Beaver Times 2009 Edition 1

Welcome to opening day, 2009, the 17th season of Beaverball. This summer the Beavers find themselves back in Clayton playing at Shaw Park. With all of the league's flaws, the Beavers decided that the close proximity to our sponsor, central location, Wednesday night games and last year's record of 14-2 warranted a return to this league. We were quickly reminded of what we disliked most about the league - playing on field #1 or #2 where the fields back up to one another and the outfielders basically stand shoulder to shoulder with the outfielders from the other field. It is just a matter of time before there is a bad collision out there.

Before jumping into the stories of the night, I want to shed a little light on the history of the Beaver Times. Started back in the early 90's, Shawn "Gee" Hagan would write a very descriptive and incredibly humorous recap of the previous night's games. This recap would be highly anticipated each week by players and fans alike. Unfortuneately this recap had its downsides - it took hours to prepare. Making the tough decision of work before Beaver Times, the Times met its demise after a few seasons. The legacy of the Beaver Times has remained strong. This is my attempt to honor Gee's huge contrinbution off the field to the Beavers. I hope that I can bring a fraction of the entertainment that the original Beaver Times provided. With the blog, we have a better means to capture and allow comments on the annals of the games. I hope that Gee can step in and even write some of these recaps as well. The Beaver Times is making a comeback.

This season started off like many of the past seasons - in a last minute scramble to field a team. Though carrying 13 players this year, we were already in need of a 14th. A mixture of poorly-timed trips, a last-minute injury and one player leaving after game one of the doubleheader to play hockey left us with an email frenzy at noon to find a 10th player for the game. Stay tuned for a "meet your 2009 Beavers post" to get to know the players better.

The Beavers jumped out of the gate in the first with 3 runs to answer the 1 run that the home team, Team USA, put on the board. Capping off that 3-run rally was the first homerun of the season by John "Big John" Meert. The make-shift defense responded with hanging a goose egg in the visitor's second inning and the Beavers stepped back up to the plate. Our newest addition to the team Will Summers, started the 2nd inning's hit parade with a single in his first at bat, then Jim "Jimmy-D" Haynes stepped up to the plate - left handed.

Jimmy-D had always been a right-handed hitter throughout his career - until last pre-season when goofing off in the batting cages he found that he hit the ball better left-handed. The team encouraged Jimmy to hit from the left side, stating that "you can't hit any worse than you do on the right". This switch hitting carried through most of the season and was on display again early in 2009. But Jimmy brought more to the game than just some switch hitting, he was also sporting a mustache that would have made Tom Seleck jealous. Thus, a new nickname for Jimmy; Jimmy-P.I.

Jimmy-P.I. reached safely on an infield error, then Dave "Belle" Petlansky followed with a walk. Serge "Rake" Traylor stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. A line drive to left froze the left fielder and the ball glanced off his glove - clearing the bases. Big John then did some damage again with his second homerun in as many innings. Beavers now led 8-1. In the 4th inning Team USA began their attack. Donned in white jerseys with collars (never seen that in softball before) they chased around 3 runs on top of the 1 they plated in the 3rd. The Beavers' defense began to spring a leak. Obvious that most of us have not thrown a ball or taken grounders since last fall several errors mounted, included a long fly ball to right field that Big John snapped at - deflecting down the hill and allowing the hitter to round the bases. This was a harbinger of what was to come in game 2.

The Beavers got back a few of their own in the 4th, back to back hits by the #3 & #4 hitters and drove in by Craig "Dupper" Dupske's 2-base error the score was now 10-5 Beavers. Team USA added single tallies in both the 5th and 6th innings, but fell short as the Beavers lumped on 6 more runs of their own. Highlighted by the first homerun of the season by our newest member - Will. It was about this time, that Will earned his nickname. While Will was at bat, Big John was searching for a nickname when the first thing that "Will" reminded him of was "Williams Sonoma". "Sonoma" was born.

Big John's glove did a little talking as well. To say that Big John is not a smooth fielder is an understatement. But every once in a while the blind squirrel finds a nut. Our squirrel found his late in game one. Playing rightfield and the steep drop-off that exists about 250 ft down the line a fly ball was lifted back to the edge of the drop-off. Big John lumbered after it. Worried, and rightly so, about a potential collision with the one tree that stands in rightfield. He got to about where he thought the tree was and lept (yes, he was off the ground for all of about 2") for the ball - amazingly coming down with it and avoiding the tree. As we learned from Sonoma, he was a good 10+' from the tree, but the real story is that he caught it, and saved what would have been a sure homerun.

In the bottom of the 6th, the frustration of Jimmy-P.I.'s left handed hitting climaxed. He grounded a ball to the right side of the infield for the 3rd time of the game (he also launched a ground-rule double). So disgusted with his groundball to first, he didn't run out the play - AKA Gary Templeton in the 1980 season. Jimmy did not end the at-bat with an obscene gesture to the crowd, but the razzing for not at least trying to run out the double play was relentless. Especially upset with the next batter, Belle who may have had one more opportunity to swing the bat before he abandoned the team to play a hockey game. Game Final - Beavers 16, Team USA 7. Star of the Game: Big John 3-3 with 2 HR, 5 RBI, one big catch, one bad error.

Game two followed immediately with the Beavers being the visitors this time. Another great first inning posted by the Beavers. The lineup was missing Belle our lead-off hitter and we were forced to play with only 9 guys in total. The first 4 hitters all reached safely and all scored. The inning once again was capped by a homerun by Sonoma, his second of the season and night. Beavers batted around, up 6-0 with Team USA coming to the plate. We must have been in a giving mood because we handed back all 6 runs. An incredibly poor defensive inning plagued most of the team. Rake booting some at first, Big John not catching some at first, Gary "Mobilly" Mobley dropping one in the outfield, the wheels came off in our patented poor-defensive inning of the night. Somehow we stopped the bleeding at 6. Game tied after one 6-6.

The defense was quickly shuffled. We needed more speed in the outfield as we only had 3 players out there. Our starting SS, Jerry "Kid" Farrar went to CF, Mobilly to 2B, Rake from 3B to SS and our superscrub, Pete "Pistol Pete" Anderson from 2B to 3B. The switch must have been intimidating as our pitcher Keith [still no nickname] Miller made all three fielding plays in the second. Over the next two innings the Beavers plated two and were answered by Team USA. We had ourselves a fight on our hands.

The bats awoke in the 4th with Dupper, Mobilly, Keith, Pistol Pete and Sonoma all getting consecutive hits. Three more on the board for the good guys. In the bottom of the inning Team USA chipped away for 2 of their own. It was time to take ownership of this game, and that is what the Beavers did in the 5th. The sun was setting (and since it was already cloudy it was getting very dark), and the top of the lineup started the rally. Rake doubled, Kid doubled, Big John walked. Dupper flied out, then came Mobilly with a double, Keith with a double, Pistol Pete with a single, Sonoma with a single - six runs scored as we hit around. Team USA was only able to counter with 2 runs of their own - the game was ours. Beavers 17, Team USA 12.

It is Team USA's first year in the league and they are a decent team. I expect to see them high in the standings when it is all over. Their thirdbaseman's glove was just long enough to snare anything hit near him. Later found out that he was just filling in, which is good for us because he cost us about 5 hits and also launched a bomb onto the adjoining field.

Beaver of the Game: Sonoma with his 3-4 game including a HR that landed near secondbase of the opposite field and another shot that would have been ruled a HR on many teams, but the outfielder did get a glove on it - a 4-base error. Even Pudge and Rookie would be envious of the power Sonoma displayed. Maybe he will hit higher than #9 next week.

Next week's games are at 6 & 7 on the 6th. With a record of 2-0, the Beavers are off to a great start. Stay tuned for next week's 2nd Edition of the 2009 Beaver Times.

_rake