Six Down, Two to go

 21 November 2024

I entered the clubhouse this morning in my custom New York Rangers hockey jersey to see what looked like a motion picture taking place in slow motion. Granted , I wasn't exactly moving as quickly as I was on Monday either. 

After my now daily trip to the trainers room to get my back muscles pounded out, a little brekky was in order. Our first game was against the team which we'd beaten for our only win of the week thus far. The attrition rate was quickly rising on almost every team roster. Somehow we still had ten relatively able-bodied players on ours. To show how quickly players were going down, our opponents lost their first baseman for the rest of the game after our leadoff hitter of the game made what I thought was mild contact our opponents' first baseman. He unfortunately didn't get back on the field until the post game handshake line. 

We played pretty well but again we had some physical lapses which contributed to our loss by the score of 8-6. I had a sharp ground ball which went through my "five hole" into the right field corner. I immediately heard the late Vin Scully say, "Behind the bag, it gets through Collins........" I thought, you've gotta be kidding. I get back to the dugout and body proclaim, "Bill Buckner Lives!"

Game two on the day was a close affair, with even more of our next opponents having to use non players to fill the lineup. My hitting still left something to be desired. I hit a few balls, foul, really well. But this isn't cricket and thus they didn't not contribute to the benefit of my squad.  

The game actually ended in a 9-9 tie, which is rather appropriate in this case. Each team enjoying the final contest of the week with not much pressure. Cloudless skies for the day and good atmosphere throughout the field. It was heavenly. I was telling Greg Cockrell yesterday about my Zen place. When I go out onto the field, especially when playing an infield position, I look down and smooth out the dirt in my fielding area. That's what it looks like to someone watching from afar. But what I'm doing is relaxing and saving the view from above for later during the offseason. When there's 9" of snow on the ground in Minneapolis and my commute to the airport takes seemingly forever. I will replay this in my head and it lets me know that in the near future I can hope to relive it again on a field nearby. 

I have been hit by pitches in three consecutive games for the first time in my life. Yesterday in game 2 I took one off my right instep. Today in game one I had one graze the middle button squarely between my ribs in the first inning. In the second game I saw the pitch heading for me and ducked, figuring I'd be below it. But it, luckily, was a curveball and it dipped and followed me down, smacking me just behind the earhole on my helmet. I felt no worse after the hit, but it was just odd. At least now I know sort of what it feels like to get hit there.

The evening event was the Championship Game at Clover Park stadium. La Familia defeated KB Chickie Mlicki by a 13-4 score to finish a perfect 8-0 on the week. My congratulations to them. They defeated us by a 9-0 score earlier in the week and definitely had the horses to get it done. 

Tomorrow morning is photo time and then the saddest part of the week, cleaning out the locker which has been such a part of our lives for the past 5 days. It's a ritual which we know will be the case from the moment we moved into it. Taking the nameplate off is probably the worst part. But I have saved all of my nameplates from the last decade and the new one will replace the one I have over my locker at the airport at work back in Minnesota. 

Tomorrow night is the Awards Dinner. One last chance to see everyone in the same room, congratulate those who win awards and talk about possibly seeing each other again in 50, 51 or 52 weeks from now.