Sandlot Baseball Logs – 07.2024
7.13.2024 – Austin Drag vs. Jardineros Baseball Club @ Govalle – 7pm
Instagram post about the game.
This silly blog has recorded half a dozen or so incidents of sandlotters behaving like assholes.
This past Saturday night, I was the asshole. It didn’t go beyond me calling a Jardinero a “dumbass,” but I did regrettably do that and was immediately told, by my teammates and the Jarindero third baseman, to “get out of here” with that kind of crap.
Apologies were immediately offered/accepted. The game moved on.
There was a paltry reason for me to resort to name-calling, but I shouldn’t have jumped the initial exchange’s demeanor from “bristling chatter” to “name-calling asshole.”
The silver lining– my lousy behavior was neutralized as fast as it could’ve been.
On to baseball.
The Jardineros won the coinflip for home field. We led off the top of the 1st with a small two-out rally leading to a single run (Nick and Steven coming through). The Jards followed that up with two runs in the bottom of the first.
Thi, the Jards starting pitcher, pitched really well changing speeds and arm angles, but The Drag were able to get a rally going in the 2nd by simply hitting them where they ain’t while also avoiding mistakes on the basepaths.
With a nice cushion, Keith Hyndshaw (SP) settled in and pitched the 2nd through the 6th only allowing one run. Keith did mention that he didn’t have “his best stuff,” but he gutted it out and the defense was able to avoid that dreaded inning of defensive collapse. Hard to say the game was error-free, there were a few plays that could’ve been made, but also hard to rule the few minor defensive mistakes as definitive “errors.”
All things considered, for both squads, the game was mostly clean.
Carlos took the hill for the Jards in the 3rd or 4th and did a good job of keeping us off the bases. Both teams’ fielding got real sharp as both teams’ bats went a little quiet. The hits were there, but they didn’t come in bunches. Both teams consistently had threats of plating a few runs, but the pitching/defense was able to get out of it unscathed from the 4th through the 8th.
Steven Carrizales relieved Keith in the 7th and also reported he didn’t feel like he had his best stuff.
Carrizales was still able to get us out of the jams though. Limongelli (RF) made some good plays including one where, with the bases loaded, he tracked a well-hit ball to right center that saved us a few runs. Gelli also nearly nailed a guy at first that nearly played out a lot like this.
Offensively, as mentioned the hits were mostly scattered, but Steven, Stillman, and RJ all had multi-hit games. Katy, Gelli, Braden, Jeff, Keith, and Simon all recorded hits. Luke gave a pitch a ride, but it was tracked down in deep left center.
The lights went out in the top of the 9th.
Post-game drinks and eats at Kinda Tropical.
Was definitely a solid Sandlot Saturday night.
Final score —
Drag – a good amount
Jardineros – a fair amount
7.20.2024 – Austin Drag vs. Arsenal Abejas (SA) @ Pittman-Sullivan – 11am
Instagram post about the game.
I somehow managed to allow my Friday evening get away from me.
As one famous quote goes, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” Friday night, I might’ve had both. Anyways, I awoke on Saturday morning (gameday) at the time I had expected to depart Austin for San Antonio (9am).
I bet you’d imagine that getting a fairly late start for a game that was 90 minutes away would make me late? Nope. I arrived at 10:45am and had plenty of time to get loose since the game didn’t begin in earnest until 11:25am. Why the delay? I guess “roster constraints” for the local team was the largest factor. I was the last Drag to arrive and brought our numbers up to 14 for the day.
So, how’d the game go?
It went without an umpire. Which is fine for the meaningless baseball we play.
There are sports, such as ultimate frisbee, that promote themselves as “self-officiated.” The idea being that sports, especially youth sports, don’t always need an authority figure out there enforcing rules and penalizing infractions. These self-officiated games promote that competitors should be able to resolve any and all conflicts with calm and measured discussions.
Ultimate frisbee doesn’t have balls and strikes though. As someone who has volunteered umping dozens of games, it’s not particularly fun, and it’s damn-near impossible to be impartial. So, an already meaningless game without an umpire reduces the game’s “meaning” even further as the 3-5 players volunteering to ump are all going to have varying degrees of game command, knowledge, and considerably different strikezones.
Lastly, as far as I know, most of the sandlot umps we use employ a “three hours or 8/9 innings– whichever comes first” rule. You know what umps are usually good at doing? Keeping the game moving. This game drug. The heat clearly affected gameplay and pace. “Hustle” isn’t something I’d say either team was employing. With the offensive team providing the umpire, it’d be false to say that the strikezones were “pitcher friendly,” which only intensified the game’s dragging (smaller strikezone = more walks = longer innings).
Hey, hey! Are you done bitching yet?
Well, no. The delayed start time.
The game lasted from 11:25am to 2:20pm which somehow only netted six innings.
The heat certainly got to the hungover and hangry sandlotters that had just about had enough by 2pm.
I’m not even certain if this stupid post is playing these circumstances up or playing them down, but there honestly wasn’t too much bristling between the teams. Most exchanges were pleasant. Understandably, a few disagreements popped up. They were mostly handled in a fine and reasonable manner.
Late in the game, while I was umping from behind the mound, there was a play at the plate that I didn’t actively hustle to get in position to have a good perspective. Even if I had hustled down there, it would’ve been like trying to see what happens when two children dive in an oversized sandbox for a dinnerplate during a dust storm. Who’s to say what actually happened?
Braden, the runner, thought he was safe. The catcher thought he was out.
I explained that all I saw was a dust cloud and that they should figure it out. Shotgun suggestions were made and not particularly well-received. Then Braden quickly proposed Ro Sham Bo (best 2 out of 3).
Braden won. Never dance with the devil.
Did yall actually play baseball?
Yeah, and Nick Stillman let everyone know that he knows how to hit. Man went 4-4 with double-digit RBIs.
Jeff pitched two good innings. I managed to get through a single iffy inning.
Keith was steady as ever, finishing the rest of the game on the mound.
The Drag built a tiny cushion early and maintained it. It was a game of rallies and The Drag were able to record just a few more than The Abejas.
Final thought: a midday game at Pittman-Sullivan in July feels more like an Arizona Ironman Competition (or a scene from Jarhead) than it does a recreational booze-fueled baseball game.
7.20.2024 – South Austin Parakeets vs. North Austin Space Cowboys @ Govalle – 7pm
Instagram post about the game (I’ll update it once the post-game ig post has been posted).
Godbless. Following the game in San Antonio, I got some much-needed tequila and texmex with some Dragsters in San Marcos, dipped in the river (thank Christ), hustled home, then booked it for Govalle’s friendly confines.
In these dog days of summer, many sandlot rosters tend to experience slight reduction (travel, heat, obligations, whatever). As was the case for the Keets, I got the invite to be their 10th man.
The Keets have arms and bats. Because it’s sandlot, pretty much all our gloves fall asleep from time to time, but the Keets always seem to have a really strong pitching rotation and their lineup catches barrels and puts up runs.
Without a doubt, Saturday was a tale of two games.
The evening’s conditions were favorable. Umpire Studebaker kept things moving. Both teams swung lumber and made plays. Honestly, an exceptional Sandlot Saturday night.
The Space Cowboys started a fella in left that I had never seen prior to this game and is someone I can only assume whose moniker is “Big Country.” I have no idea if he’s “country” or not, the dude just looked and moved like a DII weakside linebacker (apologies if he was actually a DI linebacker). Big Country started the game in left and killed The Keets’ first-inning rally by throwing a dart to home to nail a runner. Very impressive throw.
After that, the game featured a lot of offense and pitching (Carlos, Rob, Bryce) on the Keets’ side.
The Space Cowboys put together some strong rallies late, but, for the most part, the Keets cruised.
An exceptional Sandlot Saturday night.
My last roll of film was destroyed by operator error (I made a film mistake– dammit).
No new photos this time, but here are some older photos (and the google photo folder can be found here).
