With rain falling all around the Schenectady area, the Cubs and Whiz got together at the Schenectady Babe Ruth field, for a great game, with the outcome not decided until the final pitch.
The Whiz bats were hot early, plating 1 run in the first, and 4 runs in the second. The Cubs pushed one run across in the second, 2 in the third, and 1 more in the top of the 6th, to make the score 5-4, entering the final frame.
With one out in the 7th, Ron Lochner, Dave Mitchell, and Jerry Rosen had consecutive singles, to load the bases. Jon Martin stepped to the plate to face rookie sensation Joe Burns, and Jon made solid contact the opposite way, but it ended up as a 2-hop tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, and the fire was extinguished, and the Whiz escaped with a 5-4 win.
The Cubs defensive play improved over the previous two losses, but mental errors and base running blunders cost them in the end. The Cubbies' line-up garnered 15 hits against Burns, but plated just 4 runs.
Ralph Caputo pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief of Jon Martin, giving up just two singles, while grazing one batter, and striking out 1.
Shawn Martin and Mike Kane led the Whiz's 10-hit attack, with 3 hits each. Dan Maguire added two hits and a HBP, in his 3 at bats. Jerry Rosen and Dave Mitchell both were 3 for 4 for the Cubs, and Scott Ross, Ron Lochner, Jim McQuade, and Mike Girard all added 2 hits each.
The Cubs will look to break a rare 3-game losing streak, on Tuesday night, when they face the Dodgers, on the C-Diamond.
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Friday 12th of July 2019 09:23:30 AM
I guess we've all had that dream where we are lying prostrate on the ground, naked in the sun, but for some reason unable to move a muscle. Totally paralyzed. And then a murder of crows descends, hopping and cawing nearby. One lands on your face, starts pecking at your eye sockets as if you were a newborn lamb. You try to move, try to scream, but you can't. More crows arrive. They start ripping at your abdomen, clawing at your intestines, beaks bloodied. You are desperate to fight back, to scream -- but not a muscle moves, not a sound reaches your lips. You are helpless.
We've all had that dream.
Right, guys?
Anyway, that's pretty much how it felt as I watched that fateful 7th-inning frame unfold from left field.
We'd been up 5-1, then 5-2, then 5-3, then 5-4, going into that inning. The Cubs just kept hammering away and we were reeling. The Cubs bashed three hits in a row. The bags were drunk. The mighty Whiz were basically bleeding out right there on the field, victory ebbing away, a slow ignoble defeat. We couldn't do a thing to stop it.
And then we took a little meeting on the mound, decided to play for the DP, corners in, and lo, Joe Burns entices a well-struck grounder to our steady shortstop, Dennis Buckley. Dennis tosses to Greg Mangione at 2B, who up to that point had had himself a difficult day, and Greg receives the ball cleanly, pivots, and fires a perfect strike to nail Jon Martin at first to end the game. Holy ****.
The crows dispersed, the sun came out, the coolers opened, and we all live to play another day.
I don't think we've ever seen a season where there are this many very good teams with a legitimate shot at the championship.
I always think the same thing in these situations: Thank you, John Reel, for starting this league, for shaping it across the decades, for working endlessly (along with a handful of dedicated guys) to give us nights like these. You are imperfect and we still have a long laundry list of complaints, but you got the big thing right. We're still playing competitive hardball at our age. Crazy and so much fun.
There are things to complain about every now and then......mom didnt put enough butter on your toast, guys at work found out about that cross dressing party you went to, old lady next to you on the bus farted on your lunch box. Back handed compliments,with that we thing thrown in to the mix is disingenuous at best. Johns leadership and vision should be unquestioned at this time. Im sure all the we out there have some good points. Wear a hat and nobody will know.
Love
Dullest pencil in the box
-- Edited by pkw1217 on Friday 12th of July 2019 01:56:03 PM
-- Edited by pkw1217 on Friday 12th of July 2019 01:56:33 PM
