Nor'easters on the Road
Part 2...Tough Road Trip
It was a Dark and Stormy Night...
Not to belabor the point, but the Nor'easters are like a crab. Every strange looking part has an important job to do and It's way better to have all 8 legs, but if the sand is smooth, and there aren't any scary predators around, you can get by with 7....So what the hell am I talking about?
Man, do we miss Bullet. We play the 'Rosemary's Baby 9' this morning at 9 on Field 3, and this is a job for Bullet. Bullet and Ricky. And even then, we will have to play the Game of our lives. The RB 9 are good, real good.
Bullet is that Big Bad Ass Claw that crabs use to bite somebody's finger that needs biting or scare their enemies with. Ours is missing, and there is a big kid reaching into the water over the sand bar to pick us up and put us in his pail. We need to bite his finger, make him drop us and scurry away. ...Looks like we'll have to go with plan B.
It was cool and foggy, the last time we would see morning fog here in Sarasota, as we headed to the diamond for a game that was 3 months in the making.
Hall of Fame Division Showdown
The Thunder had used a bit more of their pitching staff than they wanted to in a Death struggle with the Brewers, a softball team from Virginia, Thursday afternoon at the Stadium. I am sure the Thunder had a good time seeing the Stadium for the first time, but were also surprised by how tough the Brewers were. We would find out tomorrow, for ourselves. So, Joe Dushane got the start against us, not Kris, not Neuman, not Mr Miller, not Duke. Joe is a pretty good pitcher though, and one of the best players around in his younger days. Joe hasn't played this much concentrated baseball in years, and I would later see him being comforted by his girlfriend by the lunch spread at the Stadium. Joe looked like a guy who had just run a marathon, and passed out right at the finish line
We sent Supe to the mound. In a perfect universe he would be the captain of our infield defense playing SS for this game, and our Ace would be on the mound. Our Ace is home waiting for surgery, our SS is injured.....and pitching!
We Could Have Played Worse....pause......NOT!
Kris and Sammy were the first two batters Supe would face, both excellent hitters, and greeted Supe with a single and a double. Eddie Sab singled to center and "Mike" threw a seed to Supe cutting the ball off and caught Sammy sleeping at third for a free out. Thank you Sammy! Nice play all around. Duke then hit a high fly ball into the fog to medium deep left for the 2nd out, Kenny making a real nice play. Maybe we'll get out of this cheaply!....Nope
Error, single, double, single. 4-0 Thunder
Joe looked deadly serious out there on the mound, like I said, the winner of this game would probably go to the finals. We were in the same division; a must win game. He retired us 1-2-3. Tapper, pop-up, pop-up.
More Thunder....Then a Nor'easter Squall
Tiring of the 'Double to the Fence', Thunder 2nd inning leadoff batter attempted a drag bunt to reach.
Supe limped and lurched to get to the damp rolling baseball and nipped the runner at first on a nice play. It took Supe a moment to gather himself, the calf didn't like that at all. The next 4 RB's reached safely for a couple of runs. Then Ed Sab fisted a looper to Fluff at second, infield fly, but in Fluff's zeal to double Kris off second, he dropped the ball! Oh, man. Supe retired Duke on a squibber, but 3 more runs crossed. 7-0 Thunder.
In the bottom of the 2nd, the Nor'easters showed some fight and pressured the Thunder back. "Mike" reached on a Thunder miscue, and Ricky almost took Joey's head off with a viscious liner, for an out. Consecutive base hits by Supe, Ski, Ice, Fluff, MonCapitan, and Joltin' produced 4 runs. Joe worked out of the bases loaded 1-out jam by getting the next 2 Nor'easters, but, at least the game was back again.
The sky is foggy as we take to the field
The Thunder is so great , our fate already sealed
We watch in awe as they strut around and laugh
we rush to get our pens, maybe we'll get their autographs
Used with permission
from: Ernest Lawrence Thayer... "Big Casey's Revenge "*
Well, it took about 5 minutes for the Thunder to wipe the smiles off our faces. A Todd Neuman Bomb, several fielding snafus, a few more base hits....only a nice throw and tag by MonCap on Mike Davey trying to score the inning's 5th run, kept the score at 11-4. Geezus..
Well, at least we'll have the Hot Tub...pause...
The rest of the game is a blurr of the Thunder swinging for the fences, running wild on the bases, Nor'easter errors, squibbers and pop-ups. What the heck, it's only one game, we got crushed. It's not like we were Virgins. We got run ruled in the 7th 14-4, plop! into the 'Thunder' pail for us.
After some sympathy from Joe S....pause....NOT!, it was off for some lunch, a shower and a game at the Stadium vs the Lowell Red Sox. We played this team last year, at the Stadium, and it was fun. G'DIK was going to get the start, and I know he was looking forward to this. I was happy for Kenny. This is why we lift all them weights...The Fog had lifted and it had turned intop a georgeous Sarasota afternoon
Turn the page.
Tonight we'll reflect on the day, Hot Tub, relax at the 'Bordello', get some pizza, and watch a Movie. It's all Good!
To be Continued...
Click for part 4
Click for part 2
Click for Part 1
Some Images of Game 3
