To Whom It May Concern

Peter had an Idea: let's play Sunday wiffle, since the weather was not so good on Saturday. Seven men showed up, but Zamonski once again was the Spanish at Trafalgar.

The quality of play was matched by the glorious weather. In the end, the home team cobbled together an 8-inning 7-5 victory, with a gutsy performance by Bob (who stayed vertical, not Horizontal), One big inning off of Dewey, and Bee Gees jokes.

The visiting team of Dewey, Hansoo, Matt and Adrian built an early 5-1 lead, but then their bats flew to Odessa. Spirits Having Flown, Dewey took the mound for his second turn on the bump, and gave up a series of Spicks and Specks hits. 2 Years On the lead was gone and they were down a run. Peter got the dream that inning, by the way.

Stats gave up another run in an inning where the home team of Bob, Kurt and Peter loaded the bases with no one out. Stats couldn't replicate the feat of Mr. Natural, Krash Mosser, who had earlier allowed the bases to be loaded then surrendered no runs.

Down two in their final at bats, the visitors had two on with two out with Peter gasping for the save. Trying to reach the Cucumber Castle with a dramatic late rally, instead, Matt struck out while laughing at one of Mosser's High Civilization jokes. Meh, Size Isn't Everything.

Adrian, Dewey, Hansoo, Matt - 5 runs, 19 hits
Bob, Kurt, Peter - 7 runs, 22 hits
Barry, Robin, Maurice - 8 Grammys, 12 Top 40 Hits

HR: none

This Is Where I Came In

When the Commish is Away...

It's a proud, bittersweet, moment when a parent sees their child off into the world of independent adulthood. Seeing that they can manage a life, contribute to society, make art, consume calories, etc. This week, the OWAC did manage to have a game, even without the beneficent leadership of the Commish.

Stats, his left wrist in a brace, managed to pull off a game. And as has been noted in the past - the only thing he does worse than drawing the lines, is picking the teams. BUT NOT THIS TIME!!! This time, the lines were MUCH worse than the teams.

In fact is was a very competitive 7-5 game. The game ended with the tying run in scoring position. The game featured a lot of hits, some amazing defense. Memorable in every way - except for J.D.

Mark had pitched himself into a jam. Bases loaded, one out. JD gave him a pretty tough at bat, but then fouled one off the wall that mark managed to catch and then turn into a nifty double play. Rally quashed.

No one likes to do that, but it happens. But for JD - it happened twice. In the eighth inning with Tim Y. on the mound JD did it again, this time with an easy grounder. Twin rally-killing double plays in a game where your team loses by 2. Ugh. JD, we hope your Easter goes better.

It was a better day for Andy, who's twin home runs put him firmly in the league lead in that category. Like they say, you can't win an MVP in April, but you can lose it.

Dewey, Hansoo, JD - 5 runs, 22 hits
Andy, Kurt, Mark, Tim Y. - 7 runs, 16 hits

HR: Evans (2)

Spring Training Wiffle

Where we're all in the best shape of our careers.

Pitchers and catchers reported to Nance Bradds Field for the start of another year of OW&AC Wiffle Ball. Andy, Hansoo, Matt and Peter were the stalwarts who reported to camp on time. Everyone else owes us a shandy.

Stats sporting the official Spring Training Cap of the OW&AC (Photo: Hansoo)

The intra-squad game was actually a good one. A 4-2 final that saw the visiting Hansoo and Peter come from behind late to win it in 6 full innings. But this is just Grapefruit Ball at this point. We're all just working on some stuff, finding the release point, hoping to contribute to the big club.

Peter swings and misses. Later, when it mattered, he drove in his team's final run. (Photo: Hansoo)

Hansoo, Peter - 4 runs, 18 hits
Andy, Matt - 2 runs, 10 hits

HR - None

Run-ruled Times Two

With Esther in the hands of the batters, the OW&AC had to invoke the 10-run rule today. Twice.

Yup.

Two different pitchers gave up 10 or more runs before finding a third out in their innings. Matt gave up 11 in the first, and Dewey gave up 10 in the sixth. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, except that Matt and Dewey were teammates. The result is lopsided.

Andy, Bob, Peter - 22 runs, 31 hits
Dewey, Hansoo, Matt - 7 runs, 16 hits.

HR: Evans (3), Berwald, Ha (2)

Esther: Wiffle Temptress

The siren song cannot be resisted. "Come to the asphalt; join in the bat-and-ball play! Use the loaded, black bat; your hits will soar majestically. Forever."

Everyone sees the black bat in their hands.They see their score line brimming with triples and homers. No one ever thinks about pitching when they think about Esther. When she sings, men stop thinking.

So it was today when the black bat emerged from the Subaru. Brains: switched off. To wit: Eric voted "yes" on the black bat and then used the yellow bat anyway. Indeed he was for it before he was against it.

But no one was more bitterly scorned by the Temptress than Tim Young'un. His hearty lefty swings produced a tremendous sky ball... that landed in Eric's outstretched fingertips - stealing a three run dinger. Later a vicious line drive... was tipped up by pitcher Pete and then caught by Pete himself, reminiscent of his volleyball glory days.

And get this: Andy led off all nine innings for his team. A unique feat - but not a good one.

Andy, Matt, Tim - 3 runs, 9 hits
Bob, Eric, Mark, Peter - 8 runs, 19 hits

HR: Berwald (2)

12!

Andy brought the wedding party: Groom, Best Man and 2 Groomsmen. On top of that, 8 other wifflers showed up. That's a record, gents. Put it in the books: 12 for a game! Six on six, my friends. A record.

It is entirely possible that the Groomsmen had a late night last night.

Groomsmen (Adrian, Andy, Brian, Jeff, Tim Y., Tim B.) - 1 run, 8 hits
Bridesmaids (Bob, Dewey, Hansoo, JD, Matt, Peter) - 11 runs, 31 hits

HR: Darden (5)

Mark was the offense - for both teams

Credit where credit is due: the title of this post was said by Mark's teammate, Kurt. Mark did have quite a day, leading off seven different innings with singles, raising his average to 0.470. Quite amazing to see, actually. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE.

I am interested to hear your thoughts on whether it is worth noting that Mark lead off seven innings because Kurt was so frequently making the last outs. Kurt's early RBI double looked to be a game winner on his otherwise 2-for-10 day. But...

In a game that saw many half innings end with the bases loaded, Mark did not get out of his bases loaded jam in the bottom of the 8th, and surrendered 6 runs in an inning he started with a 1-0 lead.

Adrian, Hansoo, Kurt, Mark - 2 runs, 16 hits
Andy, Matt, Pete, Eric - 6 runs, 15 hits.

HR: none