We're All Friends Here

We’ll get to The Adventure of Danny and the Ogre eventually, which proved that, in fact, we are not all friends here, at least not all of the time, and at least not when one thing leads to another and there is a near-death experience.

All in good time. There’s a lot to catch up on, particularly since The Management didn’t do a blog update last week in honor of America. If we are forced to blog on our nation’s birthday, then the terrorists have truly won.

So, we’ll start with last week, which started like most recent weeks, with a rainout. Edgeley 8 was under water for our game against the Zoo on Monday, and that one has been rescheduled for next week, if you take a gander to the right-hand column, you can see that for yourself and commit it to memory.

The following night Edgeley 8 was still under water and we moved to Edgeley 4 for our game against Fleisher Art Memorial, which was fine until the teams that actually had the permit for the field showed up. (Not before The Management raked the field for about a half-hour, however.) So, we moved to Dairy 1, the baseball field, and it was a little goopy but we got the game in, much to Brian Donlen’s eventual dismay.

If there was a highlight to the game, it was when Kyle Jakubowski decided to flip The Management as Kyle slid into the third base, saying, “I just wanted to make the blog.” Ok, fine. You made the blog, Kyle. Now cut it the fuck out.

Brennan, who inspected
Rubin's injured and
bee-stung toe, says Dan
could have played if
he had just sucked it up.

The other notable happening was when Donlen did, indeed, tear up his calf muscle as he ran through the muck to first base. Close followers of the Pen & Pencil softball team will observe that almost all of Donlen’s injuries involve the path to first base. Most are associated with tripping over the base, so this one was a little different. Teammates suggested various helpful remedies before Donlen got pissed and limped off.

Anyway, we won the game 20-9. We built up a quick 9-0 lead, then led just 11-9 after the fifth inning, then scored nine more in the final two innings to put it away. This game marked the triumphant, if short-lived return of Julie Dugan, who clearly hates us wicked now and will only show




Cardboard Ron in the snow at
Logan Pass, courtesy of
Jon Snyder, one of our missing
colleagues last week.

  up if B.J. kidnaps her and throws her in the car.
Good hitting night. Four hits for Russ Krause, George Miller and, Chris Yasiejko; three hits each for Steve Lynch (HR), Mark Nevins (5 RBIs), The Management, Clark, and Donlen, including the last one that, well, you know.
That was plenty of excitement for one week. This week, another scheduled doubleheader, against the Tap on Monday and the Green Tambourinists on Tuesday, and these actually happened, despite rain earlier in the day Monday and a light sprinkle during the game on Tuesday.
Well, the Tap. Where to begin?

It was a reunion of sorts as we pulled in some super subs to take the place of a big number of P&Pers who had either injuries, work obligations, out-of-town travel or, in the case of Lynch, awesome Phillies tickets, yo, ha-ha, my man.

The picture up top is of Mark and Al from the Tap Room, and The Management along with super subs Chip Proctor and Mike Trout. Ryan and Nick are in the picture, too, because, like the other guys, we all played on the same Delco Sunday team at one time. It was quite an experience, but that's for another day. It sure was nice to see everyone and know that, no matter what, it was going to be a pleasant, friendly evening.
Those who were there are aware that only lasted until some harmless bantering got slightly out of hand and there was some chirping from both sides and then Danny decided to call Ogre an asshole, and Ogre called him an asshole, and Benson called Danny an asshole, and Ogre said let’s fight and Danny started to walk toward him, and Camel (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) jumped on Ogres back and Ogre didn’t seem to notice all that much. Incredibly enough, however, there was no fight. Everyone calmed down and whatever hallucinations Danny had been having appeared to clear and the game continued.

The three Millers, and the
two Mookies. Although the
twin is named Tiger, of course.

Of course, it continued with Big Chris, Ogre and Camel hitting consecutive home runs in their next at-bats, just to show they were awake now. If you saw the home runs, I don’t have to describe them. It you didn’t, I couldn’t possibly describe them. Camel’s hit the road on the fly from Edgeley 4 in straight-away center field, just carrying Trout’s car. Elmer’s ball went very, very far past Edgeley 3. Chris’ ball probably only went 350 feet to right-center.
Without that little outburst of pissed-offness, we had a shot at the game, which we lost 17-12. In fact, we still had a shot at it, loading the bases with two outs in the seventh before the rally flamed out there. It was a pretty good game, result notwithstanding.
We trailed 10-1 in the bottom of the fourth, but rallied to make it an 11-8 game before the big guys hit their big shots. Still a good effort against a team we are likely to see in the playoffs, and this time with all our players.
In the scorebook, Krause and Proctor with three hits each, two each for Nevins, Tommy Rowan and The Management. Nevins also brought salty snacks in honor of Ellen’s world tour.
That brought us to Tuesday and more roster issues as we headed into a game against the Green Tambourine. No women. We were 0-for-5 on female availability from our roster, so George recruited Gabi and Amandah to keep us legal and George has been promoted to Assistant General Manager for Double-X Chromosome Scouting and Acquisition.
This being George Miller Day at the park, there was also a visit from George’s father and grandfather and….wait for it…. Mookie’s twin brother, Tiger! Who knew?
Well, we won the game 11-7 after starting off with some fielding hijinks that were awful. Miller, of course, was a perfect 3-for-3 and drove in three of our runs. Lynch had two hits including a home run to right field. Two hits also for Amandah and McElhatton, who did not challenge anyone to fight or call anyone an asshole in this game, as far as I know.
We scored eight of our runs in the third inning, which means we scored a total of three in the other five at-bats. It was fine on this night, but we’ll need to do better soon.
Anyway, happy 4th of July. Onward.


Gabi and Amandah, feeling proud to have been part of Pen & Pencil Club softball. Donlen is at left, working on rehabilitation program. Ron walks sadly away, wondering why the Management forgot to bat him.