Finally some BASEBALL weather, however I must comment on some of the peculiar observances this last Sunday. Matt Schmuck is certainly entitled to his point of view on baseball etiquette but in his latest team write-up he makes three inaccurate citations. First, its okay for the coach hitting pre-game infield to wear shin guards for two reasons: he was the starting catcher and he was just being ready to start the game on time; also, many of throws back to the plate are usually errant and it was a matter of self-protection. Second, accusing Doug Rusch of trying to speed up the game by warming up the pitcher when the last batter was the catcher is unbelievable, Doug is desperately trying to shed his past reputation as a human rain delay. Third, in the Major Leagues it is quite common when the pitcher is relieved and a double switch is made to have the new fielder catch some grounders to warm up. Matt may have not noticed (look at the Kangaroo page for what the NYG-men were up to that may have distracted Tenner) that only the replacement third baseman was being warmed up. And finally, the San Francisco Giants took the dugout with the working refrigerator, a justifiable perk for the home team on a warm day.

930 AM GAME

by Jim Realini

Not much good to say about the Elk Grove effort today except that if it weren't for Ruben Donig's double and single and JC Penney's two bingles, the A's pitchers tossed a two-hitter. Carl Vargas and Geoff Jacobs got those two hits for what was a rather anemic performance buy the Elk's. They truly looked like their secret Bev Gemello nickname "Da-Pens." One bright spot on the day was the pitching effort by Carl Vargas. Carl looked like a gamer pitching really well for someone who's not quite 80% recovered from the ravages of on coming old age and a bad knee.

For a more uplifting report on this game you need to click here.

130 PM Game

by Jim Realini

This game was filled with a lot of weird stuff!! From the beginning it looked like "pick on Michael Simon Day." First, after the best all-time hitter rapped a line shot up the middle off Heath Keller, he got a little to frisky leading off first and ZAP! picked off. Then he struggled with finding what the umpire was going to call for a strike today. Then later in the game, the base umpire behind second responded to John Haines request to check if Michael had actually taken his foot off the bag at first on a close play and the plate ump ruled in Haines favor to Michael's well-founded disbelief. All this didn't matter much as the San Francisco Giants backed up another outstanding effort by Heath Keller with 8 runs on 14 hits. John Haines came in for an inning topped off by an entertaining strike out using the ole Rufus Sewell "eepfus" pitch. Sugar Ray Mialovic finished up with a work-man-like save with Haines getting the "Hold."

San Francisco's batting stats on the day were:
Frank "Red Metal" Weishaar had 3 base hits, Captain Steve Bennett cracked two more, Don Dewitt smacked two singles and Haines, Keller, DJ, Ray, Diablo, Moochy, and the Colonel added singles of various flavors to the hitting array on the day.

New York mustered the following:
Doug "George Herman" Meyer went 3 for 3, Tenner went 2 for 4 wearing a long sleeve shirt, so I guess he was "hot", Steve Conroy jumped out of the pool with 2 hits, Michael Simon blasted Keller with a single, Mike Miller slapped a double, Bill "Pee Wee" Pederson socked a single, and Lorne Johnson hit a single to make up for his faux pas of failing to run out a check swing dribbler down the first base line that caromed off the foul grass and hit the bag.

Trader Horn turned in a dazzling play at second to snuff out one potential SF rally while Doug Meyer made a "web gem" catch in center to stifle another rally.