Weekly Correspondent-August 14-15, 2009
Big Bend Cowboys at Bay Area Toros-August 14, 2009
When you go to so many games over the weekend and then wait 'til Monday to write them all up, they sort of blend together. Went to five games this weekend (one was a makeup for a game postponed by rain). This is the second. I mostly just remember it being long.
We had a great fifth and sixth inning with four runs each and ended up winning 9-2. It's amazing, because we committed five errors-three in the fifth inning. One of the upsides of keeping a scorecard is that people will come and talk to you, and since I'm very shy and don't normally go talk to people, this is a really good way for me to get into conversations without actually starting them. :) So after the the first two errors in the fifth (one right after another), a guy comes to me and asked what happened. He had gone to get a Pepsi and when he came back there were four errors on the board! I told him who I attributed the errors to (sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the thrower or the catcher who's at fault) and two batters later, there was another error. He looked over at me from the next section and said, "And that's another one, huh?" I just laughed and nodded. Three errors were by our poor second baseman and I felt bad for him... not one of his good days. He hadn't started in a while.
One of the Cowboys' pitchers was named Fielding (first name) and I thought that was very appropriate for a baseball player.
scorecard 01
scorecard 02
Big Bend Cowboys at Bay Area Toros-August 15, 2009
Another three and a half hour game. That makes three in a row and each one started at seven. That means I was up until at least eleven and that's way past my bed time (it seems I've become a wimp in my old age). What is it about the Cowboys that makes them play so slow, eh? My general rule of thumb is three hours for a game: one hour per three innings. Usually that's pretty accurate. So when it gets to be longer than three hours, I start to get grumpy. Three in a row, and I rant about it in my journal.
The final score was 10-3 Toros, with the Cowboys' runs all coming in the ninth inning because of two errors and a balk. Don't you hate it when it starts to fall apart like that? You have a ten run lead in a shutout game, the game's gone long and you're ready to go to sleep, and then the opposing team puts together a rally on errors committed by your team. If my team is ahead, I really just want the top of the ninth to go quickly and quietly.
In the bottom of the fourth, the ump called a balk on the Cowboys pitcher and the pitcher wasn't too happy about it. He kinda' hopped off the mound and said some words to the ump and the ump warned him. The very next pitch, the ump called another balk, and I had to wonder if it was really a balk or if the ump was being snide. Because I can't tell either way what's a balk and what's not.
And in the second inning, our catcher hit a ball out to the second baseman's position, and the Cowboy second baseman, Beau Manning, got ready to scoop it up. But then the ball bounced up right into his face. Ouch. I was worried for him, but he walked it off and stayed in the game. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what he did about this for the next game on Sunday.
When one of our relief pitchers went in, the bullpen started singing a song. I have no idea what they were singing, but it made me laugh.
scorecard 01
scorecard 02
When you go to so many games over the weekend and then wait 'til Monday to write them all up, they sort of blend together. Went to five games this weekend (one was a makeup for a game postponed by rain). This is the second. I mostly just remember it being long.
We had a great fifth and sixth inning with four runs each and ended up winning 9-2. It's amazing, because we committed five errors-three in the fifth inning. One of the upsides of keeping a scorecard is that people will come and talk to you, and since I'm very shy and don't normally go talk to people, this is a really good way for me to get into conversations without actually starting them. :) So after the the first two errors in the fifth (one right after another), a guy comes to me and asked what happened. He had gone to get a Pepsi and when he came back there were four errors on the board! I told him who I attributed the errors to (sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the thrower or the catcher who's at fault) and two batters later, there was another error. He looked over at me from the next section and said, "And that's another one, huh?" I just laughed and nodded. Three errors were by our poor second baseman and I felt bad for him... not one of his good days. He hadn't started in a while.
One of the Cowboys' pitchers was named Fielding (first name) and I thought that was very appropriate for a baseball player.
scorecard 01
scorecard 02
Big Bend Cowboys at Bay Area Toros-August 15, 2009
Another three and a half hour game. That makes three in a row and each one started at seven. That means I was up until at least eleven and that's way past my bed time (it seems I've become a wimp in my old age). What is it about the Cowboys that makes them play so slow, eh? My general rule of thumb is three hours for a game: one hour per three innings. Usually that's pretty accurate. So when it gets to be longer than three hours, I start to get grumpy. Three in a row, and I rant about it in my journal.
The final score was 10-3 Toros, with the Cowboys' runs all coming in the ninth inning because of two errors and a balk. Don't you hate it when it starts to fall apart like that? You have a ten run lead in a shutout game, the game's gone long and you're ready to go to sleep, and then the opposing team puts together a rally on errors committed by your team. If my team is ahead, I really just want the top of the ninth to go quickly and quietly.
In the bottom of the fourth, the ump called a balk on the Cowboys pitcher and the pitcher wasn't too happy about it. He kinda' hopped off the mound and said some words to the ump and the ump warned him. The very next pitch, the ump called another balk, and I had to wonder if it was really a balk or if the ump was being snide. Because I can't tell either way what's a balk and what's not.
And in the second inning, our catcher hit a ball out to the second baseman's position, and the Cowboy second baseman, Beau Manning, got ready to scoop it up. But then the ball bounced up right into his face. Ouch. I was worried for him, but he walked it off and stayed in the game. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what he did about this for the next game on Sunday.
When one of our relief pitchers went in, the bullpen started singing a song. I have no idea what they were singing, but it made me laugh.
scorecard 01
scorecard 02
