Touch 'em all rolls on

Woke up this morning (sounds like the start of a B.B. King song, doesn't it ?) and noticed that the weather was a virtual carbon copy of yesterday morning's. My drive up I-95 to exit 121 was through heavy mist and when I reached the complex it had stopped entirely. The weather forecast showed rain on the horizon, figuratively and literally.  

With this being the case the 9:30 games were moved to 9:00 and the games not on fields 1-4 were moved to other start times as well. 

We started our game by falling behind 1-0 in the top of the second, but quickly scored two in the bottom of the frame. The Crash Test Dummies led by a 6-2 score in the top of the 5th. Apparently we were finally getting over the early start as a team at this time. Three consecutive singles to start the inning (mine being the third) set up a game changing moment. Catcher David Shih crushed a double in the alley. The first two runners scored easily and I was headed for third when coach John Debus told me to go home but take it easy. This would have been ill-advised but I picked up Brian Gibellino who yelled, "Get here and get down!" I sped up (as much as a 62-year old man running a sprint of 90 yards with two left turns in the middle can) and I noticed something. Dummies catcher Pat Mascarini was now anticipating a throw and I quickly slid just past Pat and the plate, reaching back behind him to score the tally to leave us just one run behind. It was pretty exhilarating in that it was my first attempt at a reach-back slide I've ever made. 

After that double the next 11 batters reached base with only one walk in the sequence. This put us ahead 12-6. We kept the hit parade going as we scored 5 more in the 6th inning. Tim Doerner went the distance and we found ourselves at 3-0. David Shih was our star of the game and deservedly so. We played right away without the usual break for lunch due to the overall crappy weather. 

Game two versus KB Has A Pulse was much closer of the majority of the game. Tied a 1 after two and with us leading 7-6 after three innings. Intermittent showers continued throughout but the skies dried long enough for us to put up four runs in the 6th and another 7 in the 7th inning for a 22-12 win. BTW- Tim Doerner, who pitched a complete in game one today went 4-for-5 with 9 RBI in game two. 

With the games out of the way we headed back to the clubhouse for some lunch. I returned to my hotel to grab a fast nap and a shower before the Casino Night event at the team hotel. They closed down the restaurant to accommodate our little mock-gambling evening. While there were blackjack and poker tables I stuck with my tried true game, Roulette. It's the only game where I can understand the rules fairly simply. But if they had keno, I would be all over that. 

Once again I donned my Mets suit for the occasion. Made of 127% polyester it was safe to wear after sunset because in the wrong conditions, especially in Florida, it could burst into flames in direct sunlight. That would be ungood.

Many of the guys in the restaurant applauded loudly when I entered and many told me how cool it was to see such a fashion mistake in person. My ownership of said suit is a direct result of having too much time on Amazon during a pandemic three years ago. 

The object of the Casino Night is to help raise funds for our charity Hope For The Warriors. In turn, we win tickets which we can enter in to drawings for about two dozen different items. I put in tickets to possibly win a Buck Showalter autographed ball, a Max Scherzer autographed jersey, a $1,000 discount to next year's camp, and a chance to spend a day with the Mets official photographer. I would really like to win that one. 

Tomorrow we play, from what I am told, a game with no bearing on the championship winner. All we need to do is get through without injury and we should be good to go whenever the next game is, depending on the weather conditions. 

We are the lone 4-0 team but that means nothing. A few years ago the top four seeds all lost in the first round. We can't let up and I don't believe we will. Mookie and John won't let us. 

I thank all of the campers who told me how much they enjoy reading my posts. It would please my English teachers who probably thought I would never be able to do this at any point in my life. My late wife Bryn was a 17-time published author and even she thought that I wrote well. I told her it probably rubbed off on me having lived with her for nearly 35 years. But I chalk it up to simply writing about something I truly love and that's baseball. I told my buddy Greg Cockrell that when I'm on the field, glove on my hand, just smoothing the dirt around first base, is as close to a zen moment as I get. I'm doing something that I love to do, and the other sounds almost seem to disappear for a few seconds. 

Enough about that. I've gotta get some sleep. Until tomorrow, peace out, my brothers.