The correct answer is, of course, "Mark Nevins appears to be pitching in this picture." Very good, class. You all got it. Take a good look. You won't be seeing this again. Astute observers will also see Brian Donlen standing behind Nevins at shortstop. This is a place between the bases on the left side of the infield that Nevins likes to refer to as "second base." More on that later.A good win Monday night over a somewhat dispirited, but game National Constitution Center team, which was reminded that actually playing is a lot more fun than forfeiting. We win 12-2, easing past without being dopes about it. (Actually, the general manager thinks there was too much sportsmanship involved, but he says that at steel-cage wrestling matches, too.
We got terrific play at third base from Ed Cascarella, three solid at-bats from commissioner Ron
Goldwyn and pretty tight defense all around. Chris Yasiejko was the starter and winning pitcher, holding NCC scoreless on just six hits over the first four innings.Nevins gave up two runs in the fifth, which he claims are unearned, thus preserving his perfect mark. Well, the book disagrees. There was a spritely 1-3 to start the innning, with Nevins correctly identifying first base and its guardian, Chris Brennan. Then there was a single, followed by another comebacker to the mound. The NCC runner was pretty fast and it would have been a close play at second, with Tom DiNardo coming over to accept the throw. However, we will never know how close, because Nevins chose to throw the ball to the shortstop, and not just to the shortstop, but behind him and into left field, allowing the runners to both move up to scoring position. The book insists that there was no routine play involved (no kidding?) and that the batter is given a hit, with the runners advancing on the E1. After a pop to Eddie for the second out, there followed a single and a double, making both runs EARNED. Decisions of the judges are final.
As indicated in the flimsy post below, we had 21 hits in 40 at-bats, pretty good raking, but will need to do better Tuesday against the Art Museum as we try to clinch the playoffs. Bad news is we're cutting it awfully close this season. Good news is Nevins won't be pitching.
1 comment:
Oh, The Book disagrees?
If I'm not mistaken, this is The Book Ron used as his canvass for several sketches of unicorns and dragons during most, if not all, of the middle innings. The renderings came out great. Very lifelike with fire and rainbows and whatnot. The accuracy of The Book? Not so much.
The thing that was wrong with that picture is that the pitch probably landed on the mat for a strike, which is an unusual occurrence for the P&P staff.
Sure, playing out of position I gamely ranged to my right to field a sharp grounder, the whole time hoping my hamstring would not snap and literally explode out of my body and, like a scene from Alien, go skittering across the infield and land on someone's face. And sure, in an effort to start a double play I wheeled quickly and, from an unfamiliar position, made an errant throw. Sure. All true. But I did it for the good of the team. Team. Teammates. Team player. That's me.
There's no "I" in Mark Nevins . . . except for that little one right at the end, but that could easily be an "e" or an "a" and the name would mostly be the same. So you get what I'm saying.
It's all about the P&P and winning and drinking beer and making fun of people who are slower or weaker than we are and knowing that The Book, while artfully decorated, is very rarely accurate and therefore, my ERA is, indeed, 0.00.
Thank you.
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