Family time was wonderful and intense (as usual). Good to get back to who you are. My brother Daniel sent me a few old pics he scanned and the first is a shot of me and all the sibs with most of our cousins on that side of the family. I saw nearly all of these people this weekend. Very cool. Also, notice in the pic that my cousins David and Lisa are sitting on my dad’s knees. Which accounts for the happy look on his face. Love. Also, music from the trip. Gotta love satellite radio. Finally, the softball team swept our double-header this weekend and, while I couldn’t be there, I requested they smack Auburn for knocking us out of the tournament last year. I got a text from Walters late in the day Saturday: “Mission accomplished.” Vandy apparently was a bit tougher but they managed to walk that one off as well. Anyway, Coach’s recap at the bottom. Because it’s funny and maybe you’ll think so, too. Disclosure: Walters is supernaturally fast. It’s an amazing thing to see. We have our last regular season game tonight and I have a new glove my brother let me borrow. Because mine is a tragedy. But this one has a marvelous pocket and should be a joy in the tournament. I’ll be back to writing “important” things later.
The 80s were a friend to nobody from a fashion perspective.
Dan playing horshoes...and getting beat by a girl.
The painting Dan made for me about 10 years ago. And my natural hair color.
Some of the boys.
G-ma and G-pa.
The 70s were a friend to nobody from a fashion perspective. Weird note: this is actually taken here in Maryland at the other G-parents. I know no one cares but me...
My favorite redhead about 10 years ago.
If I could tell the world just one thing…
Dawgs,
Many thanks to everyone who played in the double-header this weekend. I aged another 20 years and sprouted a dozen or so new grey hairs, but we got the sweep nonetheless.
It seemed like we were in for a long day when, after the first inning, we were down 4-0 and had only managed one meager hit. It seemed like we were in for an even longer day when we were down 9-0 after TWO innings and had only managed TWO meager hits.
The shaggy hair of Vandy’s [REDACTED] surferboy pitcher flapped in the breeze, mocking us.
It was death by a thousand cuts. Of the 20 hits Vandy had in the first two innings, only two — TWO! — weren’t singles. They had 18 singles and two doubles.
Then in the third inning, we flipped a switch like Sylvester Stallone turning his hat backwards in an arm wrestling movie.
After some brilliant defensive positioning — i.e., putting Dan in the hole between shortstop and left field — Vandy didn’t score for the rest of the game, and we clawed our way back into the game a few runs at a time. We tied it in the bottom of the 6th, and then Longmire knocked an RBI single to score a streaking Walters (the ‘streaking’ is meant to imply his speed, not imply a lack of clothing) for our 4th walk-off win of the year and our 5th one-run win.
The game against Auburn was much less exciting, as we jumped out to an early lead and never trailed. I don’t think the tying run even came to the plate at any point during the game.
Thanks to Marieo for sending a junk pitcher in his absence. There’s something awesomely American about a former Marine throwing curveballs with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, wearing what looked like steel-toed construction boots.
With 12 wins, we secure our best regular season record ever with one game left. Should we win our last game, we’ll have done something very few teams in this league have ever done.
Speaking of which, our next and final regular season game is TOMORROW against Johns Hopkins. It looks like we’ll have enough to play, so I can stop badgering you guys to RSVP. The good news is everyone will get plenty of playing time. Field location is TBD, as usual, but, as usual, I expect to be playing across from the WWII Memorial. I’ll certainly let everyone know as soon as I hear from the other team.
In order to keep things separate and more digestible, I’ll be sending out a tournament-related e-mail shortly. So keep an eye out for that.
See, like, seven of you tomorrow.
Thanks and Go Dawgs.
Addendum: It has been brought to my attention that it was actually Austen who had the game-winning hit against Vandy. Longmire was just on base. That’s what I get for trying to write a recap without the scorebook. I just assumed Walters scored from first on a single out of pure determination.
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