P&P 2013: Great Plot, Exciting Story, Many Laughs, But A Scary Ending

Yes, the most successful Pen & Pencil Club softball team season in more than a decade came to a somewhat sudden end on Tuesday at the Dairy fields. Maybe we’re lactose intolerant.
In any case, softball is intolerant of teams that stop hitting and we picked a bad week to give up both sniffing glue and finding the holes in the opposition’s defense. We lost 13-3 to the South Philly Tap Room, which gets the reward of being able to spend all of next week with the Catahoula Refugees. So, maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

Mike Galan returns!

We had a great turnout for the final act in the show, with the exception of those who were somewhere in New Mexico or stuck on the Tappen Zee Bridge. Coming back for the reunion was Mike Galan and Tom Hickey, the latter of whom has moved back to Philadelphia and threatened to rejoin the team next season. I’m sure the new Management will be pleased to have him.
It actually was a pretty well-played game. Our chief worry against the Tap Room is that they will hit the ball over our heads and run around the bases a lot. That didn’t happen. We played them deep and reasonably well. Elmer was charitable enough to fly out in each of his four at-bats.
But because we were deep, they had some bloops that fell in, and were able to take an extra base on some singles and, well, there was plenty of running around as it turned out.

Next season's uniform

We had a couple of untimely miscues and Tap jumped out to a 9-0 lead after two innings. We stayed with them in the final five innings, but weren’t able to generate enough to mount a comeback. Oh, fucking well.
The top six hitters in our order went a combined 5-for-18 and we didn’t get a runner to second base until the third inning. That usually won’t get you to the championship round, and it didn’t this time, either.
In the scorebook, ably kept by Galan in Ron’s absence, we totaled just nine hits. Two each for Steve Lynch and Mark Nevins, and just dribs and drabs otherwise. Chris Yasiejko pitched well in relief of the old Management, and we brought a total of 15 different hitters to the plate. Apologies to Ed Cascarella, B.J. Clark and Dan McElhatton for not letting them share the blame in this.
A welcome back to Ellen Kenney and the salty snacks and thanks for the support from 

P&P confident in Rubin's champagne ability.

Merlin, Mookie and Craig’s kid and his friend. And thanks to whoever brought the celebratory champagne, which didn’t go to waste.
It was a season to celebrate, going 14-4 in the regular season to earn the second seed and a first-round bye. If Tap hadn’t pulled out a 10-9 win over Art in its opening-round game the night before, we would have played the Collar instead in the semis and maybe had a better shot at the final round, but that’s champagne over the bridge at this point.
And it would have meant spending next week with the Catahoula Orcs.

With some reason, apparently.

So, we prepare for the Tuesday, Aug. 6 All-Star Game, which is always a good time, and word has it that general manager Chris Brennan is planning a bang-up team party at the club. Can’t wait for that. If we can just avoid a friendly against Waterworks, our season will be nearly perfect.
Thanks to all. Get your running in. April is just around the corner.