It is a Round ball and Round bat and you Gotta Hit it Square

The Long Island Athletics met for practice on Sunday night at Tempe Diablo field --where the Angels have their spring training facilities. Pliny the Elder wrote about the Roman Empire as being a collection of disparate cultures and languages. So too, are the LI Athletics composed of players from Long Island, Connecticut, St Louis, Monterrey California and one stray from Hawaii. Unlike Pliny's Rome however, the players on the Athletics do not qualify as a "gladiator class" of society. This is easily noted when the "modern" gladiators need to hand eyeglasses around in a restaurant to allow everyone to read menus ,otherwise the whole team has to order The Special.
Anyway, the Sunday night practice evolved into an event like we see on a nature show where players are strutting around to assert their skills and eligibilities and hierarchies. 22 guys on the team and pockets of guys know each other but have not seen the other players. And no one has seen any of the opponents so there is a lot of guessing going on.

But practice ends with a wish for solidarity and root for each other and players scoot to the hotel to ponder the next days festivites and wonder about the week.

Monday morning soon arrives and Jerry ( who was not even there Sunday night) is slated to pitch. The Fresno Grizzlies ( from California), our opponent, starts fast with a base hit to left on the first pitch. The second hitter follows with another hit to left which gets misplayed and guys are running everywhere. A run scores and the hitter ends on third. The next pitch we get an out on a ground ball but the run scores and we trail 2-0. But the Jerry manages to get of the inning without further damage. The A's come back and get two runners on but fail to score in the bottom of the first. The game progresses quickly to the fourth when your vaunted A's rally to score three and take the lead the help of one Grizzly error. When hitting, I learned the catcher went to school with Tom's Seaver's wife and Tom himself was a Fresno high grad in the class of '62. Helpful information, I am sure, but I grounded to second . After 5 innings,we hold 3-2 lead when your faithful correspondent is summoned into pitch. A 1-2-3 inning gives the boys some confidence that they are in good hands but we fail to score in the 6th. In the 7th ,I lead off with a single to right, over the second baseman's head and advance to second on a single by fellow CT player Jeff Carroll ( 3 hits on the day) but the ensuing hitter grounded into a double play to end the inning. This does make we wonder why we do not use the word ensuing in more circumstances. We do not say the "ensuing course" when referring to a serving within a 5 course dinner. We dont say "the ensuing class" when referring to a school schedule. But anyway , your correspondent continues his fun with another quick inning and they are down to six outs. Soon ,we take the game to the ninth where I now get a quick start by striking out the leadoff hitter. The next hitter lofts a popup and the Grizzlies are down to their last out. I get the strike out on a high fastball( swinging) and we conclude the game as 3-2 winners! A good start and the boys feel some momentum going into the second game.

The second game against the San Antonio Rangers slowly for us as our pitcher Bob has a 10 pitch at bat with the lead off hitters and walks him. This event rattled him a bit and he walks the next hitter as well. The baseball gods,a notoriously mean spirited bunch, prepare to make us pay for the walks and as an added bonus , we commit 2 errors under the gods' "guidance". Then with 1 out, their guy on third starts for home and the pitch come in ...Safe!! A steal of home on top of all this and we trail 4-0 . In the second inning , another walk and hit batsman leads to another run and your team of gladiators in a deep hole. Bob is replaced by Jimmy Scott, a tall engineer from Guiford, Ct. Jim played for Cornell back in the days when they had a team and the guys played in 25 degree weather. It is a tad warmer than that when Jim takes the mound as it is about 93. Jim proceeds to run off 5 great innings and wriggles out of a bases loaded jam while we chip away with a run here and a run there creeping to within 5-3. We get the bottom of the 8th and score one and have runners at second and third and one out but don't score. Jim is replaced by Hal,an older player, and is this the 55 and over bracket we know he is a bit of a risky option but Ed the manager has to weave in 22 guys and he tries to get an inning in . But Hal walks guy and the runner steals second. Hal goes 2-0 on the next guy and Ed calls for your faithful correspondent to come in and shut this down. A strike out a fly pop and then with a 3-2 count on a hitter the fastball on the corner was a called strike three ending the threat. I walk off hoping we can scratch out a run and tie the game as I feel great and excited and frankly enjoyed being in the tight spot. We go out meekly for out number 1, but Ed lines a solid drive to left for base hit. The next hitter bangs the ball back to the pitcher who catches and wheels to second --but no one has gotten to the bag yet an the ball goes thru to center and we have runners at second and third with one out. At this point, I should be coming up but as Ed weaves in 22 guys i have been replaced by a guy named Jack. I had a hit and RBI earlier ( 2 for 5 on the day) but Ed has to play guys and I understand. He had made the substitution a couple innings earlier along with a bunch of other players but Jack pops up and we are down to our last out. The count works to 2-2 on Richie and he hits a ground ball to the hole at shortstop. No play can be made and we tie it up!. Our next hitter Johnny Mac hits a hard ball to shortstop and the play is made, ending the inning. The tourney has a time of game ( 2:45) rule and the game is deemed a tie. But a fine comeback from a slow start buoys our spirits. Back at the hotel we get in the pool and commiserate with a bunch of Aussies who are out here with 3 teams and about 40 people. They are enjoying some beer while hanging in the hottub and seem to be shaking of their 13-11 loss on the day. The also mention that the Crocodile Hunter was more popular over here than in Austraila and apart from Steve Irwin , the Americans seemed to enjoy making a lot of fuss over just a silly old crocs! I gave them my view about how amazing mother kangaroos are with their eligibility to postpone the growth of a baby until the time was more opportune. My new found Aussie friends were not aware of this talent of but did offer that they found kangaroos could interfere with golfing as they seem to hang around golf courses. It took me a moment to realize they did not mean the clubhouse and arguing about tee times but just the vicinity of the clubs instead of playing. They seem like a lot of fun and we plan to exchange hats and jerseys at the end of the tournament and i hope to return with an Aussie Redback shirt-- ( Redbacks seem to be pretty nasty spiders)


Anyway, 10 of us on the team had dinner tonight and enjoyed getting to know each other --the dinner was much more pleasant after winning.

Tomorrow we have the San Diego Cubs to face. It feels better going into the game with a win and good comeback under out belts. Maybe we will give Pliny the Elder something to write about as the team gets confidence and progresses to the playoffs.