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