Stuff Happens

It's been a while.

I work in academia, in records, and May is the non-stop busy-busy month for me, so I barely have time even to glance at my fantasy roster once a week and get rid of players who have imploded or retired.

Speaking of fantasy baseball, I started in the bottom of the league, then blasted to the top, settled in between fifth and ninth, out of thirteen teams. My goal isn't to win the league, but to finish somewhere in the middle. Right now the strategy is to stay out of the double-digit range.

I got a start on my baseball tan Memorial Day. My left foot is two-toned because I was wearing sandals. As for the game, Monday was a cloudless day, unusual for Binghamton, and several players lost the fly ball in the "high" sky.

Saturday night before the game I was told the new left fielder Corey Coles was pretty good. He was the lead-off hitter for the B-Mets, hit a home run to start the bottom of the first. Yup, he's pretty good.

During Monday's game, he made a terrific throw from left field toward home. He didn't quite reach the plate, but the catcher had come forward to receive it and the Fisher Cat on third scored. Then something I've never seen happened: the catcher kept walking, not toward the mound but toward the runner who had rounded first and was well off the bag, almost strolling toward second. It finally dawned on the runner when the catcher, ball in hand, got within fifteen feet of him. It was a 2-4-3 put out, but I've never seen a catcher actively involved in a rundown between first and second.

Something I didn't see, but wish I had, happened earlier last week. The B-Mets turned a triple play in the top of the inning and hit a grand slam in the bottom of the same inning.

Another thing I haven't seen before I saw on last night's televised Syracuse Chiefs' game. The batter hit down the right field line and the first baseman Mike Cervenak (the same Mike Cervenak) went for it, his feet went out from under him but he managed to grab the ball and bounce it off the hard turf to the pitcher who was covering. My dad, watching with me, called it a billiards shot.

That turf has got to go. Syracuse Post Standard columnist last week wrote about ten things that the Chiefs should do to get more people to come to the ballpark. Reasons One and Ten were rip out that horrible, decrepit turf.