before the moment and the memory die altogether, this should be recorded and seen here, in this post, by more than the 20 or so pairs of eyes that actually saw it at the field.
it's the fifth inning last thursday, may 7th, the 55+ red hot peppers are down 15-2 to the cardinals at satellite field and three outs from being mercy-ruled.
for those who are puzzled about that score, know that a 4-for-4 day, with three opposite field doubles by scott ross, a triple to left that landed in another postal zone by bert myers and three peppers' errors in one inning can slap down the best of teams, and do in the rest.
but! if we can score four runs in the bottom of the fifth against the cards who last year finished with a 12-3 record, and who still have the ageless john latorre on the mound (i'd guess john is about 62, but he has to have been pitching at least twice that long) then we'll have only a 9-run differential and we can play on.
and, the point, especially in the post-55 club, which is the last one before the big door, is to play on.
amazingly, with two outs, we load the bases against john, and one of our best hitters, paul post, comes to the plate. paul cracks a fastball and launches a shot, a beautiful liner with a small arc to it, to straightaway center field. if there'd been a fence, it would have been - much like bert's hit earlier - a homer. a grand slam. and a chance to play on.
but the cards have one of the fastest center fielders in the division in bob yakatan. bob is thin, maybe 5-9, and he glides over grass. well, bob takes off and some 300-plus feet, i'm guessing 330, 340, from home plate, he stretches his left arm and catches the ball over his head in the last pieces of leather in his glove.
for most of five innings, we didn't have a very pretty game. but in the last out of the last inning, we did. baseball can do that. present beauty in a flash. we all saw it. now, hope you do, too.
-mike
-- Edited by mhart on Tuesday 12th of May 2015 03:54:21 PM
-- Edited by mhart on Tuesday 12th of May 2015 04:04:43 PM
Thanks for the nice recap. The Peppers were certainly peaking in that 5th inning, looking to stage a huge comeback. "Old man" Latorre, (I can say that, 'cause I have a few years on him) was being tested and just needed one more out. Up steps my ex-45 Blue Jays teammate Paul Post who can really hit and fly around the bases. He tomahawks a high outside pitch into right center, (thanks for the 5'9" reference, but you just gave me 5" too much. I only see 5'9" when I'm on a stool getting something from a shelf), and I'm saying to myself "oh ----! I'm hoping I can get to this ball to keep the speedy guy to a triple as I leap at the last moment. This ball by the way, had no arc to it. This liner is still rising as I leap, expecting to get nothing but air in my web or just tip it. I had to look twice to see it didn't tip off my glove, but in fact was there in the web.
Mike, you're right in saying that baseball can surprise us all in a flash. It has a way of doing that when we least expect it.
Good luck to you and the Peppers the rest of the season.
