Keystone Cops Baseball

The Keystone cops I remember from my childhood were silly. They were slapstick-ish, making mistakes constantly. That's what I thought about the baseball game yesterday.

We were short, but I heard we had 9. When I got there, and as people walked in, I found we did have 9, but only 6 regulars. We had one guy stay from the earlier game to catch, another that played with the team last year, but now lives in CO Springs, and a ringer. Wow, 6 guys.

So the game started, they got one on, but we stopped him at first. We got up, and went down 1-2-3. I was batting 5th again, and I thought it might get better this week as I'd had a good week last week. We shut them down in the field and we got up again. The first guy singled on an error, I drew a walk after swinging at a bad pitch. The pitcher was throwing well, good movement on the slider, nice change of speed from the #1 to the slider and change up. I wanted to hit, so I jerked at the last 3 pitches, but held off and drew the walk.

We ended up with the bases loaded, no outs. A grounder to short, that he got, luckily, on a short hop. I was going 2nd->3rd, and I saw him turn his head, but he snagged it and threw the guy out at home. One out, bases loaded. We got a strike out and then a ground out to end the inning.

Rats.

They scored a couple, and at 2nd base it was quiet. I fielded a bouncy grounder and got someone out, then stopped a bad throw on a steal at 2nd, with no play. Other than that, nothing. At bat, I batted 2nd two more times, one time grounding out to the pitcher when I reacted to a high and tight one and dribbled it. The other time striking out, missing on the hanging slider and then just turning my head and missing the next 2.

We had a good inning in the 6th, scoring 5 or 6 runs to go up 7-4. We hit well, but our right fielder, who's struggled with a bad calf all year, pulled it on a single. We had no one else, so we put him in right, with me going into short right for a few left handed batters. The same inning saw our shortstop pull his groin. It was crazy. I struck out again, getting fooled on a beautiful slider that I knew was likely coming, but wasn't ready. I watched it go by, dropped my bat, started laughing, and then complimented the pitcher. I pulled my head and missed the next one.

Our pitcher got tired, and we gave up a few more runs along the way. In the 8th we pulled the pitcher, leading 10-9, and put in Kurt, our usual first baseman, but who hasn't pitched this year. He warmed up with 4 or 5 pitches, threw 3, one of which was wild, passed by, and allowed a run. After that he was done, pulling something in his shoulder. Our original pitcher went back in, gave up a few more runs, and we then pulled him for the ringer from the Springs. He did better, gave up a few more runs, and finally got the side out on what I think was a mercy strikeout from the ump. Some questionable calls there.

I was in center by this time, our shortstop, hurt and playing third. Our right fielder playing first so he didn't have to move much, and our first baseman at second, unable to throw. I joked with the manager in right that if we needed to change pitchers that we should just forfeit. I think I was the next pitchers, and while it might be fun to try, it would be ugly.

Still it was fun, almost comical at times. A few people got serious, but we laughed about some things at well. The best play was in the 2nd or 3rd inning. The first baseman from the other team got to third and went to steal on a passed ball. He raced in and dove forward. Our pitcher covered, got the ball from the catcher, and almost started laughing. He reached down and tagged the guy.

The slide had ended about 8-12" short of the plate, and they guy was laying there, almost in disbelief. It was one of the funniest plays I've seen in a long time.

A good day, though not a good day for me batting. Not much fielding, but I had a smile on my face all day.