This game mostly ugly broken up by some good plays and hits. Bad hops, (depending on your perspective of course), diving catches?, and bobbled balls all around. the pitching ignored these antics and plowed ahead. Kent for the Nisky Warriors and Jimmy K for the Marlins. I liken it to some kind of civil war battle where each side takes heavy casualties but the generals press on. General Konstantakis lasted the whole game , General Kent went 4. subsequent field promotions did well. Lf'er for Nisky made a catch after slipping and laying on the ground, and Cf'er one hopped a throw to nail a tagged up runner at the plate. Hoyle one hopped the RF fence and several Warriors doubled in the LF gap. Mitch nearly lost his britches on another gapped double. Such was the game.

The Old Glory behind the back stop barely acknowledged Oxygen for most of the game and dust clouds hung over home plate waiting to witness the next kick up. It was uncomfortable. Teams gathered under the "tree" to take refuge from the heat. Someone ate watermelons , (I know because i picked up your rinds), and the bottle redemption specialist had to come by twice in during our game. First basemen for Nisky got a ball off the bag that forced a cuspid into his cheek, blood , ice, sat in the MASH unit for an inning and returned to the battle, he had ten hits and four RBIS. gritty.
Okay all thats fine and dandy. but I'd like to mourn my loss. Many of you buy bats each year like you buy groceries. get em, tar em up, use 'em to some success, break em. and get another one, repeat. whats that like $200-$300 per year.
Todd Baldwin, the first commish of the over 40 division led the movement "back to wood". he sent out self addressed envelopes to all 75 , 40+ players that first year. in there was a ballot to vote for wood bats over aluminum. Wood bats won 12-2. I voted twice. So we went to wood. I reluctantly put away my just bought metal . Everyone went to Dicks sporting goods and picked up their future splinters and kindling. That summer we visited Portland Maine, for the first time of many returns, for their July 4th WOOD bat tournament. They gave us two bats each team, of some composite nonsense that was like hitting the ball with a rolled up newspaper. but on the side line Mr. RJ Johnson himself had a vendor stand. After our deluxe authentic Louisville sluggers c grade pieces of crap expired , we all ventured up to see his wares. Real bats , custom made, air dried,.... man had a sense of grain, feel , weight distribution. Problem was the weight. air dried means water stays in there. they produced a "crack" unique to RJ's. despite the weight many have used RJ's from that time. Jackson, Dunham, Wixon, and me.

The next year the old Bethlehem Mens league folded and Jim Jordan, God rest his soul, was given their equipment bags, stashed away from the 70's, and thus to anyone who needed equipment. some new expansion teams got helmets and catchers gear. I got a wood bat Ron Santo model . Big 60's Cubs fan .....1969, Damn those amazing Metropolitans. I couldn't wouldn't dare use Santo in an actual game. Besides being as brittle as dried leaves it was Santo by god. Only an Ernie Banks model would have been more esteemed by me. So I take the 35 inch fat handled Santo up to Portland Maine and tell RJ, make me a duplicate. he does. its a big boy. it last several years, only becoming unusable cause umpire Dunham spots the screw in the label area where I attempted to repair where the grain rolled up on account of me leaving it in the utility room by the furnace. So then I send the bat to Maine with Lenny Fox, a perpetual entrant in our Labor Day event, to have it duplicated. but this time i got it in assorted lengths. 33 - 35. RJ charged just $30 , shipping included ,per bat for these custom made beauties when others were going for twice that. Short story long, i went thru those bats till I had one left. i figured I quit baseball when that one departed. I defaced the thing by trying to reduce the weight by cupping the end. ugly. but it forgave me. some of you know how personal bats can be. I say that bat defined my swing. I had to swing the way it let me, i think it told me to. if I tried to invent something else it punished me. Weak groundouts are particularly humiliating aren't they? This year in the 55's and 60's that bat is having a good time and thus so am I. I seldom bat in the 45's but this has made some good contact there too. still got that unique thunk in its crack cause I keep it inside away from freezing but not by the furnace! Its the kind of bat that anyone else picks up, handles and has a comment about. No one asks to borrow it. (Except HOF'er Skip Treece. and once when Mitch swung too early against Jimmy K, like 10 times ,he wanted a bat to slow him down. (that didn't work).
Yesterday I commenced a pre game routine , take bat out of bag, walk to clear area, this time behind NS third base dugout. take some swings, place bat against back of dug out. do some deep knee bends, stretch whats left of achilles tendons and hamstrings. jog to OF fence. then the game starts , I coach third . batting last my turn comes up in the 3rd. go to get the bat and its gone. Bats fly.

-- Edited by jreel on Monday 16th of July 2018 02:06:53 PM