From: rcbenesh@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
It was a hot, humid, dark, and generally miserable day as the HOMERS took the field to avenge their earlier defeat at the hands of the Goat Scouts. Once again, the HOMERS almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as the HOMERS offense virtually disappeared in this one, scoring the fewest runs in any game this season. However, marvelous pitching, good defense, and a certain player's use of the banned supplement "Kona Power" pulled it out for the HOMERS in the end.
The line score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
HOMERS 3 1 0 1 2 1 3 - 11
Goat Scouts 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 - 7
The defense:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Scott of of of of - of c
Jeff 1b c 3b - c c -
Karen p 2b p - 2b 2b p
Richard of of of - of of of
Tony 3b ss - p ss 3b 3b
Ron of p - of of p of
Annette of of - 3b 3b of -
Robb ss - ss ss p ss ss
Joe c - of c of - of
David - 3b c of 1b - 1b
Mary 2b - of 2b of - 2b
Rich - 1b 1b 1b - 1b -
Sheila - of 2b of - of of
HOMERS cheering section: Barbara, Aaron, Brian, Kona, Daniel, and Gyro.
The HOMERS were cruising along with a 7-0 lead behind the shutout pitching of Karen, Ron, and Tony, when Robb took the mound for the bottom of the 5th. In a wild inning that saw Richard misplay a ground ball into a grand slam (BTW, Richard, you owe Mary $48.50 for the cab ride back to homeplate after she ran that one down!), Joe grow roots in mid-stride while chasing a fly ball, and Robb's pitching causing the bench to wonder if Richard hadn't somehow been put on the mound by mistake, the Goat Scouts tied the score at 7.
When asked about his horrific outing, Robb said "I was haunted by Tim's ghost - that's what made me throw all those fat pitches!".
Then the attonements began. Richard led off the 6th with a single, and scored all the way from first on Tony's flyout to medium right-centerfield to give the HOMERS a slim 8-7 edge. In the bottom of the inning, Robb turned a 6-3 doubleplay to end the inning and a Goat Scout scoring threat.
With two out and two on in the 7th, Rich, who had received a massive overdose of Kona Power prior to the game during Kona's exuberant suprise greeting, hit a McGwire-esq blast down the rightfield line to secure the Homer victory. "The Blast" instantly trivialized the efforts of McGwire and Sosa, and was the only HOMER dinger of the contest. Rich's comment about "The Blast": "That shot could have put the Dodgers into the playoffs, if only they'd given me the two cases of beer per game I demanded".
The game ended in the bottom of 7th, when Joe "every flyball's an adventure" (someone should tell him that's an armed forces slogan, not how HOMERS play the outfield!) misjudged and then made a fine running catch of a flyball to end the game, at which point all the HOMERS fell to their knees and the new HOMER victory chant:
OHHHMMMM! OHHHHMMMMMMM!! OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
The post-game Dinner at Crown City was attended by: Jeff, Robb, Mary, Joe, Scott, Karen, Sue, Ron, and Richard. (Rich was too busy signing autographs for soccer players and bicyclists awed by "The Blast" to attend)
On behalf of all the HOMERS, our thanks to Sue for being the field manager and seeing to the difficult task of lineup juggling, to Jeff for being the manager and dealing with the off-field BS and getting the equipment, and Richard for seeing to it that the cooler was always full, maintaining the HOMERS web page, and for arranging the annual BBQ.
Rich