Chrismer Shines at the Helm

By Jim Miller

All her life, baseball fanatic and Slugs OG Ellen Chrismer has had a dream: to manage a softball game.

She got her wish Thursday, displaying equal parts Earl Weaver and Billy Martin in skippering the Slugs to a 10-0 pounding of the visiting Backseat Drivers.

The Slugs’ airtight defense set the tone. A standout performance came from pitcher Erin McGuire, who allowed only a handful of base runners and made several assists.

Ed Fletcher continued his power surge, launching a home run during a first inning when the Slugs batted around. Christa Hunter hit a mastodonic shot to left that went for a double.

The Drivers, fielding several new players since the last time they faced the Slugs, tried to make a little mischief midway through the game.

With Matt Coldwell on first, Mackenzie Yamamura hit a pop-up that the second baseman “dropped” right next to the bag. The umps didn’t buy it and denied the attempted double play.

The win came despite an unusually lean Slugs’ bench feeling the effects of Las Vegas debauchery, Southern California fires, and Peruvian vacations..

Next week, the Slugs close out another successful season against the DPMG Sliders. It’s Parents Day at the yard, so if the folks live nearby, bring them along!

Game time is 8:30 and Coach Tam will be back at her post.
Mackenzie Yamamura waits on deck as Christa Hunter crosses home. Some infield fly intrigue soon followed.

A Win, Finally

The Slugs showed up at Tahoe Park Thursday night in desperate need of a win over Loose Change. They had sunk to third in the league standings after painful back-to-back losses to the SoCals and Bad News and Review Bears. And win they did, final score 13-8 (or maybe 9). The key to their winning ways: excellent defense.

Loose Change came ready to play, bringing their A team. In fact, they seemed to have stocked their ranks with heavy hitters since their last meeting with the Slugs. "Loose Change in fall league, is way better than Loose Change in spring league," said the home plate umpire. He followed by saying "The Slugs have improved a lot too."

The team of bankers must have been taking advantage of their predictable work schedules to practice because in the opening inning their bats were hot. Two of their men hit fly balls into neighboring sports fields. The Slugs also made a couple of silly errors.

After the first inning, as they prepared to bat, the Slugs resolved to turn things around. There were some amazing catches. Melody at second base knocked a hard line drive out of the sky. Aided by her chest, she made the catch beautifully. And in the final inning Kevin made a catch that can only be described as a SportsCenter play of the day. He dove through the air, rolling and extending mid-air to get his glove in just the right spot. "It was a thing of beauty," said one bystander. "The batter was in shock," said Coach Tamara who was playing catcher at the time.

In fact, the Slugs latest victory was indeed a thing of beauty.

Next week - 10/25/07 7:30 Backseat Drivers V Slugs

Another Slugs Cinema Spectacular

Bad News - the Bears beat the Slugs

We need to find a pitching machine that sends out crazy spin throws. Anyone know of batting cages with a tweaked out pitcher? The Bad News and Review Bears pitcher sure knows how to throw some wild balls, hiding his pitching hand behind his glove so opposing batters can't see his grip on the softball.

But, blaming the opposing pitcher for the Slugs showing last Thursday night, perhaps overlooks a larger issue: defense. The Bears weren't remarkable hitters, but by the start of the final inning they were up by 11. We weren't making catches that we normally make. Balls popped out of gloves in the infield. Balls found holes in the outfield. And this writer learned a valuable lesson, the hard way.

It's a little thing called "the two step rule." According to this rule, when catching a high fly ball in the outfield, if you think you're right under it, take two big steps back. Of course I didn't come to understand this rule fully until a fly ball was coming right to me, and then all of a sudden I heard Ahmed saying "it's going over your head get back." By then it was too late. So, we're just going to call that a learning moment.

Despite the pain of this loss, the Slugs shouldn't feel deflated. The Bad News and Review Bears are a solid team, with good players...and we weren't having our best night. But, you Bears better watch out. The Slugs will be back in the spring, prepared to kick some spin balling ass.

And just to get us in the mood, here's a short video.
The Slugs Cheer:

Photos by Harrison:

SoCal's Victory...another perspecitve

By Ed Fletcher, lefty outfielder

As the mighty SoCal Force settled into their usual bar stools after their Oct. 4 game verses The Slugs the collective sigh of relief was so powerful tavern owner Bill Farrell stumbled, nearly impaling himself on the Pabst Blue Ribbon tap.

Up 15-3 after two innings, SoCal, (4-0) held off a late Slugs charge (do Slugs charge?) to escape with a 15-12 victory.

While Thunder Dan, the usual left fielder, just smiled contently, Mike the pitcher yelled exuberantly.

“I just love beating those guys, especially that black guy who yells a lot, but occasionally drops catchable balls,” Mike said.

Mike added that the plane ticket was “so worth it.”

“I’m not sure how our U.S. Team will do, but beating that team was like winning Olympic Gold,” said Kim, a former SoCal regular who now lives and trains in Chula Vista, home of the National Softball Team’s training site. “I didn’t think it would be so close.”

Jen, who sat out the game so she could smoke Marlboro lights, said next game she’d play just so she could shut the Fletcher guy up himself.

A mile and half away the Slugs coped with the defeat.

Fletcher kept muttering about the catch he made (in foul territory) and the ball he dropped (in fair ground).

“That’s the best darn ‘D’ league team you’ll ever see,” said coach Tamara, trying to put a positive spin on the loss.

Tamara pointed out that SoCal’s had a roster stacked with former D-league All-Stars and their $200 payroll makes it hard for small-market teams to compete.

The team also seemed to respond to Farrell’s threat to fire the manager, if the team didn’t bring back the championship cotton t-shirts.

One slug, who asked to be identified as The Mad Planner, between shots of Jack Daniels was already planning for the next match up.

“This time,” he said. “We won’t put our game plan on the Internets.”

* all names except those that are accidentally correct are made up

Slugs Rally, but Come up Short

By Jim Miller, Utility Infielder, Outfielder, Sliding Maniac and slugssoftball.blogspot.com contributor


The Slugs suffered their first defeat of the fall campaign Thursday, falling to So Cal Force after putting a late-inning scare into the overachieving D-Leaguers.

But for some arcane rule about not being able to catch a ball anywhere you can catch a ball, the Slugs would have won 12-8 instead of losing 15-12, according to a slugssoftball.blogspot.com analysis.

The Slugs’ balanced attack featured standout performances from Erin, who posted five RBI’s, Kevin, and Ahmed. On defense, Ed, Katherine and Matt made terrific plays.

The squad was down 15-3 after two innings, with So Cal’s putting up 13 runs in the second. Most of So Cal’s offensive outburst came after an ump ruled that Ed had gone out-of-bounds when he made a great catch off the bat of The Really Big Guy.

But the Slugs came back with four runs in their half of the second and exploded for five in the bottom of the fourth. The final out came with the tying runs on base.

Next week, the Slugs face some fellow media types, the Bad News and Review Bear Bears.

Note from Coach Tam to the SoCal's: Jim let you off easy in this post...but Ed "Fancy Pants" Fletcher is promising some game analysis of his own.

Preggers!

...well, not really. But there sure were a lot of rumors flying around 925 L Street and they carried all the way to Tahoe Park.

Here's how it all started:

After checking out the weather report, I sent an e-mail to the team encouraging them to bundle up for tonight's game. There was going to be a serious chill in the air and I wanted to make sure they were warm. Here's the full text of the message:

"Hey Slugs - Please do your very best to arrive at Tahoe Park at 7:45 tonight. The game is at 8:30, but Kepley does have some super secret strategy to discuss with you...and we need plenty of time to warm up. It may be pretty chilly out there...so I will not be wearing a skirt (as if most of you care), and I would advise you to wear layers or something. Please advise if you will be late, or if your status has changed. It looks like we're going to have a full team there tonight.

-- Coach Tam (and apparently team mom)"

Little did I know, that upstairs in the Bee capitol bureau, this simple sign off (team mom) would be taken as an announcement of much bigger news. According to various account, upon receiving the e-mail, Judy proclaimed "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize Tamara was pregnant!"

Of course, I am not pregnant. And Judy quickly realized that "team mom" is a reference to someone who tells the team to bundle up and brings orange slices and Gatorade to games. Judy's misunderstanding was overheard by Kevin, who e-mailed Kepley and told Mackenzie, and by the time we all made it out to Tahoe Park the news had spread far and wide. And, kind of like the game of telephone, it was twisted and contorted to a point where it had seriously become a pregnancy rumor. Team, let me just tell you, there's no need to be on "bump watch." Unless there is an unfortunate accident, I will not be the first lady slug with a bun in the oven.

But a more reliable rumor has it a recently-former male Slug may be expecting. And I'm betting that kid will be an excellent infielder.