Milestone Weekend

(PA announcer) - "now running for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Benjamin Rodriguez."

Grown-Up Scott Smalls - They say the Jet has lost a step or two, but i wouldnt be surprised to see some fireworks. The Jet's got a suicide lead..and...they dont see him, i dont believe it, they dont see him. THE JET STOLE HOME! THE JET STOLE HOME!

you can probably see where this is going but i'll try to paint a picture that captures all the awesomeness of the moment.

it was Saturday morning and the 2nd man's team had a game at 1. Julia's welcome home party was friday night so we played beer pong and we went out to Reaper after that and stayed out pretty late and i was in no shape to play baseball at 10:30 when we met at the field. but as the sun rose in the sky, and i drank plenty of water, i was feeling a lot better. the headache was fading and that voice in the pit of my stomach that screams at me "Dude, why did you drink so much last night, you're an idiot." was becoming much quieter. by the first inning i was still hungover but well enough to go out and play.

They scored a run in their half of the first off of Daniel, and the momentum was on their side as they took the field. I got up to bat with 2 outs and hit a single to keep the rally alive. After moving to 2nd on a walk, i noticed that the pitcher was a 1-looker. (this means that he looks to 2nd once, turns and throws the pitch. and he did this every time) so after turning his head back to home i took off for 3rd and stole it easily. Now with runners on 3rd and 2nd, the pitcher went back to throwing from the wind-up. he had the slowest windup ive ever seen and as i watched him throw 2 balls to Skippy, i was talking in normal conversational volume to Tony who was coaching 3rd.
"Dude, i really want to steal home."
"Yeah, you want to? this guy would be the one to do it off of."
"yeah but Skip's a lefty and i dont want to steal it with a lefty up." (side note: when stealing home, its a surprise move, you dont want anyone to see it coming...especially the catcher. with a lefty batter, you might think its better because you dont have to avoid the batter on the slide, but the 3rd baseline is in plain view of the catcher and with a simple pitchout, any runner would be dead in the water. but with a righty at the plate, it shields the catcher from seeing the runner coming down the line. a pitchout to a righty takes the catcher away from the play at the plate, and the batter also adds something else the catcher has to avoid when he tries to make the tag.)

so as Skip draws ball 4, Bifi, a righty, comes to the plate. I look at Tony, "I'm doing it."
"Yeah? ok i'll put on the sign."
Remember this conversation is being heard by the 3rd baseman, the shortstop, most likely the pitcherand catcher, and probabaly everyone else in the stands. My heart is pounding now, the adrenaline is flowing; I've never stole home before. I'm a little nervous about timing the guy right, i know that if i time him right, there is no chance they will get me. I've got a huge lead because no one is covering the bag and i'm also nervous about being picked off. i was a bit quick on the trigger and took a step or two before he started his wind-up so i thought i was picked for sure. but as i stopped halfway down the line, he started the windup and i put my head down and i was out of the gates. legs turning and picking up speed, past the point of no return, my last thought was "dear god, Bifi, dont swing." diving for the front corner of the plate (i never slide head first, ever), right arm extended for home, the catcher gets the ball and lunges at me. you know those times in life when the world just seems to slow down as something big is about to happen? for a split second my world is in slow motion as i watch my hand slide across home plate before the catcher tags me on the shoulder. and as the dust settles, replaced by cheers and applause, its a new ball game.

we went on to win this game pretty easily, but the 2nd game also featured a milestone for me. with 1 out in the top of the 7th, 2 outs from a sweep. a guy from their team hits a ball to 3rd base. there is a bad throw so the runner takes off for 2nd. Johst turns and fires to Daniel at 2nd before the guy is even halfway. normal players would have stopped and tried to go back, or just tipped his cap and walked into the tag, but not this guy, this guy was a dick the entire day and he was not slowing down at all. about 5 feet before he got to Daniel, the guy jumped in the air and like turned to throw his knee into him. Daniel is a 15 year old kid mind you. Needless to say, I wasn't very fond of this move and Johst and Igl were giving this guy an ear-full as he jogged back to the dugout. I have no idea what was said, it was in German, but from the looks on everyone's faces it was not, "hey good hit, Buddy. You're the man, let's go have a beer after the game." and i dont think blowing kisses at Igl was this guy's smartest move ever. Igl's eyes turned red and i'm pretty sure i saw smoke come out of his ears as he was chasing the guy down and tackling him from behind. Johst jumped in at this point too and guys were rushing out of both dugouts. i was moving toward the pile but the umpire came to me and specifically told me to stay back. my thought immediately went to a huge fine and suspension that would most likely end my season so my better judgement took over and i stopped. but as the bodies were pulled apart and the umpires were sorting things out, one of their players looked right at me and spouted off something in German. Again, i figured it was not something nice, so i turned to Daniel who was standing next to me and he told me that the guy was asking me if that's what i teach my players.
at the time i was just dumbfounded and didnt know what to say, but later as i was thinking about it, i should have asked him if he taught his players to kiss dudes.

it took 20 years of baseball and moving to Germany to finally see a teammate tossed from a game because of a fight. Igl, Johst, and the other dude got the heave-ho and the case will come before the board this week some time to see about fines and suspensions and all that fun stuff.

So saturday was one for my record book to say the least. And Sunday Hamburg came to town for a 1st man's game. we are tied with Hamburg for 1st in the league...well let me correct that, two of their wins had to be forfeited because they played with too many foreign born players. So really we were in sole possession of 1st. the 1st game was a tough loss 5-3. both teams played pretty well and it was a good game, we were just on the wrong side of the score. but thats baseball, some times you win, some times you lose, and sometimes it rains. (2 of the 3 happened on sunday) Tony hit an absolute no doubter in the 1st inning that had to have sailed 340 down the right field line. he is now the Guy from Spain.

but the 2nd game got out of hand. they scored 4 runs in the 1st and i could see all the wind come out of our sails at that point. we scored one in our half of the 1st which sparked us a little but it was put out when they scored again in the 3rd. what really killed us was walks. our pitchers walked too many guys and its always hard to play defense when the pitcher isnt throwing strikes. and its doubley worse when you're losing. but we hit their pitcher pretty hard, but we hit a lot of balls right at guys. I hit the ball right at the shortstop, i mean he didnt even have to take one step to catch the ball, a couple times, and Jan to the left and center fielder. our beloved Blooper didnt even work, Laser hit one to right and the right fielder made a great diving catch to rob us of a hit. this play would have been on ESPN, no doubt.

with a man on in the 6th i came to bat and was just looking for a fastball i could hit hard the other way. i was hitting the shit out of the ball all day and put one off the right field fence in my previous at bat. so this time i was going up with the strategy that got me there, hard the other way. the pitcher didnt disappoint, the first pitch of the at bat was a belt high fastball right down the cock. i put a good swing on it and watched it fly to right. off the bat i thought it was going to be caught so i was jogging a bit out of the box, but as it kept flying i helped it along with, "go ball!" and i hit first just as the right fielder ran into the fence and the ball bounced off the road behind the right field fence. This is my 4th bomb of the year and im starting to wonder what kind of hitter i would have been in college if Walker would have let me play the field. Since i was the Guy from America before, i now am the Gay from whatever county i want to pick. I'm taking suggestions on this one, but im leaning toward the gay from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. this HR is also special because it is my first ever opposite field homer. ive always only had power to left but it looks like things are changing. But it just doesnt feel the same when youre losing by 10 runs. we lost this game 13-4.

since we are on the topic of home runs and all, lets visit DC Bats for a second. Laser hit a homerun in his first at bat with a DC. Tony hit his bomb on sunday with a DC, and ever since we've been allowed to use them 3 weeks ago, i've been hitting the shit out of the ball and I have 2 HRs with DC Bats. Maybe its something in the paint over here, (they use American Maple or Ash woods) but if balls keep leaving the yard at this rate, these bats are going to make a quick name for themselves. DC Bats are going to be flying off the shelves like the balls out of the park. the only problem with them seems to be that they dont like batting practice. we've broken at least 10 DC bats and all of them have been in BP. I've broken 4 myself, laser broke 3 the other day in one round of BP. i dont think we've broken one DC in a game. If you dont swing DC Bats, Fuck You. thats the motto of the company. who wants to make shirts?

Thats all i got today, but stay tuned because i dont have school tomorrow and I still have to write about Dick's visit and the Keets in Hamburg.

A-Ron