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A baseball story (sort of)


Ranger

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Boys,

I thought about writing a trip report about my recent visit to Batam, Indonesia, but decided to write about baseball instead. Apologies to non baseball fans and bigger apologies to baseball purists as I mix my baseball metaphors quite badly.

The manager was having a very sucessful season, racking up many more wins than losses, but was getting in a bit of a rut and after finishing a mediocre homestand, was ready for a road trip. He had gotten reports from his head scout about a promising pitching prospect toiling in obscurity in a small minor league town and decided a scouting trip was in order. He had never visited this particular minor league town without the aid of his head scout and also decided to leave all his coaches at home due to some petty squabbling that had been occuring lately. Sometimes, the manager had found, that it was good to get away on one's own on these scouting trips.

Arriving in the dusty minor league town, the manager was pleased with the fact that they had a state of the art stadium, complete with fancy scoreboard, a first rate PA system and many fine concession stands. He quickly made a phone call and invited the promising recruit (whom he had never met), to come and meet him at the stadium. The recruit arrived shortly and the manager was not overly impressed with her physical condition and in fact was quite appalled. Still, the manager placed a great deal of trust in the opinion of his head scout and decided to give the recruit a chance to show her stuff. Being that the game wasn't due to start for a few hours, the manager took the recruit out to a local watering hole and proceded to get totally inebriated, figuring that this would be necessary in order to overlook the recruits physical shortcomings.

When they arrived at the stadium, after showering and changing into their uniforms, the recruit quickly took to the mound and dispensed with the customary warm-up pitches and began throwing the hard stuff right away. The manager was very impressed with her velocity (quite often surpassing 100 mph on the radar gun!) and was even more impressed with the way she mixed up her pitches and varied her delivery. She did often ignore the cathers signals and the manager had to make frequent trips to the mound. Her #1 pitch was the spitball and this greatly pleased the manager as he was a great fan of spitball pitchers. She did have a nasty habit of continually throwing pitch after pitch in the dirt. The catcher would give her the sign to bring her pitches up, and she would comply, but soon the pitches would be in the dirt again.

The game dragged on and on and soon passed the 6 hour mark and the score was tied. The pitcher had not lost any speed off of her fastball and if anything had gained velocity! As the sun was about to come up over the stadium, the manager decided to postpone the game and finish it tomorrow. The pitcher reluctantly agreed, but not before finishing off the inning. The following morning, the game was completed and the manager was quite pleased with his new prospect. However, as he began to sober up, the realization came that despite her impressive pitching performance, she was not ready for the big leauges and the fans would never accept her because of her poor physical condition. She pleaded for one more chance to show her stuff and the manager reluctantly agreed to let her pitch the 2nd game of the roadtrip.

The 2nd game ended up being postponed as the manager was exhausted from the marathon that was game 1. It was rescheduled as part of a rare day-night doubleheader. Game 2 ended up occuring on the morning of day 3 and was over in less than an hour. A fine pitching performance, and the manager was pleased with the way she kept her pitch count down while still finishing the game in style. The 2nd half of the double header (game 3) was scheduled for later that night. The recruit had promised to bring along another promising newcomer that supposedly had fine physical attributes, but was unproven pitching in this level of competition having only previously pitched to the locals. She had promised that they would both pitch at the same time as well as take turns pitching. They both arrived at the stadium and it was decided that the newcomer would be left alone with the manager as she might be intimidated by the presence of the other more experienced pitcher. The more experienced pitcher left for home to rest after her exhausting performances from the past 2 games.

The manager was impressed with the form and physical conditioning of the new recruit, but her delivery was tentative and she had not mastered any control of her pitches. She was clearly not ready for the big leagues and the game was called after one inning after a home run was hit. The newcomer was sent on her way with 50% of the usual per-diem and the manager decided to check out the local sandlot to see if he could find someone to finish the game. He was surprised to see the pitcher from game 1 and 2 there as she had said she was going home to rest, but wanted to find someone new as he was quite sure that her arm was tired from the previous 2 games and wanted to try some new talent anyway. After several trips around the sandlot, the manager was approched by an eager young recruit asking for a chance to try out for the team. She was small, but promised that despite her size, that she possessed great stamina (one of the most important requirements for a pitcher in this stadium). The manager decided to give her a chance and they went to the stadium.

The pitcher was a bit over eager and tried to start pitching in the shower. The manager had to help her to reach the pitchers mound as she was a bit wobbly and the game began. She was extremely wild and her pitches were all over the place. She didn't understand how to read the catcher's signs and the catcher had to make repeated visits to the mound. The cather kept calling for off speed pitches and she kept throwing fastballs! She also had a most unusual wind-up and insisted on having music played on the PA system during the game. She seemed more like she was dancing than pitching at times. Also, when she was under pressure, she began to sweat profusely a sweet substance! The manager would have never guessed this as she seemed to be in top physical condition and was very trim and firm. Perhaps beacuse the manager was again slightly intoxicated, he found this strangely intriguing. It also cut down of his trips to the water fountain! The pitcher did have great stamina as promised and the game passed the 4 hour mark. Finally a home run was hit in the bottom of the 9th and the game ended.

For game 4 of the 5 game road trip, the manager decided to let one his veterans pitch the game. She was always reliable and had never lost a game and had good stamina. The game was as predicted and finished up at around the 3 hour mark The pitcher never shook off any of the catchers signs and had a top notch slow curve ball that the manager especially enjoyed.

Game 5, the last game of the road trip, began with the game 4 pitcher repeating her performance from the night before. She began to tire at the 3 hour mark and was losing control of her pitches and spending a lot of time on the mound between pitches. The game was tied at this point and the manager was desperate for a win to finish up the road trip. He made the long walk to the mound and told the pitcher that she had pitched a great game, but it was time to give up the ball as it was obvious that she lacked the desire to properly finish the game. She reluctantly hit the showers and left the stadium while the manager got on the phone to the bullpen. The pitcher from game one was already warmed up and arrived at the stadium in no time. She was aware that the game had been going on for quite some time already and wasn't happy about being the relief pitcher. The manager explained that the role of a closer was often more important to the team that that of the starting pitcher.

She accepted her new status as the closer and skipped the warm-up pitches and went right to work trying to get the save. Her velocity was unsurpassed and the catcher called for fastball after fastball. She got the save in spectacular fashion and the manager was ecstatic. Even though the game was finished, she kept on pitching into the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. The catcher called for slow curve balls and sliders during the extra innings and the pitcher complied while mixing in a few fastballs. The manager was pleased with the way the road trip had finished and sent the closer on her way with full per-diem money that was well earned. Even after receiving her per-diem, she proceded to pitch the 13th inning from her knees while the manager stood and admired her determination and enthusiasum.

All in all, it was a very sucessful albiet exhausting road trip. The manager was happy to get back to his home ballpark and scheduled a few off days to recover from the road trip. The manager will be scheduling more scouting trips in the future as he continues his winning season.

Ranger

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks for the re-read!

 

I live 2.367 minutes away from Qualcom. This is the last year for that stadium and no tailgating at the new one. SO I have been brewing massive amounts of beer in prep of a bang-up season!

 

Yeeehaw, play ball, it's a beautiful day lets play 2!

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