Lollygaggers (barely) remain undefeated

We played a couple of tough games this week, and came away with one close win and a tie. We had a shot to take control of the 2nd game, but failed to push a run across in our last three at-bats (ouch). Still, after playing some pretty good teams, 5-0-1 is a nice place to be three weeks into the season.

Two more wins

The Lollygaggers picked up two more wins on 8/31, improving to 4-0 on the season. Not our greatest performances, but both wins ended up being fairly comfortable (though we didn't start hitting until like the 5th inning of game 2). It helps when the other team is swinging an Easton Hammer.

Reflections from 8/24

Coming off of a league championship and an abbreviated off-season, the Lollygaggers opened the fall season with a pair of hard-fought victories over the Rounders, 13-10 and 19-15. We didn't necessarily play our best... we exhibited a bit of curious baserunning and had our struggles in the field; but we made up for it with some timely hitting and two-out rallies. Pretty sure we scored 19 runs in just three innings in game #2, so the bats were definitely coming to life.

-Matt (not to be confused with Queeney) made his Lollygagger debut, and Jeremy returned after a few seasons abroad. Unfortunately, Jeremy's triumphant return was cut short when he took a throw to the back of the head while legging out a triple... hopefully he's doing ok, and is not concussed;
-the guy who hit Jeremy with the errant throw acted like a giant douche all night, capping it off by pulling an A-Rod and yelling "I got it!" as our fielders converged on a pop-up (which was caught anyway), and refusing to acknowledge his transgression when called out by Steve... it's always more fun beating a team with a good villain;
-Erick displayed destructive tendencies all night... during warm-ups, he baited Steve into tossing a ball to him, and then moved out of the way so that it narrowly missed injuring two small children who were playing nearby. After (intentionally?) throwing balls into nearby parked cars, he later put his destructive urges to good use by smashing a clutch 3-run HR;
-Henley got a lot of running in with a couple of inside-the-park "HRs", assisted by their outfielder throwing the ball directly into the ground

Victorious

So my blogging pretty much fell apart this season, through some combination of work actually being busy, rainouts, and just running out of new and creative ways to make fun of Quast. But it was a great season, during which the Lollygaggers finished with the best regular season record and managed to rally to win five in-a-row to claim the tournament championship. It was a lot of fun, and a great team effort.

It was something of a transition season for the Lollygaggers: we saw the retirement of an original, Chris "Big Show" Gandia, who is going on to bigger and better shows at Columbia Law School, but will always remain a Lollygagger at-heart; Will Peng joined us as a full-time player (when he's not coaching Little League, that is), and came up huge for us in the playoffs; and finally, Henley made his return to the team, and came through with the game-winning hit for us in the championship game, with his newborn son in attendance... pretty awesome.

No snarky comments from me today - just enjoying the afterglow from a great season. The good thing about all of the rainouts is that we'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to get the fall season started. I have no doubt my sarcasm will be back by then.

Great work, gentlemen.

Fortune

Since there hasn't been any new content in a while, I feel like this should be shared. My last fortune cookie was obviously aimed at Quast, though I've never heard him referred to as 'great'.
"A great man never ignores the simplicity of a child."
The writers of these fortunes have to know what people add to the end, right?

Rain

Over/under on when we actually get to play again?

HR Derby, Utah 5/11

Citing our recent display of power, I predict many shots hit tomorrow. I say we enact a penalty for Solo HRs and HRs that are outs. I propose those breaking these rules have to
a) Skip around the bases for all solo shots. (I am talking an arms swinging joyous frolic)
b) Run the bases for a HR out, even though it is an out. (I am talking, fist pumping excited HR trot)

I realize these actions may piss off the other team, but I find them hilarious.

Reflections from 5/4

Another couple of quality wins for the Lollygaggers, 14-4 and 25-14 over CCSP Empty Pitchers. It's always fun to beat the sponsored teams. They won their first two games 27-4 and 24-6, so I think that helps explain why they were more than a little pissed to get slaughter ruled by us twice. We improved to 4-0 on the season. Now, onto my thoughts on the game...

-Props to an injured Queeney for coming to the field ready to stand-in until our 10th player arrived, despite a splint on his finger; he was activated from the DL for long enough to do a little catching, but much like Moonlight Graham, he never got to bat;
-We brought the power in a big way last night, using all six of our allotted HRs (the other team accused us of hitting seven, but more on that in a minute), as well as a couple of HR outs and shots off the fence; congratulations to Will on his first Lollygagger HR, and to me for two in one inning... I don't think I had ever done that, and there were actually runners on - a rarity for me;
-So the other team first falsely accused us of going over our HR limit, and then lost track of the # of outs in the inning; note: if you're going to complain to the umpire, you should probably at least keep a scorebook;
-Speaking of the umpire, he told me he was giving them sympathy calls after we hung twelve runs on them in an inning and Steve took out their pitcher with a liner; he later admitted to calling Matt C. out, thereby ending our rally, just to mess with him (they are friends); that was too good of a team for gift calls - fortunately, it didn't end up mattering;
-I was impressed that Erick had a full medical kit handy... I feel like a mature adult if I even have a couple of band-aids in my bag; of course the guy chases ambulances for a living, so I suppose he has to be prepared to deal with injuries;
-A serious thank you to Marisa and Lianne for giving up their studying/paper writing to chase down fouls and HRs (note that I'm not saying "balls", as the jokes are too obvious);
-We survived without the stellar catching of Quast, who is basically a fauxhawked Molina

Reflections from 4/27

I don't have much to reflect on softball-wise today, as we were "rained out" last night. True, it wasn't actually raining, but I think it rained a little bit a few days ago, and that was enough justification for them to cancel our games. Canceling games requires a lot less effort than putting in 15 minutes of maintenance on a field. And this is why our season will end up lasting into August.

Reflections from 4/20...

The Lollygaggers opened the season with a couple of nice wins over The Factory, 11-8 and 20-4. We played respectable defense all night, and the bats really came alive in the second game. For the first week of the regular season, you really couldn't ask for much more.

-Gandia began his last season with the Lollygaggers by picking up a win in game #1;
-Bringing some new blood to the team, Will made his debut as a regular, after subbing several times over the years - he is already well on his way toward fantasy softball eligibility at 2B, SS, and 3B;
-Cryan recorded the first out of the season on what was supposedly his first career K - he later struck out by refusing to buy the first round of $2 drafts;
-Henley made his triumphant return to the Lollygaggers by going to the wrong field, but arrived in time to play some solid SS and slap some opposite field hits;
-Steve crushed a HR - probably the farthest I've ever seen him hit the ball; Jim went yard a couple of times, including a nice opposite field shot; I think Keller hit one too, but I kind of stopped paying attention after awhile;
-We only had one fan this week, so props to Erin for coming out, and for being a good enough sport to go to Champps with ten dudes;
-While the Lollygagger defense showed good hands in the field all night, the same was not true of our waitress, who dropped a tray of five beers on the floor;
-Impressively, we were almost able to name the entire late '80s Oakland A's starting lineup and pitching staff, while reminiscing about late '80s/early '90s baseball and video games

The title of this post might get us a few extra hits from stoners doing web searches.

Reflections From A Founding Member...

As the season nears, I get very nostalgic about my ties to the Lollygagger team. This season will be my last in the horrid blue and orange. Although, not sure my initial push for purple and gold would have been much better. I remember with great fondness the beginnings of this team, even down to the other names that were tossed out for consideration. I am sure glad we did not go with Weapons of Mass Destruction, as I am sure none would have been found on our team. Although, it would have been a foreshadowing for the Iraqi conflict, but I digress. Looking back at that initial team, it is weird to see how the team has taken shape. We have lost some players due to lack of interest, relocation, and other nondescript reasons. And gained others through selective recruiting. I am happy to say that I enjoyed playing with all of the Lollygagger alum, with maybe Rick as an exception. (Figured he won't be reading this, so it would be safe to take a shot at him. ha)
I also have lots of great on and off the field memories which I will list off in some random order:
- 200+ Explosions from Riles (I actually lived for these) ~"What the fuck, are you blind"
- A-Roth's girlish hop before each at-bat. (I actually did not live for these)
- Playing at that middle school in Arlington with no fence and the crappy dirt field where line drives were home runs.
- The day we got Royd's inbox to 100 e-mails. (One of my greatest feats)
- Winning our D league tournament (even if it was kinda sketchy how we changed fields and played on a horrible field)
- The ump that yells strikeeeeeeeeeeee really loudly
- Laughing at Quast run the bases (never gets old)
- Erick and I going back to back HRs at Utah for two consecutive outs
- Watching Keller develop into a hitter that does not pop up the first pitch every at bat (sorry Keller) haha
- Having female fans (even if I contribute none)
- Winning our C League Regular Season
- My 100+ outbursts throughout the years (glad I learned to take things more calmly)

There are many more, feel free to post some memories in the comments of this post.

Barring some crazy change in plans, and a sick Brett Farve return, this will be my last season. Let's make it a good one guys!

Bad Outing

Lets try not to have days like this

Parr Sings BackStreet

Spring Training

3/30 at Barcroft - pitchers and catchers (and, uh, everyone else) report

Offseason Update: Cryan's reading

It has come to my attention that Cryan recently completed Angels & Demons, the first book he has read since high school. He is planning to read The Da Vinci Code next, as soon as he can borrow a copy from someone. Please feel free to use this blog to provide additional reading recommendations for Cryan.

Team Keg Kill

So I'm a bit late commenting on this, and I have no doubt forgotten many of the entertaining moments that occurred, but we had a team championship celebration/keg kill on November 7th. Come to think of it, my memory was pretty hazy the next day, so I'm not sure my recollection would have been that much better even if I had posted sooner.

Anyway, it was a joyous event. I braved the traffic at the Total Wine & More on Little River Turnpike and picked up a keg of Yuengling. Sidenote: seriously, that shopping center has one of the worst parking lots in the Arlington/Alexandria area. The only one that rivals it in its ability to infuriate me is the one at the Price Club in Pentagon City... that one is worse because they charge you to experience the clusterf**k that inevitably ensues. There was some debate as to whether or not we should continue with the keg kill idea... after all, we only had like 14 "yes" replies on the evite - one of which was Queeney, and a few others were girls. But we decided it was worth a shot.

We tapped the keg around 5:15, and Cryan officially got things started with a beer shower. The first guests showed up shortly thereafter, and we decided it was wise to resurrect an old idea: the beer tally list. Few things do a better job of facilitating peer pressure and drunken arguments. We actually did a pretty good job of tracking things until the drinking games began. That point coincided with many of us hitting double digits, so perhaps that was part of the problem as well.

We started a game of baseball (for those who don't know, it's beer pong/flip cup hybrid). Normally it's a good time, but we probably started a few beers too late, as the main things I recall are poor shooting and drunken arguments over poorly defined rules. Conflict resolution proved difficult.

At some point in the evening, we took a look at the beer tally, and looked at the reinforcements that had arrived (including Gigantor, Gandia and Henley), and realized that we might have a real shot at kicking the keg. The forces had aligned, with a few Lollygagger alumni making appearances, and Gandia channeling his rage at extremely expensive tire repair.

One of the real highlights of the evening was Royden's attempted kegstand. He made the questionable decision of bringing in Marisa to hold one of his legs. After about a second in the air, Royden bellyflopped on my kitchen floor, and I believe Marisa fell down in laughter behind him (at least that's how I choose to remember it). Not to be easily defeated, Royden recruited a new spotter, and took another shot at glory. I don't know if he developed Brad Lidge syndrome or what, but the guy was rattled, and only got through about five seconds before tapping out. He then spat beer all over the place.

I am pleased to report that the keg was successfully kicked shortly after midnight. In hindsight, there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between the keg kill and our C-league softball championship... in the beginning, we viewed the keg/standings as a seemingly insurmountable task. But through teamwork, dedication, and, well, beer strength, we were able to power our way to victory. Nice work, gentlemen. Continue that offseason training, and I'll see you on the field in about four months.

Engagement

Congratulations to Lollygagger outfielder Joe Morse on his engagement. Soon, he will be able to show up at games and officially make comments like: "I had to get out of the house... the old lady was driving me crazy."

I'm still seeking confirmation on the rumor that Joe will be wearing his jersey during the ceremony.

Final Standings

Looks like the Rounders won out, so it's a good thing we took care of business. Also of note: the Kodiak Bears beat another team!

1	11 - Lollygaggers	16-2-0
2	07 - Rounders	15-2-1
3	05 - Waterproofers	13-5-0
4	03 - CCSP Empty Pitchers	12-5-1
5	09 - C.A. Jabronies	11-7-0
6	14 - Dawgs	10-6-0
7	02 - Gray Plant Mooty	10-8-0
8	10 - Bottom of the Fifths	9-9-0
9	08 - Hot Action	7-11-0
10	12 - Sponsor Needed	7-11-0
11	13 - Foul Balls	6-12-0
12	04 - Masterbatters	3-15-0
13	06 - The Draught Picks	2-14-0
14	01 - Kodiak Bears	2-16-0

Reflections from 10/20

-Helluva way to close out a season... after dropping a game against one of the league's bottom-dwellers, the Lollygaggers came back strong to take two from one of the top teams in the league, 12-4 and 24-8. With the wins, we finished alone atop the league standings with a 16-2 record. Since there are no playoffs in the fall, we are officially C-league champions for the first time in Lollygagger history. Excellent work, gentlemen;
-Without Bill in the lineup, I came in a little concerned with our ability to hit the ball for power... so naturally we ended up having probably our greatest power hitting night in team history. In game #2, three of our first six hitters went yard (I almost killed a tennis player), which was pretty awesome, but also put us in the unfortunate predicament of being subjected to Arlington's stingy "+3" HR rule. It came back to haunt us, as for whatever reason, we couldn't stop hitting HRs... in fact, three of our first five outs came on would-be HRs that were ruled as outs. Fortunately we adjusted shortly thereafter, and continued our hitting barrage with singles and doubles within the confines of the Quincy fence;
-Erick is the king of the solo HR... way to be selfish;
-Queeney and Mark have slightly different approaches at the plate, but they were absolutely raking last night;
-With our two regular pitchers missing, Jim stepped in and did a great job - that team had some good hitters, but he had them off-balance all night;
-It was uncomfortable, and yet oddly amusing to watch another team completely implode and resort to yelling at one another and throwing equipment (after all, this is rec league softball...). Watching a more dysfunctional team just makes me feel that much better about our squad;
-Thank you Marisa for being the only fan in attendance, for chasing down all of the fouls and HRs, and for putting up with the 7th grade maturity level jokes about holding our balls;
-Thanks for a great season. Information on a postseason celebration will be distributed shortly. It's worth noting that Chuck E. Cheese is out as a possible location... something about Quast and restraining orders. Speaking of which, why did Quast park his brown van so close to the field?

If you have any suggestions for off-season blog content, please post them. Perhaps reports on our extensive conditioning programs?

Reflections from 10/13

-The Lollygaggers played a pair of extremely competitive games, and came away with a split. In game 1, we rallied from a 12-5 deficit to take a 13-12 lead on a clutch 3-run HR from Bill. Unfortunately, they answered with a 2-run HR of their own, and we were unable to push anything across in the bottom half. In game 2, we fought off a late rally and held on for a 20-17 win;
-We ended the night with a 14-2 record. Coming into this week, the Rounders were immediately behind us in the standings at 11-2-1. So regardless of the results from this week, we control our own destiny. Win two next week, and we finish alone atop the standings. We're playing 10-4 Gray Plant Mooty though, so we have our work cut out for us;
-I have become spoiled by our winning. There was a time when I would have been pretty psyched with a split in C-League - particularly during that season when we only won one game. We have come a long way;
-Bill finished off his season with three HRs last night, and was absolutely crushing the ball;
-Meanwhile, Quast got absolutely crushed by the ball. He was the victim of a nasty hop at 2B, and ended up with a cut on his hand. I'm not entirely sure how you get cut by a softball, but it looked painful. Quast was flirting with disaster all night, as he narrowly dodged a bat I tossed to Erick earlier in the game;
-We had a couple of entertaining swinging strikeouts. There was a motion to start identifying those with Ks on the blog for future beer purchase enforcement, but we'll hold off on that for now... maybe we'll start fresh in the spring;
-It's a shame that the county has done such a poor job in maintaining Barcroft. It's a nice facility, but that field is in awful shape. The infield provides some nasty hops, and the outfield is absolutely atrocious, with huge patches of sand. It makes defense exceedingly difficult, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt;
-Special thanks to Lianne for being the only fan to brave the elements last night. Even if she is a curse to the team and Erick had to kick her out of the dugout, she was a big help in chasing down HRs and foul balls (thanks to Keller for the latter);
-Seriously, it's getting too cold for softball. One more week, gentlemen.