The Homers invited the renowned bat-handler Stella Thompson to appear at the 
Homers/Propulsion Army game.  Despite her lack of musical or athletic 
training, Miss Thompson both sang the national anthem and threw out the first 
pitch.  However, upon being asked to judge the bats of the Homers, 
particularly an $80, tax-free TPS 34/30, she balked, demanding that her
standard appearance fee of $100 be paid.   Upon receiving $60 in soda from 
the Homer management immediately, Miss Thompson, professionally known as 
Divine Brown, proceeded to comment on the bat, which had a little bow tied
to its end.  "I'd give it 6.  I've seen bigger, and I've seen smaller.  But 
his was cute."<p>

In the game itself, the Homers recent string of cakewalks ended.  The game
went back and forth until the Homers blew the game open in the fifth.
<pre>
    Propulsion Army   2  4  4  2  0  0  0    12
    Homers            3  4  3  3  7  3  x    23
</pre>
The Homers had anexceptional turnout:  Richard (SS/1B/OF/P), Scott (P/C),
Jeff (C/1B/OF), Holly (3B/SS), Don (OF), Robb (1B/SS/OF/P), Dave (C/OF/2B),
Amy (OF), Tim (OF/SS/1B), Ron (OF/P), Mary (2B/OF), Joe 
(Sue's boyfriend/who's Sue?/read on/OF), Phil (OF/C/2B), Sue
(Amy's housemate/2B), and Evora (3B/1B).  Although Amy, Sue, and Joe left for
Dodger stadium after helping erase P.A.'s last lead, plenty of Homers
remained to give Round Table its annual baptism:  Mary, Robb, Don, Phil,
Jeff, Ron, Richard, and Dave.<p>

Offensively, everyone contributed, as shown by the Homers' scoring at least
three runs in every inning.  However, as tradition demands the naming of the
game's three stars, they were:
<UL>
<LI><strong>Mary</strong>, who hit pretty well but will go down in history as
the inventor of the Homer Shuffle:  trying to score from second on Ron's hard 
single in the fifth, Mary, beaten by the throw by five feet, stopped, 
let the imbalanced catcher fall on his face, and then danced around 
him to touch the plate.
<LI><strong>Holly</strong>, who hit a deep line drive into the left-center
gap for a triple in the first inning to open the scoring for the Homers
<LI><strong>Don</strong>, who crushed two Mantle-like home runs to right
field, the first to give the Homers a short-lived lead in the first and the
second to put the game away in the fifth.
</UL>
Richard also hit a solo home run in the sixth that had no effect on the
outcome of the game but did pull him into a tie with Ron for the season lead.<p>

Defensively, the Homers were shaky at times through the first half of the
game.  However, enough people made clutch plays to bail the team out.  In the
second inning after P.A. had scored four, Phil made a nice catch off a hard
line drive to left, followed by Don making a charging, shoestring catch on
a low line drive that hung.  In the third, Tim and Jeff combined on a line-
drive double play to turn the momentum again.<p>

Our next game is Wednesday, July 19, against the Wild Turkeys on field H3.
This field is also on the south end of the Rose Bowl field, next to the field
we played on today.  This is traditionally a pretty fun game.