Yesterday, the Homers showed some true toughness in beating the Foxes
and Hounds 9 to 8 despite trailing 8 to 3 going into the bottom of the
seventh.  The Foxes and Hounds scored two runs in four different innings 
while we scored two in the first on Rob's home run and then nothing for 
the next four innings.  Juan helped us get a run in the sixth, and then 
in our last at-bats, we got seven hits to score six runs with the last
two coming on Richard's two-out single to center to score Beth from third
and Raul from second.<p>

This was an ugly, ugly game, our second of the year.  Was it only me or did 
anyone else hope that this team would get damned to Hell to play Voodoo Toad 
Fury for all eternity?  Their collective team mouth must have gotten paid by 
the word (== getting paid by the syllable) as they simply would not shut up.  
Furthermore, they compounded their sin of verbosity with stupidity and 
obnoxiousness which started in the second inning, when they argued a ball 
called foul by Jeff, and continued up to and through the last play of the game,
when Richard was hit in the head by a ball thrown by the first baseman after
Raul had scored the winning run.<p>

The Homers started Raul at pitcher, Jeff at catcher, Chuck at first, Debbie
at second, Richard at short, Beth at third, Alex in left, Rob in center, and
Don in right, and Lela at rover.  In the defensive scheme, Juan shared the 
shortstop and the first base positions with Chuck and Richard while Mark,
Kevin, and Joe shared the outfield and the the catcher positions with Jeff,
Alex, Rob, and Don.  Beth starred yesterday for the Homers by getting three
hits in three at-bats including one of the many two-out hits in the bottom
of the seventh.  She also played great defense by accounting for about
six outs through the game including two line drives, a hard, hard ground ball
which she caught off a short hop, and a tag out on a runner daring to advance
from first to third on a single.<p>

Our team record is now at .500 with 6 wins and 6 losses.  We have improved
tremendously as demonstrated by our current three-game winning streak.  We
have five games left in this season, and we should have a pretty good chance
to finish with a winning record.  Our remaining schedule:
<pre>
    Tuesday,   July 30,   vs. co-ops,            field H3
    Tuesday,   August 6,  vs. MAULERS,           field H4
    Tuesday,   August 13, vs. HEAVY HITTERS,     field H6
    Wednesday, August 21, vs. WILD TURKEYS,      field H4
    Tuesday,   August 27, vs. deep space cadets, field H3
</pre>
We're the home team against the teams listed in all CAPS.  I'm not sure about 
the Co-ops, but the games against the last four teams should be a lot of fun
since some of us know some of their players.  The Maulers feature Rob Warren, 
Rich Benesh, et al.  The Heavy Hitters is the TDA team with Bob Perkins and 
(formerly) Joe Wackley.  The Wild Turkeys have got Carol & Jeff Berner and Sam
Dolinar.  Finally, Martha Berg and her gang are on the Deep Space Cadets.  Have
pity on these poor people, for they know not what's about to tear through them.
Oh, yeah, field H3 is the same as the one we played on yesterday, the one at
the southwest corner of the Rose Bowl.