… But we learned the difference between getting hit by a pitch …
And popping out to second base …
… is pretty small.
Bad night for baseball. Auburn lost 10-6, and only then because of a five-run rally in the ninth. Auburn left 13 on base, including three in the last inning, which means the fly to left that ended the game was the tying run. All 10 of Presbyterian’s 10 runs came with two outs. And, at the plate:
Golloway replaced senior third baseman Damek Tomscha after Tomscha took a called third strike, moving Blake Austin from catcher to third base and inserting Blake Logan at catcher. When Austin took a called third strike, Golloway replaced him with Connor Short.
Going to be one of those kinds of seasons, I guess.
Something cute at the park, then:
And, hey, it is the weekend. We had a late dinner with friends. The sun will be out tomorrow. It’ll be warm. There will be more baseball. Life is great!
On Sunday afternoon I caught my first baseball game of the year. I was just tired enough to sit and watch. When you are too tired to sit and watch a game … you question your diet, rethink your sleep habits, wonder about hydration and ask yourself about too much exercise, or too little. You begin to wonder if this is what it means to feel old.
I did take a few pictures at that game, and I should probably put a few of them up here before too much time passes.
Cute scenes at the park:
It was never explained why she had a puppy at a baseball game.
As for the game itself, Auburn took a two-run lead in the fourth, and then allowed runs in the seventh, ninth and tenth in a frustrating loss. Clinton Freeman slid in ahead of the tag for that first score:
At least the weather was nice. And now it is getting colder again. What a terrible thing to complain about. We’ll be sitting in short sleeves and sunshine by Saturday.
Which is too many days away because I’m too tired, I thought this morning, for the rest of the week. By the afternoon I was starting to feel better, like myself, awake. So it probably isn’t hydration, then.
Had a morning appointment. Showed up right on time, owing to the slow car in front of me, the other car that couldn’t figure out turning lanes and a search for a parking space that could be described as too-warm porridge.
Visited with the nice lady sitting in the desk inside the fish bowl. She took my insurance card — because this is my third orthopedic guy to check out my shoulder and collar bone. In return she gave me the clipboard of paperwork. What are you allergic to? Have you had an of these diseases? Did your paternal great-great-uncle have any skin sensitivities to latex?
So you do all that, you know the drill. And then you wait for your name to be called. Other names are called. You start playing the same game you do at a restaurant. “They came in after we did and they’re already eating!”
I decided that, at 75 minutes, I would go ask when my 10:30 appointment was going to take place. At 74 minutes they finally called me back.
And that’s just the waiting room wait, of course. Wouldn’t it be great if the doctor was already in the examination room and he was waiting on you?
Another X-ray. And then a spirited round of playing with the display knee joint sitting in the exam room.
So we talked about the last year. He tested for nerve damage and said there was none. He tested for rotator cuff problems and said there were none. He touched my hardware and I decided I’m going to pinch, hard, the next person that does that.
He looked at my X-ray and said things look good there.
The problems, he said, are muscular, hardware or skeletal. He said he just took a plate out of someone’s collarbone that was so severe the poor guy couldn’t wear a jacket. Said the guy felt better the night of that removal. I don’t think that’s my problem. I’m guessing 90 percent of my issues are muscular.
But first we’re going to test for the skeletal. Sometime next week I have to have a bone scan. No idea what that’s about.
Oh. Radiation. Patience. One thing you don’t want and one thing I need more of.
Also, this doctor, who is apparently nationally renowned for shoulder surgeries, says I should have been in a sling for six to eight weeks. Had him repeat that.
My surgeon had me out of my immobilizer in a week. (I had to ask. I couldn’t remember. I don’t remember a lot.)
I take it I shouldn’t be happy with that.
Indian for lunch. School stuff for the rest of the day. Speaking of school:
Excited to be going back to play at Jordan-Hare to play in 2014!
Here’s the official release. Pat Sullivan almost beat his alma mater on the last trip. He put a huge scare into Auburn for 45 minutes. It was a great performance.
More sports: Google wants to buy the rights to put the NFL on YouTube. Remember where you were when this happens.
We had dinner with a friend — who will remain nameless because of this transgression — and standing in the parking lot, under the stars and lightning, we learned he’d never heard this song.
I did not realize you could be in your 30s and say that.
That means the same thing: baserunners. And so it was that we found ourselves in the last inning, whatever inning it was, with the bases loaded and let’s say the tying run at the plate in the first round of the playoffs. This is a league casual enough that they run the scoreboard some of the time. And it is a league with enough sensitive feelings that the players aren’t allowed to say “Hey batter batter batter.” Instead they say “Yeeeeeeeep” each pitch and this is OK.
I saw my first little league parent today, not the cheering, “Pay attention” parent, but the “Don’t throw it to the cutoff man, throw it in!” parent. The “I want to see you dive and catch it” parent. Looked like a biker. He was mildly mortified when his boy overran a ball in center. I’m sure it’ll effect his work all next week.
There is no need to discuss the relative merits of the play of your teammate, the second baseman. These kids are nine. But the demonstrative, chain smoker, ponytail guy felt he had to get his money’s worth.
I’d like to think, if I had a child in a sports league, that I’d let the coach coach and I’d quietly cheer and not do much more than that. My post-game interview — the sort of thing I used to do professionally — would consist of two questions. Did you play hard? Did you have fun? Well, then, pizza!
I would, however, roll my eyes at the rule about squelching batter chatter. That, too, is part of the game.
I did not heckle like a champion today. It was widely acknowledged that the other team was cheating. They were juicing. They had a 32-year-old pitcher. The coach was recruiting not just from his little league fields, but the greater tri-county area. How could he have otherwise fielded a team that could defeat these wholesome young men who played pepper games with pure joie de vivre, who are looking forward to church tomorrow and the end-of-the-season party sometime next week?
When my second cousin was on first base he would have been the tying run. Perhaps. The scoreboard did not say. But there was a pop up and that ended the game. The season came to a sad conclusion, because the boys would play through droughts and rain and all through Christmas if they’d let them. There was a dusty mound and green grass and a long strand of black irrigation pipe topping the outfield fence. They had lights for darkness and a concession stand for hunger. They had gloves and balls and an umpire who couldn’t find the first strike zone on any of the three adjoining fields. What else did they need?
Fans had two sets of aluminum bleachers in the sun and an outfield lined with beautiful oaks for shade. They had the weather the national chamber of commerce orders when holding the chamber of commerce convention. It was a beautiful day for everyone.
Also, we saw the rare 1-3-2 double play. Ground ball to the pitcher, he threw out the baserunner at first. The first baseman noticed the runner at third sneaking home. He fed the catcher who chased the runner back up the line until he stumbled and was tagged out. That is a rally-killing double play, friends.
The last baseball game of the season, and some nice photographs to celebrate it. Trey Cochrane-Gill pitched five and two-thirds innings in middle-relief for Auburn. He allowed six hits and chalked up five strikeouts against four runs:
Arkansas’ Brett McAfee homered in the third. Here’s a three-photo spread of his play at the plate in the fifth inning, when he tripled and then raced home on a squeeze play:
Cochran-Gill fielded the bunt and threw it home to Blake Austin:
And Austin looked up to the umpire who, finally, made a correct call. McAfee was out:
Brandon Moore was the second of seven Arkansas pitchers they trotted out today. He’s trying to catch Ryan Tella leaning, but that wasn’t going to happen:
In the bottom of the fifth Tella walked and then stole second. A single to left by Austin sent Tella to third. Mitchell Self was up to bat and he laid down the bunt of the day. Tella scored from third on the throw home, which was an error. Austin moved to second and then third on the error. Self got caught in a run down off first base. He held Arkansas’ attention long enough to let Austin score. It was a complete little league play by then, but Self, who started this with the bunt, found himself standing on second when it was done.
That was the start of a huge inning, where Auburn scored eight runs on six hits. Self singled later in the same inning. He got caught in his second rundown of the inning, but he managed to drive in another run doing it. N for the senior, Mitchell, on senior day. He’s had just 26 at-bats all season before cracking the starting lineup because of an injury. He finished the weekend 5-for-9 at the plate.
Here’s Tella scoring from third on the bad throw that was the beginning of Self’s first big play. Arkansas’ Jake Wise could only stand and watch. See the ball?
On the strength of that eight-run fifth inning, the second eight-run inning Auburn has recently had and one of the more exciting innings we’ve seen this season, the Tigers won the regular season finale 11-6, taking the series from the 11th ranked Razorbacks. The bats have come alive for Auburn at the right time, as they’ve won eight of their last 11 games overall and will face Alabama in the first round of the SEC baseball tournament in Hoover next week. Arkansas is the three seed in the tournament. Alabama is slotted at seven, Auburn enters at 10. Here’s the bracket.
Here’s the video, including the big fifth inning rally:
