Thanks to the Cambrian Players League All-Stars
for coming out in force and good cheer, and for
bringing with them a keg of beer. Thanks to the Grassos
for staying away, leaving us only on the field on a
perfect day. <br> From the time we got there until we
packe up with a full moon glowing in the twilight it
was a perfect day. <br> After the Cambrian Players
(well, really just Louis and Mark McCabe) beat the
Glenridge veterans on Thursday, 5-4, and the veterans
played a slugfest among themselves (Willis/Behrens 16-
Bennett/Minsky 6), the vets were thinking that the only hope we
had against Lefty McCabe, and the two righty aces
(Scott and Nate had given up a combined 0 runs in 5
starts between them) was to score many runs. Hey, these
guys traveled a long way to play these games, and
wanted to leave with some semblance of pride. We
figured, as sore-armed and sorry as we were as pitchers,
we needed to score as many runs as quickly as we
could. We needed to all hit, and we needed contribution
from whichever Cambrian Player we picked up. Chente
Salinas contributed immediately with two clutch early
singles as Chris Bennett defeated Nate in a game with
3-out innings, by a score of 8-2. The second game
featured a struggling Victor Willis versus a Scott with
three shutouts. Midway through the game the score was
1-0 on a solo shot by Mark Behrens before Alan and
Victor added homers to open up what became a 7-0 game.
Who would have predicted that Victor would throw a
one-hitter and strike out 13? <br> Game three might have
been a close high-scoring game. Both teams had
baserunners in the first two innings, and it was sure that
runs would score soon, but who would score them? In
the third, Scott, normally both the Ozzie Smith and
Willie Mays of Cambrian corkball, made two errors in one
inning, leading to John Brinckwirth's downfall. After
John left, Louis gave up a fat churlybird grand slam,
and the game was called after three innings on the
ten-run-rule. <br> The teams were then split up, and Vic, Mark
Behrens, Chris Bennett, and John Brinckwirth took on Mark
McCabe, Scott, Alan, and Louis, with the now quite drunk
Chris Haskett as a DH (when revived from lying
face-down in the outfield, Kid Haskett hit a single and
walked once). Lefty McCabe again defeated Chris Bennett,
singlehandedly, 1-0, on a solo shot by Lefty "Scuffy" McCabe. For
those of you interested, view my reply to Clowny Jack's
dismissal of the entire event as "stat padding."<br>In the
end, teams involving at least 3 Glenridge veterans won
3 out of 5 games. The series was close and
competitive.<br> Cambrian is such a nicer park than Glenridge and the
weather out here is so much better more of the year. The
vets were quite impressed and may do this again next
year or sooner if the two Midwesterners move to the
West Coast (and both are now considering such a move).
<br> A great weekend. Thanks to everybody for coming out
to the field, for sticking around for pizza and
beer. Stay tuned. More news at 11.