Conference hbahba::cam_sports

>    
>    And no, 'Saw, we're not looking for someone who can get liquored
>    up in the bullpen during the game, load up the chewing tobacco, 
>    yewk behind the pitcher's mound then proceed to chuck one hell of 
>    a third-inning.  This is not, I repeat not, The Grover Cleveland 
>    Alexander Story.  We need _innings_, not blackouts.  
>    

Dammit Glenn, can I help it if I get liquored up in teh bullpen, yewk behind
the mound, and throw two or three good southpaw middle relief innings?  I've
been doing it all my life....    


Since you're looking for someone clean and sober, who can last a few innings,
I'll have to ask around.  I don't know anyone like that. 8^)

What type of ball are you playing? Hardball, slow pitch, modified.....????

    
    Is Modified that half-fast game you guys play up there? 
    
    They played what I guess you call modified in Westminister during my first
    year with the corp. I could pitch fast pitch in those days. We put a team
    together and show up for our first game. I'm over on the side warming
    up the ole rock n fire when some guy comes over and  says I can't pitch 
    like that.  I say why not , this isn't a slow pitch league. He says no
    it's modified fast pitch. What the heck is modified fast pitch? He says
    you cant make a arm full rotation only half. Damn near broke my arm
    trying to pitch this halfast motion. I never got the hang of it and went 
    back to third base.
     

Glenn's playin' what we used to call on the playground "hardball."


Glenn, what position are you playing?  Shortstop?

    
    Glenn is our Shortstop.....
    
    Yep, this is hardball, not softball or Red Rover.....small ball, 90 ft
    between bases, elevated mound, etc.....
    
    Dave, who will be fielding Glenn's throws at 1st base

>    Glenn is our Shortstop.....
>    
>    Yep, this is hardball, not softball or Red Rover.....small ball, 90 ft
>    between bases, elevated mound, etc.....
>    
>    Dave, who will be fielding Glenn's throws at 1st base


Okay, Dave, you're on the spot.  Is this Waugamain guy any good?  Or is he just
puttin' in his time trying to set some consecutive game record?

    
    Uh.....he's the best SS on the team.....I'll leave it at that
    
    ;^)

>    Uh.....he's the best SS on the team.....I'll leave it at that
>    
>    ;^)

Uh, let me guess -- he's the ONLY shortstop on the team!!!!!!

    _Good_ pitcher still needed, repeat, good pitcher still needed.
    
    Otherwise, our team, the Marlboro Cubs, looks solid.  Most of 
    the frontline players are high-school and small-college experienced,
    and take the game fairly seriously, to play competitively.  But we
    still need at least one more good arm...
    
    glenn
    

    Glen are you on the same team as Corkum?  I saw them at the cages 
    last Thursday.  Where are you playing your home games?  MHS....
    
    Jimbo

    
>    Glen are you on the same team as Corkum?  I saw them at the cages 
>    last Thursday.  Where are you playing your home games?  MHS....
    
    Yessir.  We don't have a home field, so we travel, Hudson, Framingham,
    Milford, Southboro...
    
    Do you pitch Jimbo?  Or least better than you prognosticate? ;-)
    
    
    glenn
    

    
    Well, Jimbo's the fastest *underhand* pitcher I've faced.
    
    By the way, Glenn was there with us at the cages, too.....
    
    Dave

>    Well, Jimbo's the fastest *underhand* pitcher I've faced.
 
    So Jimbo was the softball guy that was hitting with us?  Hail,
    someone should have said so!   ;-)
    
    glenn
    

    Nope I was in the next cage over, but I did come over and talk to Matt
    and Dave for a bit.
    
    I'm sure I'll stop by some Sunday and watch a few innings.....
    
    Jimbo

    Marlboro Cubs still looking for those last 1-2 good ballplayers
    to round out a solid squad.  We've got about two weeks left to 
    work out any potential new players, in order to be able to add 
    them to the roster before deadline.  Cubs' replica uniforms 
    already in hand.  I've still got Sandberg's #23 for the taking.
    
    If we land those last couple pieces to the puzzle, then I think 
    this team will be right at the top, in contention for the league 
    championship.  We've got two good pitchers now; could use one 
    more to provide more depth.  Also, one more OF with good legs,
    and bat.  Experienced, tough, well-weathered catcher would not
    be turned away under any circumstances.
    
    If you used to play baseball in high school/college, and are still
    in reasonably decent athletic shape, it doesn't take long to "get it
    back" to be able to play in this league.
    
    Yesterday we started the season by beating one of the league's 
    (we believe) weaker teams.  Cubs 21, Phillies 10.  T'weren't close.
    The linescore and box for Digital contingent:
    
    
        	1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R   H   E
    
    Cubs        1  7  1  4  0  6  2  0  0    21  16   5
    Phillies    0  1  2  3  1  0  0  1  2    10   8   ?
    
    
                                    IP  H  R ER   K  BB  HP
    
    RHP     Lessard  W (1-0)         7  7  7  1  15*  0*  0
    LHP     Schultz                  2  1  3  2   3   2   2
    
                            AB  R  H  BI  2B  3B  HR BB/HP     BA    OBP    SLG 
    
    P       Lessard          2  4  2  3    1           3    1.000  1.000  1.500
    C/LF    Corkum           3  1  1  4    1           1     .333   .400   .667
    1B      Russo            5  1  4  5    0           0     .800   .800   .800
    SS      Waugaman         4  1  2  1    1           1     .500   .600   .750
    
    
    
    glenn
    

    
    
       I wonder what Bill James would think of you with that Boxscore?
    
    
    Chap

>       I wonder what Bill James would think of you with that Boxscore?
    
    Don't know; don't care... ;-)
    
    
    glenn
    

    Geez, Corkum brings down the team average in baseball TOO!!!!!
    
    8*)
    
    Jimbo

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die,
Life is a broken winged bird than cannot fly....



If you have any spots for aging, outta shape, 1B wannabes, let me know,
otherwise, I'll spare you guys the effort.....


'Saw

    >spots for aging, outta shape, wannabes
    
    Sorry, 'Saw, that spots reserved

Okay, I guess I'll just have to be a fan.....

>> Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die,
>> Life is a broken winged bird than cannot fly....

 Yo Saw, what's the history of this here piece of poetry? The reason I ask
 is that as an assignment in my son's class this week was is to pick out a
 poem and memorize it. Last night we were going through a book with poetry 
 in it and I happened to suggest that this be the one he does because I liked
 it and it wasn't all too long at just 2 versus. Is it famouse is Lamount
 Hughes a big time name in poetry circles etc......

 mike

Langston Hughes, one of the country leading black poets, (or, in my opinion
leading poets, it needing no further qualification) wrote that poem.
I can't remember the name of it ("Dreams" I think) and I cannot for the life
of me remember the second verse. 

At any rate, I came across it in eigth grade, it spoke to me, and that versee
has rattled around in my head, and been an important philosophical ideal in my
life ever since.

Another poem, or perhaps the second verse, has a line which mentions 
"a raisin in the sun" which is the name of a famous film starring Sidney
Poitier.


Langston Hughes died in 1967 at the age of 65.


'Saw

Hold Fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken winged bird
That cannot fly

Hold Fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is like a barren field
Frozen over with snow

if my memory serves me correctly.......

thanks for the info on Hughes. yeah the poem really caught me too. My son
was thinking of another one and when I read this one I though it had more
meaning than the silly ole rainy day poem he was thiking of. After he read
this one he liked it too.....

mike

Robert Frost is always a good choice, too.

The poem I had to memorize for 8th grade ended up being "Stopping By Woods on a
Snowy Evening" and I've always liked that one.

But that one from Langston Hughes is just terrific.


'Saw

Yeah, that Robert Frost was a helluva ball player...

And just exactly what was he doing stopping by them woods on a snowy
evening? Is this what another great ball player, Frank Zappa, talked
about when he warned us to watch out for that yellow snow?

TTom

    And why did his horse think he was queer?
    
    And just what was that promise and did he really keep it?

    Exactly what is all this bad poetry doing in my hardball advertisement
    note?  I'm a "Bull Durham" man, not "Field of Dreams"...
    
    glenn
    

      
    
        Well if any animal knows about someone being queer it would be a
    horse!! :-)
    
    
    
    

Chappy, that sounds like your speaking from some experience there :=]

But I say Baaa!~ Wattabout Sheep!~ And don't fergit them stump trained
cows.

TTom

    
    
    TTom the term is "Stump Broke"

You can break 'em, but we trained 'em.

Hail, what good are they if'n they're broke?

And what does it mean if'n the horse has been gilded?

TTom

    
    
        Wheres the best place to do a sheep??
    
    
    
    
    
          Edge of a cliff he pushes back! 

    
    Cubs 9, Phillies 3 (as Cubs move to 3-2...)
    
    Last call for ballplayers...
    
    
    
    glenn
    

    
    	Wish I lived a little closer glenn.  I'd love to play hardball
    	again.  I looked into getting into a league this year but the
    	yahoo I was talking to wanted me to pay $270 for the privelege.
    	No thanks!  So, it's another year of softball....
    
    Claybone

To me there is something wonderful about baseball.

Watching the college world series on Saturday, I remember the penultimate LSU
batter was struck out on a beautiful text book curve ball -- the old "drop off
the edge of a table" curve ball.

It was even prettier in slow motion.

It's been so long since I've place I couldn't bat my weight, for sure -- if I
could, I'd be a decent hitter (.250) I think.

I envy Glenn....

> To me there is something wonderful about baseball.
    
    Well, even though we're 3-2, this last game was the first that we
    looked like a real ballteam.  The rust was being scraped off before 
    that.  The more romantic notions don't take hold until guys start 
    hitting the ball, throwing the ball, and most of all catching the 
    ball...
    
    But I'll admit I get something out of it just again having the chance 
    to throw the ball from shortstop across the large infield in pre-inning
    warmups.  Then again I've always been one for simple pleasures.
    
    And then there's the best/worst feeling in the world, again from the
    last game.  Absolutely crushed a belt-high fastball, as good as I can
    hit one, only to look up to see the LF inexplicably playing in the 
    next county, going back to make the over-the-shoulder catch.  
    Sonofabitch...
    
    
    glenn
    

    
    I'm playing both baseball and softball this season, and the baseball
    "feels" more normal to me now, though last year when I was playing just
    softball, the baseball felt weird.  Now I feel like I'm tossing a
    grapefruit when using a softball.  Same with hitting.....though I've
    found out this week that swinging and missing feels the same with both
    :^)
    
    Playing baseball has been frustrating at times, sometimes it seems like
    the field is too big, the ball too fast for us "over 30."  It really
    demands more than a "once a week" effort.  But the team is new, and
    starting to come together after a few games.....this past week's win
    against the Phillies was a well-played game, and a pleasure to be a
    part of.
    
    Still, the Digital softball league games that I've played in have been
    tighter, more competitive ballgames.
    
    But baseball is the real thing....leading off base while the pitcher is
    on the rubber, getting a good lead so you can minimize that 90 ft sprint
    to steal 2nd....knowing that when you get a good piece, the ball is gonna
    go a mile (still waiting for that "when" to happen)...trying to hit the
    heat, guessing on the curve or slider.  Most of all, a baseball just
    feels better when it hits the glove.
    
    Yeah, there is something very wonderful about baseball.....
    
    Dave

I haven't played baseball since I was a kid.  

But you never forget that feeling when you "connect."  It's almost an ethereal
thing.  Sometimes -- just sometimes -- the ball would almost be coming in
towards me in slow motion, big and fat and juicy, and looking HUGE.
Other times I'd just want to make contact and I'd connect and be a bit
surprised.

But the feeling was the same.  A kind of synergy between you and the bat and
the ball at the sweet moment when you KNOW you've gotten a hold of one and the
confirmation comes surging back up your forearms, almost as if a sympathetic
vibration was occuring between the bat and you.

My habit, more reflexive, was to break my husky boy's body out of the batters
box as quick as possible -- I needed EVERY advantage believe me, as slow as I
am -- but then halfway down the line I'd realize it was gone, and kind of savor
the moment as I rounded first.

I was young in the days before fist pumping and "in-jo-face" stuff, and to me
the coolest thing was the Ted Williams homer in the All-Star game where he kind
of claps as he rounds first.  I won a ballgame once and did that, and it was
not lost on my father, who asked me if I now thought I was Ted Williams....

Bodies age, knees and ankles, especially after a few years of rugby and then
sedentary living, do not work like they used to, but every once in a while, 
*especially* at a game at the ball park, when I see someone "connect" I get a
ghost of that feeling in my arms.

You never forget....you just never forget.

yeah, bench clearing brawls, sloppy defense, ragarms masquerading as pitchers,
labor disputes, umps who think they're Gawd, players with hat sizes as big as
the gnp, artificial turf and the DH yup there's a lot of beauty to basebsll.

... and don't fergit what the labor dispute people have done to MLB and
indirectly to the rest o' sports. Ol' Donald Fehr and Bug Selig have
screwed it up worse than Marge or Joey could, ever. Worse than Barry
Bonds, too..

> yeah, bench clearing brawls, sloppy defense, ragarms masquerading as pitchers,
> labor disputes, umps who think they're Gawd, players with hat sizes as big as
> the gnp, artificial turf and the DH yup there's a lot of beauty to basebsll.
    
    I take offense to this.  We don't have labor disputes, nor artificial
    turf...
    
    
    glenn
    

    
    Baseball exists with or without MLB, don't confuse a single instance of
    a league with the game in general.
    
    But we have seen a few ragarms masquerading as pitchers.....
    
    Dave

    > We don't have labor disputes
    
    Yeh, what was that business about the league commissioner changing your
    field in the wee hours before a Sunday game to please his pet team? 
    Sound like a Bud Selig move to me.

    
    Well, we don't have a commissioner, but that move was made in a rather
    Bud Selig manner.....but since we aren't being paid, this cannot be
    called a labor dispute.  Rather, it was an ignorance dispute.  We
    learned from that....the same team tried to change the time of this
    week's game, and we told the coach to stuff it this time.
    
    Dave

    Results from Sunday:
    
        	1  2  3  4  5  6  7    R  H  E
    
    Cubs 	1  0  0  0  0  1  0    2  8  4
    Orioles     3  0  1  0  0  0  -    4  4  2
    
    
            	1  2  3  4  5  6  7    R  H  E
    
    Orioles     0  0  1  0  0  0  0    1  3  1
    Cubs        4  0  0  0  0  0  -    4  6  3
    
    
    Middlesex MSBL standings:
    
        	                W    L     GB
   	
	Yankees	(Southboro)	6    1      -
	Orioles	(Framingham)	5    1    0.5 
	Cubs	(Marlboro/DEC)	4    3    2.0
	Tigers	(Marlboro)	4    4    2.5
	Cardinals (Hudson)	3    5    3.5
	Phillies (Milford)	0    8    6.5

    
    
    Go Yanks!!!

and speaking of Yanks, I see where Mattingly closed his restaurant due to
lack of interest...

>    Go Yanks!!!
    
    The demeanor of the catcher/coach of that team is reminiscient 
    of Thurman Munson's...
    
    glenn
    

    
    
    
    MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

    Marlboro/Digital Cubs battle back, but lose 12-11, fall to 4-4...
    
    
                1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9    R  H  E
    
    Tigers	2  2  1  0  0  1  1  4  1   12 12  3
    Cubs        2  0  0  2  1  2  0  1  3   11 15  6

    
    Batting stats for Digital contingent (amazingly enough, four best 
    hitters on the team):
    
                                              HP/
	    PA	AB   R   H   RBI  2B  3B  HR  BB  K  ROE*   AVG  SLG  OBP  OBP*

P  Lessard  27	20  12  13   5     3   2       7  2    1   .650 1.00 .741 .778
3B Russo    31	29  13  17  15     3   1       2  2    2   .586 .759 .613 .677
SS Waugaman 31	27   6  11   9     4   1       4  4    2   .407 .630 .484 .548
LF Corkum   26	21   5   6   7     1           4  3        .286 .333 .385 .385

ROE*  ==  reached on error
OBP*  ==  on-base-pct including ROE

    
    
    glenn
    

    
    	Typical girlymon SS.  Zero dingers in the HR column!  :*)
    
    Claybone

    Glenn, when and where is the doubleheader being played this weekend?
    
                                                          Bruce

    
    >    Glenn, when and where is the doubleheader being played this weekend?
    
    Winch Park in Framingham, 9 AM.  The directions I have say Rte 20 East
    (from Marlboro), right onto Landham Rd in Sudbury (later becomes Elm St
    in Framingham), right onto "A" St after Mobil station.  Field is on
    right side of "A" St, right before Framingham High School.
    
    glenn
     
    

    
    Yesterday afternoon in the heat and humidity, the Cubs "9" took both
    games of a doubleheader from the Hudson Cardinals.  With our ace Will
    Lessard sidelined, Andy Shultz stepped it up, pitching 2 complete game
    victories, 4-2 and 7-2 (Andy said the head made it possible for him to
    stay loose and throw both games).  In game 2, he relied on a lot of
    knuckleballs to get through.....we only had 9 players, Glenn was at SS,
    and I moved from the infield to LF to patch a defensive gap.  It was
    the finest day of the season for the new team, because we were missing
    our best player, down to 9 guys, and still pulled off the sweep. 
    Credit has to be given to the Cardinals for being an easy opponent
    though :^)
    
    Cubs are now 7-5, after a .500 1st half, this was a good way to start
    off the 2nd half of the season.
    
    Dave

>(Andy said the head made it possible for him to
>    stay loose and throw both games).

I suppose I should ask which colloquialism "head" is supposed to
represent.

I know it was a typo, just too much to resist.

    
    Yeah, I noticed (too late) the typo, but it was a good typo ;^)
    

    
>>(Andy said the head made it possible for him to
>>    stay loose and throw both games).
>
> I suppose I should ask which colloquialism "head" is supposed to
> represent.
    
    Andy's a lefthander; he's allowed to believe whatever head he wants
    made it possible... but Lefty Shultz is a gamer; when they're his 
    innings to pitch, I haven't been able to take the ball from him.
    
    Two weeks previous we split against the hated Yankees, so even though
    we haven't been hitting as well lately, much better defense (finally)
    has been getting us through.
    
    glenn
    

    If you have settled for playing softball these past years, are over
    thirty years old and really want to play baseball, you can. Over Thirty
    Baseball, Inc. is adding a new team to the league this year. All new
    players to the league enter through a draft system. Games are Sunday
    mornings, we play in Lowell, practices are optional and the main         
    objective is to have fun.
    
    I'm new at DEC, Hudson and have been a team manager in the league since it's
    inception, 5 years ago. We are adding an eigth team this year. If you
    are interested please contact me via e-mail. Our open house is March
    1,1997 and the entry draft will be the middle of March.
    
    I hope to hear from you kids.   Mike Grill.
                          

    I may be looking for a team as my team (Marlboro) in the Middlesex 
    league kind of disbanded (well, I helped remove it from life support)
    and the games are too far away for me (in NH) in any case.
    
    Can you compare this league at all with the one in NH?  Higher/lower
    caliber of play, better/worse organization?  Any chance of getting on
    an existing team rather than a new one (I've gone that expansion team
    route; it ain't pretty unless the rest of the teams make a sincere 
    effort to stock the new teams with pitchers, decent players).
    
    Last year I played SS, 2B, and can still hit a little bit.  Paul 
    Gronowski can vouch for me (he knows all).
    
    
    glenn
    
                                                                 

    I thought you had become a catcher Glenn.
    
    Hit a little bit?  Oh really?

    
>    I thought you had become a catcher Glenn.
    
    Yeah, I did catch in the last couple games and wished I'd done it all
    along... felt relatively natural and I had a blast doing it.
    
    glenn
    

>    Yeah, I did catch in the last couple games and wished I'd done it all
>    along... felt relatively natural and I had a blast doing it.
>    
>    glenn


Just protect that meat hand....
    

                                
>     -< Isn't the catcher usually the oldest player on the team by defau >-
    
    Well, believe it or not, at 34 I was like the second oldest player 
    on the team.  For an over-30 team we were pretty young (if not 
    exceptionally athletic).  As it turned out, by the end of the 
    season we just didn't have anybody else who was healthy, able to 
    catch breaking balls, and most importantly able to make a passable
    throw to second base.  I volunteered half-expecting a disaster but
    once I got back there it wasn't as tough as I'd thought it'd be.
    
    I'd kind of forgotten about it, but now I'm getting the bug again.
    Too bad it's only mid-Feb...
    
    glenn
    

    Can't wait to get into April, eh Glenn.
    
    >    -< Much more fun than golf >-
    
    You can do both, ask Jim Rice, Roger Clemens.  Golf can teach you a lot
    about hitting a baseball.  You have to think about what your doing; you
    can survive pretty well in baseball just taking a cut.
    
    Of course you can take lessons for golf but aside from the grip you may
    be as well off just going to the range and thinking your way thru it.

                                                         
>    Can't wait to get into April, eh Glenn.
 
    That's about right.  At least she didn't hear that (completely
    innocent) comment.
    
>    You can do both, ask Jim Rice, Roger Clemens.  Golf can teach you a lot
>    about hitting a baseball.  You have to think about what your doing; you
>    can survive pretty well in baseball just taking a cut.
    
    Yeah, except golf doesn't do anything for that hyperactivity problem
    I have.  In fact, golf is the kind of game where it only makes it worse.
    In baseball you can just channel it into your timing mechanism at the 
    plate, or into setting up your defensive position in the field (step
    one, step two, crouch, freeze, relax, stand, step back one, step back
    two, sweep dirt with left foot, sweep dirt with right foot, pick up 
    rock, toss rock-- step one, step two...).  You do that kind of thing 
    in golf while you're standing around waiting to hit, and someone like 
    Tiger Woods is all over you for breaking their concentration.
    
    It all boils down to playing with a moving ball.  I'm terrible at 
    games involving stationary objects (golf, bowling...)
    
    glenn
    

>    I may be looking for a team as my team (Marlboro) in the Middlesex 
>    league kind of disbanded (well, I helped remove it from life support)
    
    Hmmm, I guess my old team didn't disband, and they need a catcher.
    They still own my rights in the Middlesex League (yep, that's a rule,
    three years service time under this oppressive system, unless you 
    get permission from Bob Kraft), but there are the other leagues.  I'm 
    declaring myself a free agent, and may be needing a_agent.  Show me 
    the money!
    
    I won't have any part of managing this year, though.  Coaching supposed
    growed-up men without having any control over their paychecks is one of
    the worst things I've ever experienced...
    
    glenn