15 August 1996: Asterisks @ Homers

From a little before lunch until almost evening of the long still hot weary dead August afternoon they sat in what their managers called offices because their managers before them had called them that - dim, conditioned, airless offices with the blinds all closed and fastened for twenty summers because someone had believed that light and moving air distracted from work, in which an embattled group of JPL engineers before escaping another remnant of a day absent-mindedly checked their voice mail without expectation.

  You have 1 new message from ... Office of the Director ... sent at 
  4:43 pm.  First new message:

    The following is a message from Assistant Homer Manager Jeff Osman.
    "Hi, I'm Jeff Osman.  Doh."

    End of message.  To repeat ...
    
    Message erased.
  
  Goodbye.

And with that, 15 Homers and 4 spectators rallied themselves to Allendale Park, where the Asterisks suffered the brunt of the Homer arousal, 26 to 8.

    Asterisks        2  0  1  3  2  0     8
    Homers           2 10  4  7  3  x    26

Sue, Allan, and Richard defected for the first inning, after which three more Asterisks arrived to seal and share their fate.

          Ellen      - OF OF  - 2B  -
          Scott     OF SS SS  - OF  C
          Don       OF OF OF  - OF OF
          Barbara   2B  C 2B  -  -  -
          Jeff       C 2B  - OF 1B 1B 
          Karen      P  P  - 2B  C  P 
          David     1B OF  - OF 3B  - 
          Robb      OF 1B  -  P SS  - 
          Ron       OF OF  - OF OF OF 
          Holly     3B  -  P 3B OF  - 
          Tim       SS  - OF SS  - OF 
          Evora      - 3B 3B 1B  - 3B 
          Sue        -  -  C  C  - 2B
          Allan      -  - OF OF  - OF
          Richard    -  - 1B  -  P SS

Along with the ever faithful Hannah and Taylor (and Susie), Raul Haro and Patrick Bergmann joined in cheering on the Homers and joining the team for dinner at Crown City, attended by Raul, Patrick, Ron, Sue, Tim, Robb, Jeff, Hannah, Ellen, Taylor, Allan, Karen, Scott, Holly, and Richard.

Karen emerged with the play of the day in the first inning before the game got out of hand by catching an ankle-high line drive hit back at the pitcher. David came up with the acrobatic catch of the day in right-center field by bobbling a fly ball two or three times before holding on for the out. Welcome back to Don Calkins, who provided some big left-handed stick on a day when just about every Homer hit well. However, no Homer hit a home run although many swung for the fence as the Homers maintained a big lead throughout the game.

Next week's game is Monday, August 19, on field H3 of the Rose Bowl against the Rock Lobsters. Confirmed no-shows are Ron, Richard, Holly, Tim, Allan, Amy, Cheryl, and Mary, so please tell Jeff or Richard if you will make the game.