2 Strike, Bandit and Da Commish walk into a bar...

"Rain?" When was this predicted? At 8:30 on Saturday, July 1 st , it was steadily drizzling. Yet, through the rain, an eager Korean braved the conditions northward to Nance Bradd's field. Not to be outdone, Eric the "Bandit" Zimonski came to the same venue from the opposite direction.

At home at the helm, the Commish told the troops to hang on until 9:00 to see if the rain would subside (although neither player read the e-mail as they were at the park).

Magically, at 9:00, the rain ended leaving in its wake only puddles and humidity.

By the time the commish got to the park at 9:20, he assumed, since the field was empty, the game would be cancelled. Then the day changed; in pulled Eric with the eager and fervent look of Brent at a beerfest or the Glen at a chicken-wing jamboree. He had seen me drive by and had swung his car around crossing 2 yards and nearly missing a dog-walker.

"Hans and I were here, ready to go," the Bandit reported. One quick call to Hans (who had driven over to UD) and we were in business. The commish made a few calls in an attempt to have a two on two or more, but no one was available so the decision was made to play one on one on one.

There is no question that having statistics at the game has changed the flavor as well as the general intent of the game (ask Ben!). So the question arose: to keep stats or just to play? Naturally, since all three players are doing pretty well in the stats, the decision was to keep them… no one had mentioned that the Bandit was operating on roughly 2-3 hours of sleep. I would like to add, that this wasn't evident until the 3 rd or 4 th batter when he lost his zeal, his hunger and his e.r.a.

The bandit opened the game at bat, the commish on the hill and Hans in the outfield. Despite getting a couple hits, the inning ended without any runs.

Hans pitched to the "Commish" and had a similar result, two hits, 3 outs.

Then Eric "The Bandit" took the mound and Hans had batting practice. He went 9 for 12 (including four doubles and two triples) knocking in 8 runs and that proved to be all he would need for the game.

The next few rounds yielded the following:

Eric went 5 for 17 with 7 k's at the plate for no runs. He grounded out 4 times and flew out once.

-On the mound he delivered 7 k's, getting the batters out with 3 ground-outs and 2 fly-outs but gave up 13 runs! He looked bedraggled but played-on.

Han's went 13 for 22 spraying 6 singles and hitting 5 doubles and 2 triples earning 8 runs and knocking in 8 RBI's.

Hans wiffed only 3 times and also hit 5 ground outs and e had 1 fly-out. Hans didn't need last raps.

-As a pitcher, he threw 7 k's, forcing 2 fly-outs and 1 missed double play ground-out (gx) for one run against the Commish.

Peter went 12 for 24 (on the day he stranded 7) hitting 4 doubles and 1 triple crossing the plate 6 times earning 6 RBI's. He had 1 ground out and 4 fly outs and, as usual, wiffed a bunch (7 times).

-On the hill he tossed 3 k's, snatched up 4 ground-outs and forced 2 fly-outs for no runs.

Happy Hans-8 Proud Pete-6 Exhausted Eric-0