Blue Gray Games

I'll save my onomastics for when we get on our winning streak.  Today's words are brevity & vapid.  Gray 10 Blue 7.  Gray 8 Blue 5.  Dear Coach: let's fore-go batting practice until the first inning as we seem to exhaust our hits early on! P.S. (I can't help my verbosity):  I tip my hat to Tony for gunning out the runner at 3B and to Mel for standing his ground for the tag and to Freddie P. for his resilience in handling the laser shot on the mound! Mike Blum, where are you!

2014 Season Opener

In weather conditions reminiscent of the "dust bowl", Blue won their season opener 13-12 on Silver's home field.  Jerry B, batting lead off, started Blue's first inning with his usual line drive single which contagiously led to our hit parade and ended with #9 hitting a sacrifice fly to plate our fifth run.  Although the weather was not the best, we did experience an accomplished umpire and congenial Silver team competition.  Game two is another story as, so customarily happens, Blue found their bats go silent. The result was a loss to Silver by a score of 16-2.  The absence of three of Blue's starters hurt:  both Al & Jim would have had a field day at the plate with 40 mph winds blowing from home plate to left and Neal would have added his defensive prowess in left field to avert his sub from tweaking a groin pull (#2: "I got 'em all with the exception of the five which flew over the 12 foot high fence 260 feet away. Remember what became of Wally Pipp; better catch the next flight from Chi-Town!").  In game two, JB brought to the attention of the umpire Silver's base runner leaving early from 2nd base which, to the applaud of the umpire, resulted in an out.  Our rookies equated themselves well as follows:  First year Manger, Jr. Zepp, garnered win number one and strategically set the lineup while keeping all of us "prima donas" happy. Rookies, "odd to use that terminology on 67 to 70 years old", performed well. Guy S. is finding his batting groove while acclimating to 6'-12' pitches as opposed to 90 mph fastballs.  The M&M boys: Mike S. showed his resolve on the mound in swirling winds and Mike B (our All World Rookie) encouraged us from the bench and Ray F. contributed with his conditioned legs.  For my fear of "concrete reprisal" I have to acknowledge Hank Z's hitting, sacrificing and "Moose Skowronisk stretching" today.....Way to go Chance! And, Mel's (Evers)
defensive play and hitting, (Mel: can I continue to be your co-pilot on our road trips?).  I almost forgot to mention, Jerry B fielding a two hop line drive to RCF whereby he threw the runner out at first base.  To R'Nealius:  after this diatribe, I promise to work on more succinct recapitulations.  We also missed our perennial scorekeeper's presence (Yasuko)!  My left side compatriot, Tim S., was my guiding light today for whom I wish a rapid right quad healing!  Monday coming is a doubleheader for which we need all hands on deck (and I ain't just referring to the swabbies, JP and Murph)!