Defenders--Game 6

red hook baseball fields--spring training

I had told the coaches to call a 5:30 pm practice for the Monday after our big 17-3 victory because I had a speaking engagement that would not let me get to the fields until around that time. I was still late in getting to practice and I quickly discovered that there had been some tension on the fields before I arrived. It appears that Kevin had gotten into a name-calling match with some kids and it escalated to rock throwing and the eventual bashing of Kevin's scooter (which as a general rule, I discourage kids from bringing any bike/basketballs/scooters/goldfish etc. to any practice). Coach Chris described his foray of going into the melee and valiantly rescuing our players as the warring factions shook aluminum bats at each other and hurled copious amounts of false bravado across the divide. I believe this was Coach Chris' first serious encounter with the extra-curricular side of Red Hook baseball. Coach Lou ended the nonsense by marching in the middle of the group and grabbed the afore-mentioned scooter. This was actually mild on the overall scale and pales in comparison to the brawl amongst a group of high school kids that broke out in right field during one of our games last year. I was ticked off about it because we had guys on base and were rallying in a close game against the undefeated Sunset Park team. The momentum of the crowd surge came in through the gates and stopped in right field. I ran out and tried to keep the momentum moving past centerfield and past our territorial hitting range. My efforts failed, but the ump of the game, a local guy, came running out yelling. I thought he was trying to stop the fight, but he was yelling,

"It's gonna be a fair fight! It's gonna be a fair fight! No jumping in!"
I was aghast to say the least.
"No. No. No fighting" I yelled before realizing I was in the middle of 20 brawling teenagers.


By some unknown force (or maybe is was the distant wailing of approaching sirens), the crowd surged to the other field and we continued our game. Our rally petered out and we ended up losing by 3. Outcome of the fight remains unknown.

As I said earlier, I was late arriving for the practice and was still in a suit. I walked around and chatted with the players, asking each of them how they were doing. Josh, fighting to keep his shortstop position, was intently fielding grounders. Clayvon, who is as close to a nebish as a 13 year-old boy can be, was holding court in centerfield with Taylor and Tytee. Those three are major league gossipers and Anthony can get caught up in it as well. They are good sources for information as well as good stories. The current drama centered on Anthony allegedly telling someone to tell a girl he liked her when he really didn't and the girls were not impressed with that action. Anthony fiercely denied any such things ( I will not use the term the kids, accurately, called it) and more of the Leo-Tytee rumors started swirling. I tired of this particular gossip vein so I ambled on over to Jeremy. I learned Jeremy had fat-catted it on his second home run as he neared home plate and I admonished him for that behavior, but congratulated him on a great job overall. Kenny was annoying and a little too hyper-active. He is acting like Big-Balls Willie since he has a girlfriend now. Anthony was quieter than normal and I told him I thought he should have received a game-ball. Not sure how to handle that one though without having it appear to be a contrived moment. Tytee, in for bp, told me how Leo was acting like a big shot in my absence and that her and Taylor, both early for the game, were dissatisfied with his line-up batting order decisions. Tytee also told me she thought we scored more runs and that Leo had screwed the book up and missed 4 runs. I decided to go with what was in the book and let history be our judge on that decision. I pitched a little bp and felt strangely satisfied with being able to throw strikes even in a suit and dress shoes.



sign up day, Taylor, Commish (James), Omar (Heroes coach), Victor, Kenny's head

We had a second practice on Tuesday and focused on throwing the ball around the infield and hitting the cut-off man. I switched players around many positions and it is amazing how the baseball gods bless some players with certain skills but leave them totally devoid of others. Ralphie is a good example of this axiom. He is a solid third baseman and always looks good when fielding his position. Put him in the outfield and is as looks like a spastic flamingo--arms in one direction and legs in another. He comes running and the ball goes flying by him or he breaks to his left as the ball sails to the right. After watching him fall on a high pop-up (and maybe even after snickering a moment or two), I mercifully put him back at third. We had some more speed-drill bp and we called it a day in preparation for Thursday's game.

We were set to play LICH, arguably the worst team in the league. They are the sausage team of this league. All the scraps and left-overs (mostly late-comers) merged into one team. Joel and Kevin's Uncle Alex (although I have also been told he is their Grandfather) is the coach of the team. Alex likes to tip the cups a bit too much and can be seen muttering, at times nonsensically, to his nephews or his team or even himself. On one particular recent instance I thought he was in the middle of a 10 minute rant in spanish on Joel. Leonel, coach of the Giants came by shaking his head saying that Alex was whacked out and to ignore him. I asked Leonel, who is fluent in spanish, what Alex was saying to Joel.


"I don't know."
"Wasn't he yelling in spanish?"
"He was yelling, but whatever language he was yelling in, it wasn't spanish."
We both just shook our heads and laughed.

I had eight kids at the field and it was uncertain if Clayvon, who had been absent from both practices, would be at the game. He appeared and approached me saying he had an explanation of why he missed practice.

"Look." he said tilting his forehead into my space.
"What am I looking at?"
"This!" and he pointed to some type of bite mark right between his eyes. It may have even been a shanker-sized zit that had already drained.
"I don't know what this is," he continued. " I think it is a mosquito bite, I wanted to go to the hospital but my mom has my Medicaid card with her in Virginia. Isn't that stupid? She left the cards for my sisters who never get hurt and she has mine in Virginia. I want to get this checked for the West Nile virus!"


I couldn't contain myself at this point and burst out laughing.
"I'm serious!" he pleaded.
But he could see ol' coach wasn't buying into his medical diagnosis.
"You got your glasses?"
"Yes."
"You think you can hit like you did last game?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I need you in center and you're batting 6th."

And that ended the West Nile virus discussion. Clayvon did bring an old-school Defender jersey and hung it from the dugout fence. Christian pitched and was aided by a complete lack of plate discipline by the opposing team. He walked the first batter and then struck out the side. Kenny came up, beyond cocky, and promptly struck out. It deflated him. I was secretly glad, well not too secretly since I told the squad I was hoping for them to lose as they acted arrogant and cocky prior to the game. Anyway, it was his first strikeout of the season and it shocked everyone.

We scored 4 runs that inning on walks and aggressive baserunning. Christian shut them down again and by the third inning we had a 7-0 lead based mostly on walks and running. Kenny had one nice opposite-field triple (and a 1-base error) and Anthony had the only other hit. Christian wanted to let them score a few runs so we would not mercy them, but I obviously kiboshed that idea. However he started letting guys get on base and they pushed 1 run across. The ump called the game on account of darkness and we evened our record at 3-3 with the 7-1 victory. Christian walked a couple that last inning and knowing his proclivity towards ignoring instruction (concerning his wanting to allow runs to extend the game), I called time and walked out to the mound.

Christian practicing pitching

"You keep dicking around with these guys, they're gonna get back in this game."

"I know, I'm trying to throw strikes." he said, but wouldn't look at me. We both knew he was dicking around and we both knew I knew it.

Then I hit him with the big hammer:

"You walk one more guy, I'm yanking you."


The game was over in 4 pitches with a nice strikeout. Joe Torre can learn how to handle a staff from me. Kenny had the play of the game when he rifled a throw to second to get a potential basethief off the basepaths. It was a classic bang-bang play and impressed the onlookers behind the backstop. Christian pitched a good game despite his attempt to prolong the contest so he could pitch more. Everyone got on base except for Joel. We had to bench Quincy during the game for telling the ump he was cheating (I refuse to tolerate that sentiment at all by my team) after Q-man took a called third strike and then was stooping out in the field the next half inning in some sort of pouting protest. Our baserunning drills are paying off and everyone on our team is running well and sliding well. Our leads off the base are being done fairly well, although we will work on them more. Our biggest offender was Tytee who just stood on first and chatted away with the smitten Leo, who was coaching first since we had a shortage of coaches that game. Leo normally would be urging runners to lead and run aggressively, however his obvious ulterior motives were displayed in this instance. Clayvon announced he would bring the old school shirt to hang in the dugout for our next game.

Our next game is against Southern Trucking and I told our squad we owe that team a bit of payback for our earlier 16-3 whuppin' at their hands. Anthony is rested and eligible for 6 strong innings. I believe they are countering with Noel D. or Gian. We will be ready and we will be aggressive. As always, updates to follow.