Sandlot Baseball Logs – 9.2023 – Part II
Sandlot Baseball – an inclusive recreational adult baseball league that has been described as “Little League for Adults” and “baseball mediocrity on the highest level.”
This unofficial association of social baseball is growing rapidly across the country.
I’ve been playing Sandlot since 2018 and writing game logs since August 2023.
9.16.2023 – Austin Drag vs. ATX Roadrunners
@Govalle – 11am
We’re at the point of the year where Govalle looks more like a beat-up elementary schoolyard and less like a baseball field. Regardless of the field condition, we all have to show up and figure out how to plate more runs than we allow.
There’s no reason to rush to judgment here. We only played half a game and I’m sure both teams felt like they were equally in a strong position to win it. As it was, the weather had different plans.
That said, scoring four runs in four innings aint bad. Offensively, I believe we only had one inning without flow or baserunners. That happens at all levels of baseball.
Defensively, I only remember a single solidly hit ball by one of their lefties. Outside of that, we were clean except for an inning where we decided to give the Roadrunners five or so outs. That allowed them to plate four runs in the third.
I specifically remember helping the Roadrunners by rushing a throw from third and sailing it just out of Luke’s reach at first.
Conversely, our situational hitting was better. When we had runners on, I remember a handful of ABs that netted us some much-needed runs and it felt like we were moving in the right direction offensively.
But, yeah, unfortunately, there’s not much to report.
Right as it began to feel like a really great game was developing, we experienced dark skies, competing fronts, and eventually a shorter than hoped downpour (just enough rain to cancel baseball, but not the deluge we’re all awaiting). These are the less-talked-about gifts that baseball provides its congregants– patience and character-building.
These situations make us heartbreakingly aware that even with preparation and planning, no one can will the weather. We can’t always get what we want– even if that’s something as wholesome and fulfilling as baseball.
Important to note– I wasn’t thrilled with how the game was called. It felt like the ump knew Keith had better command overall, so Keith wasn’t getting strikes called around the knees (there were at least two I remember), but the opposition’s pitcher (a nice dude named Zach) got at least three shin-high pitches called for strikes.
Oh well. No scenes were made.
From my experience, calling balls + strikes behind the mound makes deciding if they’re too far outside or inside fairly easy. However, it’s a little tougher deciding if they’re too high or low. Anyways, if I were to nitpick the man in blue, that’d be it. Nothing worth going beyond a slight grumble about.
A few of us got to enjoy some inclement weather drinks with the Roadrunners at Central Machine Works. I’ve always assumed they were nice guys and, after a few beers, that assumption was verified.
Score after 4 innings (about 75 minutes)–
Drag – 4
Roadrunners – 5
Rain + cool front – 0.5” of rain (about 35 minutes)
Both teams hope to complete this game in the nearish future.
Let’s get as much baseball in before the year ends.
9.28.2023 – Austin Drag vs. Oak Cliff 86ers
@McCree Park (Dallas) – 4pm
Link to instagram post about Dallas trip.
Acknowledgement of my bias– I don’t like Dallas.
I believe it’s important to note just how much I dislike Dallas. As much as I love Texas (and I really love Texas), I realize it’s odd to dislike Texas metropolises as much as I do (and I really dislike our big cities).
Though I have decades of experience planning, organizing, promoting, and hosting ultimate frisbee tournaments (some with 300+ participants), I have yet to do any “hosting” for sandlot. However, I have been lucky enough to experience the hospitality of exceptional communities like Tulsa + Lockhart (and some not particularly great hospitality of places like San Antonio).
Not having been involved in any communication leading up to this roadtrip (I’m grateful that’s not on my plate), for comedic purposes, I’m guessing the conversation(s) leading up to this two-day event four hours north of Austin would’ve sounded something like this [note: these convos didn’t actually happen– this is just a goofy Rickner dramatization]:
Oak Cliff + River City Honey Busters Organizers
Hey Drag and Tallboys! We’re pumped to have yall up for a couple of games at the end of September. We’re just hoping to run a few things by yall.
Keith + Risto
Cool.
OC + RCHB Organizers
Our field situation is a little bit precarious.
How cool are yall with, maybe, having to change field sites, on like, a one-hour notice?
Keith + Risto
Like… what?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Nah, I mean, like, we’ve got fields. We just don’t know which fields are going to be available until it’s gametime or whatever. Maybe, like, it’ll be the morning of or something.
Keith + Risto
Alright. I mean, I guess we’ll be sandlotting it up.
OC + RCHB Organizers
Cool. Thanks for being really cool about that.
How do you guys feel about umpires?
Keith + Risto
It’s better to have them than to not have them.
OC + RCHB Organizers
Okay, well, the thing about that is… we just don’t have them. Ever.
Keith + Risto
So… okay?
OC + RCHB Organizers
But it’ll be alright, we’ll just use our catchers to call balls and strikes, fair or foul balls, force and tag plays, and just… kind of do everything required of both a catcher and an umpire.
Keith + Risto
Is that how yall normally do it?
Also, about fair or foul balls, are your fields lined?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Nah. I wouldn’t expect any lined fields.
I mean, it’s basically just this neglected community softball field that is totally ungoverned and without any type of league affiliation so… it sort of serves as our de facto home.
Keith + Risto
Ungoverned?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Yeah. I mean, it’s cool. But let me ask you this, what are your thoughts on fences or pitching mounds?
Keith + Risto
At a ballpark? Those are kind of pretty big ingredients of what makes a ballpark a ballpark.
OC + RCHB Organizers
Rad. Totally. Well, thing is, we don’t have those either.
Keith + Risto
Alright. This will truly be a… sandlot experience.
But, hold on, just so we’re all on the same page here– yall are inviting two teams to drive up that pain-in-the-ass I-35 corridor for upwards of four hours, do the best they can to navigate the oddly difficult Dallas-area accommodations in a fairly vague area of the city because you’re not truly certain about where the games are going to be played and once the games are going to be played, there won’t be an umpire to help officiate and move the games along while doing their best to call a “fair” game?
Are we clearly understanding everything that comes with your invitation?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Well, sort of.
Keith + Risto
Oh, my bad, did we accidentally leave out a mention of a kick-ass pool party, barbecue, or something like that?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Yeah, no. Nothing like that is gonna happen.
Keith + Risto
Huh. So what are we missing?
OC + RCHB Organizers
Well, depending on which field we play at, we’re gonna institute some oddball ground rules that we’ll communicate to your team, but then not do an effective job at communicating those same ground rules to our players so there will be moments of confusion and you, the visiting team, might have to explain and re-explain our ground rules to our own players.
Keith + Risto
Huh. You guys sure do know how to Dallas.
Cause, with each layer of your Dallas onion revealing itself, this is sounding more and more like Dallas. Honestly, the only way it could get more Dallas is if every single one of yall drove your Suburbans and F-150s directly onto the field, spilled out your blue jeaned and camo’d children– Liam, Troy, Harper, and Elijah onto the lawn, as well as your dog named Aikman, and forced them all to play tackle football in the outfield during our game.
Well, anyways, seeya in the morning.
OC + RCHB Organizers
Tight. We’ll bring the footballs.
Okay, so I’ll put down the snark for awhile and point out that, collectively, we had an outstanding time. Regardless of the apparent lack of planning– the games, as well as the whole trip, were a tremendous amount of fun.
I know I just said that I would drop the snark, but shit continues to pop up– we, The Austin Drag playing in Dallas, had no choice but to be the home team. Why? Well, the 86ers’ catcher’s gear didn’t arrive until 4:35pm (game was scheduled to begin at 4pm) and around 4:20pm we simply said we’ll take the field and start the game as the home team and hopefully the 86ers’ catcher’s gear arrives in the next 10-15 mins.
First batter for the 86ers is this athletic kid. Probably in his mid-20s. Keith was clearly getting adjusted to this oddball, transportable, wooden platformed artificial mound. Around the fourth or fifth pitch of the AB, the kid hit the bottom half of a high fastball to left field. Now, this ball carried a bit, but the ground rules we were told was that a fly ball that lands beyond the light poles in the unfenced outfield is an automatic home run. From my perspective, it was kind of difficult to determine if this ball landed past the lights or not, but the kid was fast enough to get around the bases before we really got the ball in anyhow. Pseudo homerun to start the game.
After that, Keith found his groove, the defense avoided any type of disastrous inning, and the offense was steady. Tyler was all over the basepaths. Keith hit the farthest ball I’ve seen him hit. It landed well, well beyond the lights. Simon was great at the plate as well as behind the plate (he had this badass tag on a botched relay that ended up working in our favor).
We had this cool fella named Brian (from the Sheeple), help us out with catcher’s duties behind the dish. Waterman and Braden both played well at short.
Defensively, once again, we were unable to catch an infield pop-up while the opposition had two runners on. Without an ump though, there really wasn’t a disputed infield fly call and all that happened is that we were able to convert a force out. No big deal.
Without any fences, the Tallboys began setting up their lawn chairs, coolers, and such in the foul territory near third base, and late in the game, a popup was heading their way. I gave chase and got to complete a play that wouldn’t have been possible in a fenced-in situation. I kinda, sorta got to dive over a wheeled cooler and through some occupied lawn chairs to snag a ball.
It was nothing like this, but allow me to think for a second that it was kind of like this.
That was fun.
Offensively, they threw a soft-tossing lefthander that took us a few innings to adjust to his style. We eventually hit their pitching with the power we were expecting, but it just took us two innings to adjust and produce.
Keith pitched a complete 7-inning game from a strange, narrow, wooden platformed “mound” that required implementing ground rules such as, due to not being able to safely perform a pickoff move from that tiny wooden mound, there could be no steals and the runners were only permitted to take a “two-step lead.”
So, again, just a weird thing that it never really seemed that everyone was on the same page about.
I did have one strange conversation with an 86er who made it seem like he’d never heard of his own team’s ground rules we had been playing with for six innings at that point.
It was weird. He acted like we brought these ass-backwards rules up from Austin, which, I suppose– Dallas is just gonna Dallas.
But, in the end, no big deal. We more or less controlled the entire game. The defense + pitching barely bowed and certainly never came close to breaking.
Final Score
Oak Cliff 86ers (away) – 5
Drag (home) – 12
The catcher’s gear delay ate up a possibility for an 8th or 9th inning because the 7pm game couldn’t be pushed back any later.
Post-game chatter:
We’ve all traveled in professional, social, or non-familial groups before. And, I guess one thing worth pointing out is how Dallas can bring out the Dallas in just about anyone.
I’d say our team has a wide-range of personalities and tastes, but only Dallas could have our team debating about eating at Texas Land & Cattle (that was certainly named and chosen as the joint for the majority of Dragsters), Buffalo Wild Wings, or Chili’s (I can’t really remember what was competing against TL&C, but they were definitely chains). So, I say again, Dallas is going to Dallas.
Luckily and thankfully, Ash and Katy were as opposed to those suggestions as I was and we found a unique joint called Lakewood Landing. We had a pretty damned great time before Ash and I cruised for roach motel options before Katy saved me from a night on the streets (thank you!).
Anyways, Dallas will give you 100 options, and 99 of them will be Wal-Mart, Taco Bell, Subway, Texas Roadhouse, Red Lobster, and the like.
Well Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eyes
A steel and concrete soul with a warm hearted love disguise
A rich man who tends to believe in his own lies
Yeah Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eyes
9.29.2023 – Austin Drag vs. River City Honeybusters
@McCree Park (Dallas) – 11am
With the RCHBs having brought all the lumber to Saturday evening’s game vs. The Tallboys, their offense looked a little on the depleted side when we eventually faced them midday Sunday. My guess is that they had 5-6 “heavy hitters” on Saturday night and about half as many made it out for Sunday’s game.
But, you know, that’s adult recreation. Each game has its own unique lineup. Sunday was a Dallas Cowboys gameday and… Dallas is gonna Dallas.
That acknowledged, Steven took a little bit of time adjusting to the mound but controlled the game as we were able to navigate through the first five or so innings without defensive disaster. Offensively, please allow me to indulge myself in hyperbole, but our lineup decided to transform itself into a Who’s Who in Baseball Lineup and just about barrel everything that was thrown anywhere close to the plate.
Other than a game or two at The Longtime, I don’t believe I’ve seen five dingers out of our lineup before. It was pretty great seeing our bats let loose. Simon, Keith, Steve, myself, and RJ (aka “Tugger” or “Tuggernaut”) all hit roundtrippers. Tugger’s was a Grand Slam while wearing shin guards.
All in all, we plated 24 runs. Two dozen. And this wasn’t due to a ton of walks issued by their pitchers or a ton of errors on their side, we just flat out hit on Sunday. It was a ton of fun.
Defensively, Ash made the play of the day with an incredible grab in left. She tracked and covered a ton of ground to make an impressive, outstretched, tumbling catch. Braden also had a sharp play or two at short.
Steven, more or less, pitched in cruise control as our offensive runs steadily came in and our defense didn’t do anything memorably negative to throw him off his rhythm. Just solid six innings by him.
I came in to pitch and was wild in the 7th, threw a clean 1-2-3 in the 8th, and it took either 7 or 8 batters to get our three outs in the ninth.
Final Score
Drag – 24
RCHBs – 12
If you haven’t already heard RJ’s “tugger” story, I’m sure you will soon.
I forgot to mention–
The field we were originally “scheduled” to play on was occupied by a men’s league Sunday morning. So, we reversed course and returned to the field that we played on Saturday.