Win Some, Lose Some

Perspective is a bitch. Particularly in softball. You know why? Of course, you do. Because whenever you’re talking about perspective, that means you fucking lost.

Nobody ever searches for perspective after a win. You don’t need perspective when you win. The other guy does. And we don’t really care about his perspective and his excuses and his if-only this and if-only that. You lost, dude.

Jon Snyder, 4-for-4 in a rare night off from Saxotech, wondering
if it wasn't more fun in the office.

Which brings us to Monday night at Edgeley 8 versus the Tap Room. We lost, dude.

We lost 25-10 and if you want to say the game was a lot closer than the score, have yourself a big scoop of perspective with sprinkles on top. For the most part, you are right. That doesn’t change the final score, however, which is imprinted on our foreheads like the triple 6’s of Damian until we perish from this earth. (Perhaps I’m losing sight of that perspective thing.)

Let’s back up. This was a fun game. Or was supposed to be. Tap is going to get the top seed in the division. Bishop’s Collar and Pen & Pencil will have a one-game playoff to see which team plays Tap for the division championship. That was decided at the Cherry Street Tavern in February when the divisions were set up and Brennan was looking at Phyllis and forgetting the instructions he was given. That is understandable, depending on one’s perspective.

Anyway, so a fun game, which is how both sides should approach it, even if one side is undefeated and apparently so taken with that honor in the Center City Softball League that it supercedes all else. So, we’ll get to the point. When one of your runners goes out of the baseline to avoid a tag, even if the base coach is sort of undecided, or distracted because the runner in question is the size of a rampaging rhino, the right thing to do is to call the runner out.

That’s not even a tough call, but too tough for the Tap Room team apparently, which is really a bunch of nice guys after the game. During the game, they freeze in the sportsmanship moments. It doesn’t make them bad guys, but it sure makes them seem like bad guys. If it didn’t happen every time, it might be coincidence.

Hayes: Three-run HR
highlighted offense.

Anyway – yes, I’m using anyway again – the runner was Elmer Ogre and he invoked the “3-foot rule,” indicating that he could go three feet of his width outside the baseline to avoid a tag. Now, three feet of Elmer’s width would extend to Manayunk, but we choose not to mention that. And the fact is that the rulebook says a runner has three feet from the basepath, not from the extreme left or right edge of the runner himself. Elmer was out, at least by the spirit of the rule as he avoided Brian Donlen’s tag at first, but he was not out according to the Tap Room and the inning was extended for four runs.

OK, time for perspective. If Ogre had been called out, the Tap would have still scored four runs in that inning, and, combined with the eight runs it scored in the seventh, would have won 21-10. Gee, I feel a lot better.

The fact is that the better team won the game and that the Pen & Pencil, after holding a 10-4 lead after four innings, stopped scoring runs entirely. Never a good idea. Perhaps the worst idea of the night came from the Management, who decided that Yaz, having given up five runs in the fifth should be pulled for relief. Yaz gave up nine runs total in five innings, while the Management gave up double ochos in his two innings. Yikes.

What beat us, aside from the stray dropped fly or errant throw to first, was a lack of timely hitting. We left 12 runners on base, including eight in scoring position. In the fifth inning, down by just a run, we loaded the bases with nobody out and didn’t score a run. That was a killer for us.



Mike Galan: Tough luck on two hard line drives
to the right side of the infield.



OK, we did have some highlights. Jon Snyder sneaked out of work and was 4-for-4. Brian Donlen, Dan McElhatton, Chris Yasiejko and Kerry O’Connor had three hits each. Two hits for George Miller and Mark Nevins. Marcus Hayes had a three-run home run.

Good stuff, but not enough to win this evening. Maybe next time. And with one win in the playoffs we get another shot at the Tap Room. After that game, let’s leave them searching for perspective. You know what perspective means, right? You lost, dude.

Special thanks to Sheila Ballen and Kathy Matheson for making sure we were street legal, as Ron used to say. Kathy had a big hit in our five-run second inning and Sheila hit three line drives through the middle only to have each speared by pitcher Mark Bruno.

Extra special thanks to Chip Proctor and Dawn Proctor, who came out as spectators. Chip, Bruno, Al Heinle, Mark Nevins and the Management play on Sundays in another league. Chip and Dawn think our league is cool, Monday’s result notwithstanding.

And special, special thanks to Keith Craig and his kids, Keegan(sp?) and Elle, for the Pen & Pencil face-painting support, and particularly to Elle who, after the game, when told that we’d win for her the next time, responded, “We lost?”

That, folks, is perspective.



George Miller didn't take any pictures worth a damn, fouled off many pitches.