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.

Slugs vs DPMG Sliders...the movie

Slugs V Backseat Drivers. Backseat Drivers leave wondering what hit them.

The Slugs and the Backseat Drivers have met 3 times on the Sacramento D League Softball Field. In the first two meetings, the Slugs should have won, but they didn't. The Drivers' pitcher shook up the Slugs hitting. He pitched inside and seemed to put a strange spin on the ball. The Slugs were stumped, he had them psyched out. At first they blamed it on their hitting. They went to the cages, even bought a rather expensive new bat on e-bay.

Those things helped, but so did former Coach Kepley's patented "Super Secret Strategy For Defeating the Backseat Drivers. " Because non-Slugs read this blog (hi scorekeeper dude!), we will not reveal the strategy here. But, let's just say the SSSFDBD doesn't include cheating, and it totally works.

When the Slugs came out for their second rematch this past Thursday at Tahoe Field, they were ready. The Backseat Drivers were missing one of their top female players, but they were still up for a battle. Little did they know the Slugs would be bringing so much heat. The Slugs figured out how to hit against their pitcher, and they hit it to where there were no defenders. There was also a lot of solid defensive play.

Final score: something like 13-2.

Cute and Functional

Sorry for the great delay in posting on this topic...

Two weeks ago, 4 lady Slugs wore skirts to the game against Loose Change. The intent was to look cute, perhaps lull the other team into thinking we weren't very good, and mostly to upset former coach Kepley. Well, it seems to have worked on all fronts.



As you can see from the above photos, Judy, Tamara, Ellen and Erin totally rocked the skirts. Judy went for the '80s style mini with leggings (a smart move on a chilly night), Erin wore a tennis skirt, and Ellen and Tamara wore jog skorts. All of the women reported playing better in the skirts. There was a certain freedom of movement, maybe a bit of feeling that we needed to prove ourselves. Our bats were hot, and we ran like hell.

The skirts were such a success, Coach Tam wore hers again in the game against the dreaded Backseat Drivers. "It makes me faster," she said. "I am going to keep wearing my run skirt to softball as long as the weather allows." She said she may even start bringing her pink water bottle again too.

Fall Schedule

Rumor has it the Slugs kicked some *itten *at a** on Thursday. Rock on Slugs.

Let's keep the good times going in the fall season. This season we're back in the D league...no D2 for the dominant Slugs. We'll be joined in the league by our old rivals the SoCal's Force, which is a sure sign we're in the good league this time around. We also welcome the Bad News In Review Bears, another media team. Clearly, we have to prove we are the superior media team. Here's our upcoming schedule:

09/13/07 8:30 Loose Change V Slugs
09/20/07 7:30 Slugs V Backseat Drivers
09/27/07 6:30 Slugs V DPMG Sliders
10/04/07 8:30 SoCal's Force V Slugs
10/11/07 6:30 Slugs V Bad News and Review Bears
10/18/07 7:30 Slugs V Loose Change
10/25/07 7:30 Backseat Drivers V Slugs
11/01/07 8:30 DPMG Sliders V Slugs