Winning ..and losing..Ugly

It was a beautiful 80 degree day again and Team A finally won our first game this morning 10 to 9 -- but it wasn't pretty.  Sloppy fielding and baserunning (again we had two doubleplays turned against us - one on a fly ball like the final play in Monday's game) kept us behind most of the game.  Fortunately for us -- but too bad for baseball purists -- our opponents, managed by Arnie Beyeler, committed as many errors and mistakes as we did.  We fell behind early -- I started pitching and gave up 6 runs in the first three innings with two strike outs and a hit batter (three runs scored in one inning when the opponents didn't get a base hit.)  We pulled even and Chris Clark, our best pitcher, shut down the other team at the end.  In the top of the last inning Joe Cardi hit a triple to right field.  The next batter - Jody Zarbano -- drove in Joe with a grounder to second, and gave us a one run lead.  Chris kept them scoreless in the bottom of the inning for the win.  I was 1 for 1 at bat with a walk. 

It is better to win, even if it is ugly.  The afternoon game proved that losing ugly is worse.  We are getting thin at pitching -- there are four of us who have pitched regularly in the past: Chris, Adrian Rosati, Joe and me.  So this afternoon a couple of our teammates who haven't pitched much before started the game -- Steve Malinowski pitched very well in the first inning but hit two batters in the second inning.  If you hit two batters you must be taken out of pitching for the game.  He was replaced by Fred Kopatich -- who also pitched well and got us through the third inning.  Unfortunately Steve and Fred did not get strong fielding support and we didn't capitalize on opponents' errors and were behind by a score of 8 to 3.  We had a mild rally in the fifth inning -- adding two runs but the inning ended with a double play with our base runner doubled off on a line drive.  They got one more run and we were shut out in the last inning -- a 9 to 5 loss.  An ugly game much like the morning game but with a disappointing final result. I was 1 for 2 at bat with a double. 

Our record is 1 and 3 -- after tomorrow's morning game the Ponce officials will "re-seed" the teams to try to balance teams with equivalent records.  It looks like we will be in the lower bracket -- three teams have a 3 and 1 record.  We will have to tighten up our play - particularly in the field -- if we hope to be competitive later in the week.  In my first three years here my collective team record was 1-26; the next three years was 23-4 with two championships and a second place.  Our aspirations now are first to stay out of the cellar!

My college friend Flint Taylor spent the morning at the park - solving one problem.  At the beginning of the week, I was concerned about how my cheering section -- my brother Bill -- would be able to do the Wave by himself.  Mike Levy had a solution "one arm at a time."  Well today, with Flint here, an even better solution -- the two of them did the Wave after I got a hit in the morning game to drive in a run.  There may even be visual evidence of their Wave!

When Flint got to the hotel Monday night he ran into a Ponce player and asked him if he knew Jay Hedlund -- the player said yes, "he struck me out today, but we won the game."  A nice introduction.  After the morning game today Flint, Bill and I drove over to the Red Sox training facility - Jet Blue Park, a replica of Fenway Park.  We visited the gift shop, walked around the outside but couldn't get more than a peek at the field.  It was great to have Flint here -- he promises (threatens?) to post some of his impressions of the "action" in the comments section of the blog.

I spoke a bit today with Victor Rodriguez about his new assignment as batting coach for the Red Sox -- he said he got some very nice text messages from Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Will Middlebrooks and a number of other Red Sox players who were excited for his appointment.  Victor worked with them as they came up through the minor league system when he was minor league hitting coordinator for the Red Sox.  He said that a number of the new Sox -- such as Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli -- are very excited about joining the team and anxious to get going into the season.  Tonight Bill and I had dinner with Chris, Joe, John Fernstrom, Mo Werner and Arnie Beyeler who is the new Red Sox first base coach.  Arnie said that he is excited to be in the major leagues and will work with the infielders as well as coach first base.  He expects to work to help Daniel Nava learn how to play first base (he has been an outfielder to now) to increase Nava's versatility and be an extra asset to the team.  Arnie was at the Fenway Park celebration in memory of Johnny Pesky -- and took part in the ritual where players and officials signed their names on the Pesky pole.  Bill ushered at that event and was stationed by the pole to hand out Johnny Pesky commemoration baseball cards to every one who signed the pole -- including Arnie, who got one of the cards.