This was the first game of the rest of Big Sexy’s life. His first “official” game with his new team after the Bad Gnus declared (moral) bankruptcy. His whole world felt kinda weird. Though he had played with this wonderful group of guys before, under some of their previous naming incarnations (Ahern Construction, Last Call, Off Regularly, B Diddy and the Funky Bunch), this was different. Warming up with Rob, who was wearing his grey Ahern shirt while Big Sexy was wearing his own black t-shirt was so much less colorful than the last time he warmed up with Erik before the last Bad Gnus game. There wasn’t any blue/purple/green tie dye to brighten up the already sunny evening. Though this team is full of current and future friends, this wasn’t the same band of brothers that have played together since he had a full head of hair and had a history of winning and losing to each team at Arden Park in every way possible.
The wind was strongly blowing toward the tennis courts on a warm Spring evening as BSBD warmed up, counted heads and scanned the parking lot. Whether that ocular search was for the 10th player to arrive or to see what scrumptious post game treat lovely Sarah would bring was completely up to the individual. The opposing team was salivating thinking of all of the tree-shots they would smash deep into left field, while Big Sexy was salivating after hearing rumors of chocolate-peanut butter rice crispy treats.
When word game from Greggy O that Mike would take his usual position at third base, he was understandably a little nervous. Not seeing a ground ball in 9 months and with his balky knee and undiagnosed shingles causing enough pain over the last two months to make him consult his drivers license to see if he could get a discount at the movies, had lowered the confidence a tad.
After a relatively quiet top of the first, BSBD they took the field against one of the top teams in all of Arden Park. The T Sox have evolved from “Greg Young’s Team” that hangs out with the Bad Gnus around the middle of the standings table, to an annual powerhouse through the continual acquisition of softball talent. Chief among those acquisitions is third baseman and clean-up hitter Kirby, whose powerful left handed swing used to be a mainstay of the Ahern crew.
The first batter for the T Sox is their powerfully built left fielder. Dude looks like he picked his softball fashion after watching Win Financial a couple years back, but he does appear to be an excellent player. On the first pitch, he knocked all of the nervousness out of Big Sexy by drilling a one hopper that needed to be fielded to protect the ever-lower hanging plums. Thankfully, the glove still worked. That led to a quick 1-2-3 inning.
Paul, after flipping a coin to decide which side of the plate to stand, knocked in the first RBI of the game by placing a nice single into center field to plate Mike with the first run of the game. Paul would later come around to score and stake BSBD to a 2-0 lead that would hold up for the first 3 innings. The desperation then started to sink in for the heavily favored T Sox. They picked up GT to fortify their outfield after playing with only 3 outfielders to begin the game. There were grumblings that this mid-game pick-up made not to avoid a forfeit was a breach of beer league softball etiquette.
In the 4th inning, the T Sox finally solved Paul and the excellent BSBD defense and plated 3 runs to take a 3-2 lead. This low scoring game was surely to be decided by a timely hit and defense. In the top of the 5th, that timely hit came. Scotty Mac drilled a ball into the jet stream and watched it nearly end up at the fence line next to the basketball court, a quarter of a mile from home plate. The hits kept coming. Greggy O drilled a ball to center that the center fielder couldn't catch up to for an extra base hit. Young Kyle reached the basketball court, nearly on a fly.
However, the spectacular BSBD defense was the key to this game. Robbie covers more ground at short than cat fur in a hoarders living room. Mark is a shortstop who happens to be playing second base. Big Sexy didn't screw anything up. B Diddy made several nice plays at first and the outfield hauled in everything hit in the air. There were no less than three double plays turned including a third to first to home number that required a lightening turn by B Diddy and a great dig by Rob. The last DP was a beautiful Enos to Ahern to Chance number over the top.
All of that awesomeness culminated in a 7-4 victory. There will be many more victory beers to be enjoyed this season if this team plays that well each week. Coors Light tastes much better in victory. Seems more like a punishment after a loss.
A new team brings a new sponsor the player of the game award. The Shiner Bock player of the game easily goes to the McMurray family. Not only did Scott play flawlessly in the field and had the games biggest hit. He brought beer AND Coors Light for the team to enjoy afterward. However, he needs to share the honor with Sarah, not just because she bought treats that only Don’t Panic would enjoy more than we did, but she was very vocal and supportive to the whole team, even those she had never met before. Way go Scott and Sarah. This Shiner Bock is for you!
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