A juggernaut

The rain held off -- it drizzled all day -- and our home team, Team C-Stan Cliburn, took two games today by identical scores of 10-4. In the three previous years I have been here (2006-2008) our total record was 1-26 (with the one win coming on the last game of the third year.) Doubled that total today. We have a very strong team with 11 players, including 6 pitchers and 3 catchers (players play multiple positions.) With 9 games in five days, having enough pitchers and catchers is critical. Our team also has some very good fielders and hitters. (Maybe two wins are getting me overconfident.) Of the 11 players on our team, four are in our 60s (two pitchers, including me) and the average age of the rest of the team is probably 52 or 53. I went 1-3 at bat in the first game and 1-2 with an rbi in the second. Played the outfield in both games and pitched 2 innings in the second game - giving up 3 runs in the first inning on a hit batter, stolen base, walk, hit, wild pitch and passed ball -- just about everything except a balk.

You see things here you don't see elsewhere. In the second game, one of our players was on second base with the bases loaded -- and he tried to steal 3rd base (even though it was already occupied!) Fortunately the batter hit a foul tip and we got everyone back to their own base. While it was strange, it wasn't quite as eye-opening as a play the last time I was here. That day, the team we were playing had a man on first. The batter hit a hard ground ball into the hole between third and short. The third baseman went to his left and the shortstop went into the hole to his right. The third baseman made a nice play and stabbed the ball -- and, perhaps excited by his nice play, proceeded to tag out our shortstop! (Now you can see why we lost so many games in earlier years.

For Red Sox fans -- as you know the Sox signed Boof Bonser, a former Twins pitcher who had shoulder surgery a year ago. The Twins coaches here like Bonser a lot and think he will be healthy and could be a good pick-up. One of the coaches thought coming back to be a relief pitch could be difficult after the shoulder surgery (labrum) Bonser had, since starting pitchers have a more controlled game preparation. Steve Liddle said, "I know he is very tough and has a lot of guts." They also said the Twins really liked Ortiz when he was with them but didn't re-sign him because they had some other contracts at the time -- Torii Hunter, Santana, etc -- and couldn't afford Ortiz who was scheduled to go to arbitration. He pointed out that when the Twins let him go, there wasn't a hot market for him and it wasn't until January before the Sox signed him, and the Sox didn't at first mark him as a starter. They were unsure about whether Ortiz would bounce back this year -- and are looking forward to finding out.