On Thursday, May 16, three of the old Glenridge crew met to play some
corkball in St. Louis. Tower Grove fields are now completely gone.
Two old fuzzball standbys have been altered enough that they are
unplayable. The COCA in U. City is now part of Webster University's
art school, so the parking lot is now full in the daytime. Glenridge
has moved fences and put playgrounds in, and has about a hundred signs
saying only kids can play there. Meramec, however, was still
accomodating, and the teachers (who are about our age) were even quite
friendly. It had rained hard with thunderstorms all day, so the
blacktop was soaked. Wet balls seemed to help Bennett's curve and the
wet mound hurt Doc/Vic's control. After an Ankiel-like first two
innings , I pitched OK, but these guys can flat-out hit. There were
three different one-on-ones played simultaneously, with an inning of a
rivalry and the third player catching for both, followed by a change
to another game. A bit confusing, but it worked. Mark Behrens
defeated Chris Bennett 6-0, in a game that was closer than that until
Mark hit a grand slam in the 6th. Mark got out ahead of Vic, 4-0, in
the wildness innings. A walk in and a single in in the first,
followed by a walk and homer in the second. Vic mounted a comeback
with a towering shot in the 4th, followed by bases loaded and no runs
in the 7th, two runs on a triple and a bunch of singles in the 8th,
and leaving the bases jammed in the 9th. Mark held on with some gutty
pitching and some great catching by Bennett. Bennett cleaned up the
bases by getting a 3-run homer and a grand slam after walks and
singles. Vic hit 3 solo shots, and seemed to put two runners on every
other inning. Chris Bennett won 10-3, though the hits were pretty
even. That guy is super selective and always hard for me to get out.
He lays off the high stuff with one called strike now, and hit a
navel-high fastball for a grand slam (he used to tip those back, or
just take them for strike two). Though the results sucked for me, it
was good to get out there and play against these two wily veterans, to
see a flooded blacktop, to pitch off of no mound and uphill, to be
playing in St. Louis again. However, the field and the number of
players and enthusiasm for the game all seem better in California. It
feels like, except for nanook and the Jefferson Barracks Krewe, that
the game is dying in its hometown. _