The Homers's season ended yesterday with a friendly loss to the Deep Space 
Cadets, 14 to 13.  The Homers trailed by one going into the top of the 
seventh, scored two to go up by one going into the bottom of the inning, but 
the Caddies pushed one over to send the game into extra innings.  In the 
eighth, the Homers scored another, but the Cads scored twice in the their 
half to win the game.  <p>

The batting order for the Homers for this last game was Mark, Lela, Don, 
Chuck, Alex, Beth, Jeff, Brian, Junior, Betsy, Raul, Joe, Mary, and Richard.  
Spectators for this game were Debbie, who was on the injured reserve list due 
to a bad back, Lisa, Bill, Raymond, Brian, Phillip (Beth's neighbors' son), 
and Laurie.<p>

Offensively, two players, Alex and Brian, lived up to the team name by hitting 
home runs.  Junior also impressed with some solid singles.  Defensively, the 
best inning for the Homers was the fifth when Beth cut off a grounder between 
third and short and nailed the runner, Lela caught a pop-up/line-drive that 
was spinning away from her, and Richard made a deep throw from shortstop to 
end the inning.<p>

It's a good thing we put together that huge winning streak, for these two 
consecutive losses at the end of the season weren't enough to cheat us out of 
a winning record (9 wins, 8 losses).  Our team has improved tremendously over 
the course of the year; in particular, Mark, Junior, Joe, and Mary have 
demonstrated the most improvement offensively while Beth, Lela, and Don have 
picked their games up defensively.  We have developed a solid core of players 
who show up regularly, and they should be the center of the team in the 
future.  Finally, we have THE most sui2 bian4 (ask Fanny) manager, and that 
has kept this team harmonious and happy, making for a very good premier 
season.