It was a banner f**king day for corkball! The sun shone without
cloudy obstruction; the trees swayed in the light breeze; the grass
smelt freshly cut; a myriad ice cold beer sat in the cooler.

Today was the last day for Sloop Bobby Bob Brinckwirth in the Cambrian
Park games. As was announced by Doc Willis, Bobby is off to eastern
pastures outside our nation's capital; meanwhile, he flew up from
Huntington to play one last series of corkball. Over the years, Bobby
has become famous for many feats--to numerous to enumerate here--both
on and off the field. Bobby has always been recognized as one
of the most fiercest competitors: he won the Eddie Cicotte award
for best pitcher 2 years ago when he went 13-6. Bobbby as also been a
good hitter with power, and he always took fielding and catching
duties seriously. Moreover, his pivotal role in the corkball short,
"Man gets hit with tennis ball in the groin", brought laughter to
many.


For the first game, Bobbby faced Nate in the classic match-up. Bobby
pitched effectively, but months of no corkball left him rusty, and
thus vulnerable to the homerun. Nate, arguably pitched the best 8
innings of the season, no-hitting Bobby, Johnny, Mark, Scott, and
Victor. Then in the ninth, Bobby broke up the no-hitter, and his team
came back dramatically to tie the game with a 3-run bagger from Scott.
However, Bobby was tagged for two home-runs in the next inning to sew
the game up for a 7-5 victory.

The next game saw Kyd Haskett making a rare start against Mark.
Unfortunately, Mark injured his hamstring, taking him out for the rest
of the day. Ol' Doc stepped in to relieve with men on base, despite
himself having a sore shoulder, and got of it without any runs
scoring. In a true team effort, Vic's team held on to scrape by 1-0
on a homerun in what was otherwise a gem from the Kyd.

The 3rd game featured Johnny vs. Louis, in yet another classic
match-up of drunken louts. After a shaky 3rd, Johnny calmed down to
pitch easily his best game of the season, and Lou turned in one of
his gutsiest performances to keep the game tied 2-2 over 11 innings.
In the bottom of the 12th, with one out and an 0-1 count, Chente
Salinas cracked the game-winner, a solo shot to left, to make his
contirbution for the day.

Corkball doesn't get much better than what yesterday gave us.

Cheers to Bobby B. We wish him the best of luck out east and hope to
visit him soon for a draft or 10 of Rock Bottom Brew.

Till next time....