As the sky retains its blue hue later into the evening, as packs of 50 or more bicyclists race around the Rose Bowl defying sudden doom, as television loosens its grip on our collective interest while movies tighten it, one and only one thought comes to the minds of those privileged few in Pasadena: it's ECAP time.
Oh, yes, it's time for the salary drives to begin, time to impress when good performance has its greatest impact. Toward that end a group of 20 or so Homers, oblivious to the new world of Unified Salary Structure, still striving for extra points in the mushy determinant of E level jumps, thrashed the LA Radars, 16 to 5.
LA Radars/Homers 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 5
Homers 2 4 2 2 6 0 x 16
The following really did happen: three days before the game, the manager of
the Radars sent email to the managers of the Homers asking if the Homers
would have enough players at the game. On the day of the game, the Radar
manager contacted us again, this time to ask if we still wanted to play
because not only did the weather look marginal but also because they would
only have 6 players.
Well, the day turned out gorgeous, partially cloudy yet warm, and it turned out well that the Radars were short-handed because the Homers, deserving of a team achievement award, had an enormous turnout. Playing the entire game for the Homers were Jeff (1B/C), Ellen (RF/C), Scott (P), David (SS/3B), Amy (LCF), Sue (2B), Ron (LF), Robb (3B), Allan (RCF/C/1B), and Doug (C/1B). Sent over to the dark side for the proverbial bag of balls were five Homers who showed up relatively late, yet another incentive to get there early: Tim, Phil, Monica, Barbara, and Holly, of whom Tim and Barbara were eventually traded back while Phil retired early with a shoulder injury. Richard babysat Hannah/Taylor and Holly/Allen, and Martha showed up late with a handwritten note from the Goldstone station manager to round out the Homer 17. Oh, yeah, there's that mutt, too. After the game, Holly, Jeff, Tim, Sue, Ron, and Richard adjourned to Crown City Brewery, where they shared 2, count 'em, 2 (pints? pitchers? kegs?) glasses of beer.
Though the Homers played consistently throughout the game, the big inning did not come until the fifth, when Al burned the left fielder for a 2-rbi triple, Doug followed with a triple to right-center, and Tim ended the inning by toasting the left fielder again for a two-run home run to inflict the mercy rule. Other home runs (cough!) came from Ron and Scott, with Scott's shot at least reaching the outfield. Jeff had three nice doubles to left, though the big surprise of the day came from Holly whose mojo had her hitting with power to right. Defensively, anchor Tim came up with at least three catches off hard hit line drives, while Sue tried for the play of the day by diving and attempting to bat a ground ball to first with her glove. The true play of the day, though, goes to Scott, who with runners on first and third and none out, speared a line drive up the middle and doubled the runner off first.
Next week's game is Tuesday, May 21, against the Zephyrs on field H2 again, which is on the south side of the Rose Bowl field. We have no idea how good this team is, for contrary to popular belief, this is not the team from Sterling Software (Planet X). In the midst of the free-agent turmoil today, we forgot the Homer cheer against the Radars, so let's get it right next week.