Let's Play Three

When the Chicago Cubs used to play only day games, Mr. Cub Ernie Banks would go onto the field on a beautiful summer day and say "let's play two." Well Ponce camp had the first day of truly beautiful Florida weather -- 75-80 degrees with blue skies -- and we all got to play three five inning games today (one a makeup of the rained out game on Tuesday afternoon.)

Now the news from Flomax Field (as the neph Brian Learch aptly calls it) Team C-Cliburn ended the day with three more wins -- and stands 8-0 going into the championship game on Friday (more later.) We won the first game 15-3; game 2 against the same team by a score of 9-4; and the third game of the day, 15-5 (we were leading by a score of 7-4 going into the last inning but got 8 runs to put the game away. I started pitching in the first game and gave up one run in one inning, hitting 2 batters in the process. In Ponce, for the sake of public health and maintenance, if a pitcher hits two batters he can no longer pitch in the game. So I was giving new meaning to the term, "the most feared pitcher on the team." For the day I was 3-6 at bat with a double and two walks.

The news after the game, for me and many others, is the imminent blizzard in DC scheduled to arrive Friday mid-day. My flight home Friday afternoon (scheduled to arrive in DC at 7:59pm) was canceled and I was rebooked on an 8:15am flight on Friday morning. So I will miss the Championship game. A real let-down after such a great week, but the only way I would get home before Monday, or more likely, Tuesday.

I will cut this blog short -- and will do a final posting of some more baseball information and reflections on the week when (or if) I get home on Friday.