October 4, 2008 - Game Recap

Des and Pace vs. A-Man, Trevor, and Todd
WP: Des
LP: Trevor
Score: 11-9
HR: None

No Gil Tyrees officially came out of retirement for this Saturday noon game at Lambert Memorial in Provo, UT. This was just a charity game in which the losing team would have to make a contribution of an undisclosed amount to a charity of the winning team's choosing. Even knowing that this was to be a game for charity, Pops refused to come out and join the younger generation for unknown reasons--though I think we all know that John has always been a passionate non-philanthropist. We were, however, able to convince Todd to come and join by explaining that yard work is inappropriate on general conference Saturday because it's like a half-Sabbath and activities that are fully-inappropriate on the Sabbath (e.g. yard work) should not be permitted, but activities that are only half-inappropriate on the Sabbath (e.g. wiffleball, suntanning, watching movies) should be enjoyed.

It turned out to be raining pretty heavily all day and the field was soaked, but anyone who knows the essence of wiffle knows that there is no weather condition (except maybe a tornado) that should prevent a game from occurring. We started with no shortstop because Todd arrived late--though he did do an amazing run and slide when he got there. A-Man had some troubles with the popups in the early going--which may have been partly due to his current wiffle distraction: intramural reffing; but he was really sharp at the shortstop position making repeated head-first diving plays while always clasping the rolling ball with both hands; even in foul territory.

Pace & Des jumped out to an early lead and things remained relatively quiet through the middle innings for both teams; a run here and there, but never too much damage. In the top of the 5th, Pace & Des really got it going hitting three straight triples and several doubles in there as well. They were able to balloon their lead up to something like 11-2. Then in the bottom of the 5th, Des got a little lackadaisical and began to throw some meat to the other team. Trevor, A-Man and Todd started wacking away, and with Todd's ability to draw walks with his discerning eye, they began to mount a comeback. Pace was called in for relief and thanks to a fresh arm, and some good defense, they were able to hang on the "W". Then we all headed over to J-Dawgs for some non-free, delicious hot dogs.

Game Highlights:

• Des's fisherman shirt began to chafe around the 4th inning when he ferociously ripped it off and threw it from the mound to the backstop (the traditional path of most shed layers). Looking back on it, it appears that his pitching became substantially less effective as soon as he became a topless pitcher; though it did seem to make him a much better outfielder.
  
• We had several outs called on account of foul balls that went over the high tennis court fence (whenever the gate is locked in times of inclement weather, foul balls over the high fence are deemed outs). After the game was over, and there were 4 balls left to retrieve, we voted for A-Man to spider-man the 10-foot+ wall and throw the balls back over. After throwing the balls back, on his way back over, he went to scale the fence at a panel close to the entrance, and was surprised to see that the gate was unlocked. We heard him laugh around the corner and knew what it must have meant.
• The current wiffle generation has devised a backstop made of large sheets of plywood that is meant to stop balls from ricocheting over the low fence. It's effectiveness is still in question, but it does keep things from getting wet when it's raining.
  

Game Report by Pace Barker