Ramblers Softball Review 2009

Well, it’s November. That means the scary Halloween season has passed. It is also time to review another scary season – softball. Watching the neighborhood softball squad over the last three years has put many a chill up the spine for beach friendly fans. When Joe Dirt played for us, he struck out on three pitches (SWINGING!). When he played for the short-handed opposition, he got the game-winning hit…that’s cold. When a ball is hit deep to the right center and everybody is yelling, "BACK", the fielder moves like he is running in a foot of snow…that’s colder. When a catcher has the game winning play in his hand (all he has to do is catch the ball and tag the runner)...and freezes, doing his best impersonation of the statue liberty...that’s FREEZING TO DEATH!!!

But, this years team had something the others lacked...the BIG MAC ATTACK. Joe Mac came back. That changed the "Bad News Bears" (or would that be Beach News Bears) overnight. It warmed them up. They weren’t scary at all. The team won more games this year than the last three years combined!! Swinging SAM H. was snatching would be doubles up the gap. Not-too-tall TUMBLES was tagging out runners at home plate at a record pace. Not-ready-for-retirement BART was stretching singles into doubles. Ramblers classic softball team had risen from the grave…And Dracula was jealous!!

Instead of making an error a game, RED was making plays like an all-star. Instead of hitting the ball to the warning track, BIG DON was putting them over. Instead of missing the ball completely on throws in the dirt, BIG DAN was scooping them up routinely. Instead of losing, the Ramblers team was winning!! FEELING A LITTLE DOWN, DRACULA?

Congrats to this years team. They came in second. Losing only to some team with a bunch of screwballs with bats on steroids. I can’t remember their name.. it is kind of scary how the memory fades with age...DRINK UP, DRACULA.

YOUNG GUNS 2009

The Beach has another team, the YOUNG GUNS. I hated the name when I first heard it. When you’re forty-one and still having fun, you’re not invited to anything young. (I got fired.)

The name fits though, it if wasn’t WHERE-IS-YOUR-SOUL SAMMY T. snatching grounders from his shortstop "sniper’s nest", it was KIMBO T. stretching out to snag a would-be triple. If it wasn’t PISS ANT making a miraculous stab, it was "SOULMAN" SOLOMAN gunning out an unfriendly base runner. If it wasn’t GET-ME-A-BIGGER-PISTOL BRIAN pitching, it was his brother, DAM-THE-TORPEDOES, FULL-SPEED-AHEAD DAN rifling out another unfriendly.

This years YOUNG GUNS, in the first season, did not win that many games, but time will tell if they can recoup and reload. Will MOOSE get LOOSE? Will someone LET THE DOGS OUT?

OR WILL IT BE SCARY???