I Played!

Yeah, I grabbed some ibprofen pills at Safeway after work yesterday, 'cuz my back was still really sore. That did seem to help a bit, especially since I was going to go to the ballpark anyways. I made sure I did a lot of stretching before the game, fielded a few grounders in warm-ups and declared myself fit to play. I certainly wasn't a 100%, but I could run and my arm felt pretty good... it was just the bending down to pick up groundballs that was a little bit of trouble, but I could do it if it was asked of me to do so.

Game one versus the Boomers went fairly well for the team. A third inning rally of runs, including my 2-run single to open the scoring and then I scored when Aaron knocked me in with a single of his own. We were up 4-0 and held the lead with Aaron's great pitching through the game. But it was the last inning, where the Boomers started to hit Aaron and they rallied to tie the game, even with Alan coming in to try and close the game off, still up by 2 runs. But we were the home team (for both games, actually) and in the bottom half of the inning, Jesse singled, reached second on a passed ball and then Ryan drilled a pitch right back at the pitcher, hits him square in the leg, the ball goes out into left field and Jesse comes into score, easily.

Other highlights of the first game saw Alex get ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the 3rd inning. The umpire was doing yet another poor job behind the plate... and we didn't have a base ump again last night, so he was pulling double duty. When Alex got tossed, there were a few of us who had been nailed on some very low pitches that were called for strikes. I was base coaching quite a bit in that first game and there were a lot of pitches coming down below the knees being called strikes.

I did get a few groundballs my way, which I made short work of. Nothing overly difficult. There was one play in the last inning... a groundball that came to Aaron at first, which I was on my way to cover for hm, he missed it, 'cuz it was a mad spinner and also spun right by me as well, as I was trying to go in the opposite direction. The RBI single was the only offensive production I had, going 1-for-3, single, 2 RBIs.

Game two against CBA was a little harder on the back. I did stretch it out in between games, which kept it manageable. Munden started the game and got rocked again fairly early, giving up three runs in the first inning. CBA just managed to get a few good hits and ran out some good plays and we found ourselves down a few runs in the top half of the first. I was back to leading off the team in the home side of the inning. We had the same ump from the first game doing that game as well and so I knew I had to protect the plate as much as possible. Unfortunately, that did me no good... I struck out to start the game. However, the team did put on a good rally in the bottom half and we scored a couple runs to make it close.

The game was pretty tight after the first inning, Munden settled down his pitching, the team was behind him and we played out a good game. Munden only allowed another two runs and in the fourth inning, we came back to tie the game heading into the final frame. Munden went up and shut them down, but we couldn't get our bats past a solid double by Aaron... just couldn't cash him in. Rather Derek hit one back to the pitcher, but it wasn't too hard and easily caught for the final out. In a tantrum, Derek chucked his helmet back into the dugout and sacked Menzies right where it counted. Not the greatest display of professionalism... but what can ya do??

Not a bad game defensively again for me... but I went 0-for-3, striking out twice and lining out to the pitcher as well. Not very productive from the lead-off position.

In other ball news, our arch-nemesis, Rusty's lost to the Us Guys and gave us the opportunity to take the lead in the standings (allegedly), but we sorta figured that we are now tied with Rusty's for first in the standings, and we've all but assured ourselves a spot in the playoffs.



Somewhat needless to say, we stuck around the parking lot again and had a few beers. Poor ol' Munden couldn't help himself in the pic... lousy smalltown drunkard. Ha ha. Got home just after midnight, watched a bit of TV after taking a few more ibprofens.

Should be a little busy this morning... got one for today, a couple for tomorrow and a big one for Wednesday sitting in the ol' inbox. By all guesstimations, August will be just as quiet as July was in the filing department. July was just as quiet as January was as a whole... and that was pretty quiet. Hopefully the pace picks up a little bit more in August, but the summer time is not a time that anyone wants to do anything in the office... and most of the annuals are already done by now.

Don't have any plans for the rest of the week... oh, wait. Probably have to go out to Langdon this week... let's see when that is. August 3rd... so... Thursday. I'm out in Langdon on Thursday night. Nice. I'll have to give Dad a bell and let him know. Apparently, my mail at the house is "stacking up."

Gotta go get rent money today... I got paid yesterday, but forgot my cheque at the office yesterday afternoon. D'oh! So... that's my goal for after work... AND getting the V for Vendetta DVD. Oh so many things to do.

And a link from me today... talk about rough.