All stars and awards

On Saturday it was the annual "All Star" game for the softball league, followed by the awards ceremony. For the third year in a row, the Loan Wolves turned out in droves to be the team with most supporters. no beer prize this year, though. We watched Olivia, Michael and Gareth represent us at the Div 5/6 game, and they did us proud even if the other team did win.
afterwards, we retired to the community centre for the awards fiesta. As runners-up in our division, we now have our very own trophy. 2nd place in Division Six doesn't sound like much, but for us it's a heck of an achievement. Worth it for the respect we got from the other teams there, too. "Been a long time coming", as Darren said.
We made it a hat-trick of sorts by getting second place in the pub quiz which ex-Wolf Ben had written for the occasion, so there was even more to celebrate. Our prize was a book on softball skills, which, so many of us being librarians, we were very pleased with.
We stayed in the pub for a while, partying and dancing.

Things I learned on Sunday: don't try to play City of Heroes with a hangover.

[X-posted from my LJ]

End of an era for baseball

Nice nostalgic piece from a friend in the US about the demise of Yankee Stadium.

Wolves of the Sea

Tenuous wolf link for International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Loan Wolves @ G & T

This was the big one. The winner of last night's game at a stormy Regents Park was assured a place in Divison 5, the loser was looking at another season in Div6.

G & T had started their season slowly and initially looked to be one of the weakest teams in the division. However, they certainly got their act together and have been clocking up the wins in the middle and latter part of the season. In contrast the Wolves started well, had a bit of a wobble in the middle, but have picked it up again for the last few games.

The skies were blue as we started out. The first few innings were very tight. Neithe team conceding much, and runs were hard to come by. As the Wolves came up to field at the bottom of the third the score was 1-1. Then, as they say, down came the rain. With the wolves fielding into torrents of rain, G&T started to pile on the pressure. Two rain (or rather lightning) breaks saw the opposition go through their batting order in one innings and put 5 runs on the board. It was starting to look like weather was going to scupper our hopes of promotion once again. 1-6 to them.

However, Wolves are wet weather animals. We may have wobbled with the wet conditions, but we took advantage when it was our turn to bat, putting on an impressive 8 runs in one innings and taking the score to 9-6. The girls consistently got on base, and they guys moved them around and brought them home. Everyone was batting to their potential and things were suddenly looking a lot brighter. G & T still had a batting turn in hand, though, so it was important to shut them out. This is just what the wolves did and repeated for the next innings whilst adding another 3 to our tally at the top of 5.

It was pretty clear that the light was only going to give us 6 innings, and so the Wolves focused on adding as many runs as possible to set G&T a decent run chase. As the opposition came up to bat the score was 15-6. The wolves knew that they had to get three outs before conceding 10 runs to win. Playing the odds we went for easy outs at first, letting a couple of runners get around in the process. As the plate umpire declared 'Ball Game' the score was 15-8 to the Wolves! Divison 5 here we come!

Fair play to G&T they made us work for it, and they were a very sporting bunch. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Inning-by-Inning

As requested last night, here is the match inning by inning, X-posted from my LJ:
1st Inning
Three runs to Tribold, none to us. Not a great start, but could have been worse.
2nd Inning
Tribold made one more, but their inning didn't last long. We went round the order, getting seven on the board.
3rd Inning
Four for Tribold, two of which were directly sue to a misfield from us. But we got five round, so our lead started to creep up.
4th Inning
Sharper fielding all round here, and each team only made one more.
5th Inning
A shut out in their inning, followed by a decent start to ours saw four runners go round before the game ended. Bad light stopped it after the fifth, which leaves us only one match to play.
That match, next Tuesday, will be against G&T. They have games in hand, but a win will put us in a pretty strong position.

Loan Wolves vs Tribold: Highs/Lows

Low: still can't explain what I thought I was doing when I messed up in the outfield. It cost us two runs which I had to earn back......

High: two home runs. Both looked catchable once I hit them, especially the second. That was a lead off home run, but I think the first brought two runners home.

Lesson learned: good, aggressive base running works, and not just for their captain!

Chevy Chasers 1 - 32 Loan Wolves

Last day of financial year at work, followed by leaving drinks for Simon and Thomas. I had to leave early and hotfoot it over to Hampstead for the softball, though, as I'd learned late in the afternoon that we had no male subs.
I arrived to find the game in progress. The Chasers had asked to postpone the game earlier, but had managed to cobble together a team of sorts - for which, fair play to them. They came and gave us a game when they must have realised the odds were against them with inexperienced players and missing their starting pitcher.
As it was, we played well and made some extra runs by intelligent base running. Pitching and fielding were strong, too. The Chevies did hit a consolation home run in their last inning, but soon after that the game was called by the "mercy rule" due to the lead we'd built up. first time we've been on the winning side of that rule, though we lost by it a fair few times when we were starting out.
It was a strong performance, but the nature of the win left a slightly flat feeling - for me, at least, there wasn't the buzz that we've taken away from our wins in close matches.
One sour note on the evening was that Kate was practising pitching before the match and had been hit by a ball smashed into her hand. She'd been taken to A&E, but returned to the pub after the match having been treated for a finger broken in two places. She was really brave about it, but once again our season features a hospitalised Wolf.

[X-posted to my LJ]

Wolves v G & T 23rd July

High points: 2 Home runs, 2 hits to 3rd base and informing the umpire of the guy leaving base early

Low point: Running past Manjiv at 3rd whilst running home and being given out.

Points leaned: Ignore negative comments before a game if you don't want your confidence knocked.

Softball tournament on Saturday. Advertising industry league, but they were short of teams so we got to play. Early morning in order to get to Barnes Bridge for nine. I had my new pull-along bag, a bargain at £12.00 from Sainsbury's. And when I scraped a hole in it the first time I lugged it down some stairs I realised why it was so cheap. But it did a good job otherwise of carting bat, glove, chair, rug, food and all the other necessities of a day spent in an exposed field in unpredictable weather. Once again, our team for the day was short a few Wolves so bolstered by Meteors. Who brought their own bats, which meant a fair number of bats between us. Averaged to one bat for every second player. The other ones were given some ammunition and told to pick up bats when they could from their fallen comrades...
We won our first game, lost the next three, and ended up in a play-off vs Comer's Homers. We didn't manage to beat them, so our tournament ended there. We stayed to watch Kevin play for the Digitas Devils who were a man short vs the Homers in their final

Loan Wolves versus Fat Cats July 2nd Finsbury Park

Low Point: Missing a tag out at 4th (Home) base. Think I dropped it

High Point: Getting an out at 3rd


Lessons Learned: Keep running as fast as possible to 1st - the umpire told me I might have made it on one occasion if I hadnt slowed up. Also put on my insect repellent - dont forget!!!

National Loan Wolves Day

[ X-posted from my LJ]

Last year on July 9th, we achieved our first ever victory in a softball league game. At some point in the pub afterwards, we decided that 9th July would forever be National Loan Wolves Day in celebration of this glorious turning point in our sporting history. All Wolves are to wear their team shirts that day, whether we're playing or not. All friends and fans (do we actually have fans?) of the Wolves are likewise invited to wear orange that day, in honour of the team's past (and future) success.
So, if you count yourselves among our fanbase, wear your orange with pride next Wednesday!
(And wish us luck against the Fat Cats tonight, too...)

Raiders Invitational Part Deux

Sunshine, friendly people and softball - what more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon?

Ten wolves made their (sometimes meandering) way to Wandsworth Common for the second of the mini-tournaments organised by the Raiders. This time the Raiders had put together two teams (Tea and Coffee) and invited along the Meteors as well, so it was three games each on two pitches.

The Wolves started off with a good strong win against Raiders Tea before deciding to mix up positions and try a few things out in the second match against the Meteors. Before we knew it we were 10-0 down! Much as we like to practise and experiment, we also like to win (now that we've got a taste for it) and it was back to our normal fielding positions for the rest of the match. From then on we started to field much better, and some great hits particularly from the lads notched us up a few runs. Olivia's fantastic catch in the outfield has to get a mention - even though they 'bought it back'. We took advantage of the very same 'buy-back' rule to make Alison bat again in red devil horns, and before we knew it, it was 'tied ball game'. Up we went to bat, and I was very exicted to find myself on base and in the position of being the 'winning run'. Despite Matt's comments that I 'run in slow motion', I made it around and victory was ours for the second time that day.

Off we trudged to the other diamond for the last proper match of the day. Another closely run game sadly slipped away from us and when time ran out we were down two runs. However, it was certainly worth it to see Kevin batting in bunny ears after we bought back this strike out.

As we all know, you can never have enough softball and so on we played - this time Raiders against the rest of the world. I'm not sure anyone was scoring all that closely by this stage, but I think it's safe to say that the Raiders won. Loads of people had a go at pitching and even with a ridiculously long batting line-up it was great to have a few more swings.

A hugely fun afternoon, topped off with the traditional trip to the pub - just for old times sake.

High Point - Low Point (Fair and Squares)

Ok guys let's do it. Remember the format - low point first, finish on the high point. One thing for each and it must be personal. You cannot say that your high point was watching Kevin slide into home and take out 3 of their players - unless you are Kevin! (I know that didn't really happen, but it's only a matter of time!)

I'll start:

Low Point: Striking out with two swings. I haven't struck out all season!

High Point: Getting three strike outs in one innings.

Lessons Learned? If the fielder is standing aimless on your running line, make them get out of your way, or shout 'obstruction'. I ran around him, and then was out on the force at 2...only just!

Squares 18 - 15 Loan Wolves

I left my joggers at home yesterday morning, so had to wear the trousers I had on at work to play in.
We were away to the Squares, a team of Americans. At Hyde Park - I didn't know there were softball pitches there. Not the best of venues - very crowded (sharing the outfield with other games, from a charities/museums league, though these games all finished early), and with an incredibly uneven and pitted surface.
It wasn't a good game for us. We didn't play as well as we know we can, and somehow let ourselves get too down about it. We missed outs we should have made, and our batting, despite some good hits, wasn't up to snuff. I was appalling - felt as if my batting standard had slipped back to where I started three years ago. I managed to take an easy catch (as Catcher). Kate, who pitched an excellent game, had told me before the match that I had to catch one off her pitching. Next time, please also tell me to hit a home run, Kate.
We're halfway through the season now, played six, won four. We're just in second place. Not a bad position, really, though it might have been better if we'd played to our full potential last night. In my case, I know I should have played much less badly than I did. I'm blaming my trousers.

Fat Cats 11 - 14 Loan Wolves

Fat Cats are a re-formed team - the "Black Cats" of a few years ago, a very capable side. When they re-entered the league they had to start in our division. They'd played five and won five - easily - before tonight. Our run of wins had been ended last week, as you may remember. Could we pick ourselves up again and give a decent account of ourselves against the strongest team in the division?
We were playing at Finsbury Park again, so didn't have the wonky pitch from last week to contend with at least. A dark rain cloud hovered overhead, launching showers on us, but there were blue skies and ice-cream white clouds visible beyond it. At one point, looking out from Catcher's position, I saw a vision of luminous green grass, long shadows, raindrops like diamonds in the late evening sun and even a rainbow, which would surely have won us an Oscar for cinematography had it been a movie. But it wasn't a movie. It was a ball game.
The opposition were strong, but we were not weak. Excellent pitching from Kate gave us the framework we needed. Our batting was solid. I batted 1.000, with no walks all night, and made one hit fine inside the Third Base line out of the infield which I was quite pleased with. We ran extra bases where they were to be found without taking stupid risks. Our fielding was sharp. We kept them from getting easy runs and ended their innings quickly, which gave us a lead. Then they rallied and nosed ahead. But we reversed that, and went into the bottom of the final innings defending a five point lead. A couple of outs, a couple of runs to the opposition. Then Vic intercepted a hit to right field and tagged out the runner trying for second. And it was over. The Cats' five game winning streak was ended.
Over to you, Mr Kipling:
"For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack"

[X-posted from my Livejournal]

Loan Wolves 14 - Fat Cats 11

It was feline versus lupine last night as the skies darkened above Finsbury Park.

Having umpired a couple of games against the top-of-the-table Fat Cats, we knew they could hit, and we knew they had a reasonable idea about the game...so it was some nervous, but excited Wolves who showed up early to warm up, run practice drills and settle into the pitch.

As the away team we batted first. A string of good solid base hits got us on the scoreboard in an important innings. We then held the Cats to nothing for the next two innings.

As is the way with us Wolves, we never do things the easy way - a dip in the middle meant that the Cats put on 6 runs in 4th innings. We then knew that we needed to keep it tight.

We stepped up to the plate literally and metaphorically - got those all important runs in and held their scoring to a minimum. It got a bit heated for a while there over a few close calls. I'm thinking we probably wouldn't have made the appeals if the game hadn't been so tight, but all those hours at umpire school have got to be worth something!

Anyhow, after the full 7 innings, by hook or by crook, victory was secured for Wolf-kind!

Personally I got a particular kick out of holding them to nothing in an innings by getting three straight outs at first, but it's indisputable to say that everyone played a part tonight. Batting sensibly and consistently, holding runners, keeping the force on and getting those outs!

Three cheers for the Loan Wolves!

Mix-a-lot Tournament - Finsbury Park 14th June 2008

Some stray Wolves, a few Homers and a whole load of Meteors got together on a sunny Saturday afternoon for a mix-up mini tournament. The idea was that people get to play with and against some different people to their usual bunch. The three captains disappeared into the club house whilst we warmed up and emerged with three 'random' team line ups.

I was a lone loan wolf on the self-proclaimed 'best looking team', with the other orange shirts split between the other two teams. Each team played the other two teams in a timed match. It was great fun to play with all sort of different people and also interesting to play against our usual team-mates.

After the three matches, the sun was still shining and the beer was still flowing, so we decided to go for a 'Meteors v the rest of the world' match. I got to have a go at pitching, which was great, and I only gave away one walk - we got him at 2 anyway, so no harm done. I was particularly proud of my pitch and catch, and I have a pretty impressive bruise on my ankle from a particularly fierce line-drive. It was a close game, but the Meteors got us in the end and it was off to the pub for more beer and some table football.

Moment of the Match - Tribold

Great team patience in the 5th, 6th and 7th innings to accept walks and hit good shots to put us in the lead with a chance of winning.

Moments:
Bad throw from Shortstop to First, then the throw to 2nd and Kevin tagging the guy as he went passed the base
Manjiv getting the last out in 4 of the first 5 innings
Matt wanting an extra centimetre
Kate wanting an extra inch
Kate suggesting giving a bit more arse
Blasey's home run hit
Manjiv striking out the girl who wouldn't swing
The double play at 3rd
Manjiv giving the ball to Donnacha at home to get the player out
Matt's out at 1st that wasn't given
Vic and Joel being struck out by pitches that never went over shoulder height and practically hit their ankles over the plate
The overgrown outfield where softballers go to die
The sun over the pitcher which made hitting difficult
The blue who made deciding which balls to hit difficult

Runner-up - Joel's Grand Slam that wasn't given as Vic allegedly (my arse) missed 3rd
MOTM - Matt's cheeky "Can I look at the ball" and getting the girl out for missing 1st base

Loan Wolves 25 - 26 Tribold

Low Point: Losing to Tribold!!
Not being able to pitch within the very tight strike zone set out by the umpire.

High Point: Balling the umpire who must have been confused as to whether he was umpiring baseball or slowpitch softball.

Lesson Learned: Never listen to Blasey who insisted I only have 8 pitches to warm up before the game. Next time I'll warm up my way :)

High point and Low point

High point:
Watching 4 innings where the side got the basics right and shut them out

Low point:
Being 3rd base coach and yelling at Manjiv once Gareth hit it to go home from first and revised to 3rd but she stopped at second as she was watching the ball and got out.

Yet again we made mistakes but managed to secure a win due to good teamwork.