO (CHAMPIONS). WE NEED TO BE FOCUSED. NO MORE JOKES. SERIOUS BUSINESS, NO MORE TALKING TO THE OTHER TEAMS. JUST SAY HELLO AND GOOD LUCK. OTHER THAN THAT NO MORE CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ENEMIES. IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF BIG DADDY KANE; "LET'S GET THE JOB DONE". P.S. IF WE DON'T WIN THIS WEDNESDAY, NO FOOD AFTER THE GAME AND GRANDPA/COACH WILL NOT SPEAK TO ANY OF YOU AGAIN AND WILL RETIRE.

Dream Team Quits, PC Bricks win 7-0

I've seen some crazy things in softball before but never have I seen a team throw a hissy fit and walk off the field during a playoff game. If anyone can top that, please share. For those who weren't there to see it, the first round of our league playoffs started this week and we were matched up with the Dream Team. The game barely got underway as the Dream Team had trouble gathering enough players to meet the minimum requirement. When they put a player in their lineup who was widely recognized as someone who isn't employed by SSA or otherwise employed at the FHFB, we notified the umpire we were playing the game under protest. After the game started, the Dream Team slipped another recognized ineligible player into their lineup. At the end of the second inning, we were up 4-3 and at that point the Dream Team decided they didn't want to play any longer. They walked off the field, packed up their equipment and left. One of their more vocal players tried to blame us for their decision to quit. Why would they do something like this? A certain contingent within the Dream Team was displeased that the validity of their roster was being challenged. Rather than play the game and let the protest sort itself out afterward, this contingent decided to cheat their teammates and us out of a game. This is the only softball team I've ever seen that gets so much satisfaction from not playing softball. They forfeited two of their seven games during the regular season and now they've added a forfeited playoff game. The decision to quit amounts to an admission of guilt. If their players were legitimate and the Dream Team won the game, their victory would stand. Our protest would be turned down and we'd have to pay a $50.00 fee to the City of Richmond for our failed protest. You don't walk away from a game like that if what you're doing is righteous. But they knew what they were doing was wrong and rather than deal with any possible consequences, they decided to pack it in and go home. What do you make of this, PC Bricks?

Umpire's fee

As you may recall, we had to pay the umpire for Tuesday's makeup game. I'm not clear on exactly who paid and how much. I know I paid $10.00 and I'm almost positive Gena paid $8.00. I'm pretty sure Lena put in $2.00 and I think Superfan Leretha contributed $5.00. When the umpire's fee turned out to be only $20.00 instead of $25.00, I had money leftover which I gave back to Leretha. If I didn't give her enough back, we still owe her some. Before we sort out the tab, can I please have everyone who paid, confirm the amount here?

How was Pete's Place?

Did anyone go to Pete's Place after Tuesday's game? I don't drink and I find bars depressing so I decided to pass. If we have a postgame gathering at a pizza joint or something similar, I would like to hang out with my fellow softballers. But if we're meeting at a bar, you can most likely count me out.

We were crushed but there's no need to panic

Hey, folks. Let's not get down on ourselves for the butt kicking we took from the TD's yesterday. The TD's played a great game. We just have to tip our caps to them and prepare ourselves for our next game. If you play enough games, you'll have days like that no matter how good your team may be. There's no need for us to lose confidence or try to fix things that aren't broken. I think we may have overreacted a bit when the TD's took early command of the game. I'm not sure what the reasons were but we reacted to the TD's hitting barrage by shuffling our defense around. In one instance, I think it was in reaction to Gena getting hurt. I understand that one. But when we started putting our players at positions they hadn't played before, I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish. I don't mean to criticize the decision. I'm just trying to understand it. I'm open minded and if someone can make sense of it for me, I'll get on board. Otherwise, I think this is something we should avoid in the future. When people are asked to do things they haven't done before, they tend to struggle. This is just my opinion but I don't think the TD's were going to stop hitting no matter what positions we were playing. James tried to take the blame for it but we can't let him do that. Perhaps his control wasn't as sharp as it usually is but it's not the reason we lost. We were beaten because the TD's outplayed us in every phase of the game. They hit better. They ran the bases better. They fielded better (despite them booting a few balls at shortstop). And on top of all that, Mr. Brown pitched an outstanding game. There's always room for improvement so there are some things we can work on at practice next Monday besides our usual routine. Maybe we should make it a lighter workout this time. We worked really hard at our last practice and with a game the following day, it may have been too much. Ideally, there would be a day off between our practices and our games but Tuesday games eliminate that possibility. (Maybe next year we can schedule our games on Wednesdays and Thursdays instead of Tuesdays and Wednesdays.) Let's have a light workout and walk-through Monday so we don't wear ourselves down. Then we can get back to doing our thing in the playoffs.