Heartbreaking Loss To Cardiac Kids

     I came to the game with a clipboard (because Donna said that would make me look make managerial) and a color-coded Excel spread sheet showing the Buccos lineup and that of our opponent, the Cardiac kids, which I attached to the cyclone fence around our visitors’ dugout using bread bag ties. It was the 5:15 pm game that follows minutes after the 3:45 pm game. No time to say inspiring things to the Buccos ahead of our inaugural game of the spring-summer season of the LA County Senior Softball League!

     I looked frantically for my pitcher’s mask, pawing through my official Boombah baseball backpack with its two bat sleeves, and multiple pockets to store my Boombah baseball sunglasses, batting gloves, wallet, phone, Gatorade and spare balls. Oh there it is, on the dugout bench where I left it. The umpire summoning me and Ben Franco, who is also a rookie manager for his Cardiac Kids, to exchange lineups, point out who the subs are, and who needs a designated runner. Ben, a Cuban émigré, is one of the best outfielders and lefty hitters in the league. Also, one of the loudest, though his incessant chatter is always good-natured.

     I had drafted a team that I thought would be defensively strong. This proved to be the case throughout a back-and-forth game.                                     -----                  -----                         -----                      -----

     The draft, held a week earlier, was similar to a Fantasy Baseball draft. I’ve never been involved with Fantasy Baseball so I was unfamiliar with the “snake draft”. The first round is for 9 and 10-rated players, and then subsequent rounds pick the 8s, 7s, and so forth down to the lowest-rated 3s and 2s. The managers drew numbers out of a hat to determine the order of the picks. And then that was reversed for each subsequent round.

     I drew the number one pick. Each manager was allowed to have a “plus one” at their table, and Donna Sloan was mine. She told me to pick one of the less-acclaimed 9s to insure I could get my top choice of an 8 when the “snake” turned in the next round - I wanted Mark Lambert as my deputy. Even as I was shouting out my top pick to the commissioners, another manager started walking over to me saying what a bad idea that was. “No, No. Sit down asshole,” Donna said, employing her term of endearment for friends. “This is his pick.” The manager would later admit he himself wanted to employ that strategy.

     There are nearly 250 players in the LA County league. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses requires a ton of preparation, with veteran managers having a distinct advantage. I went into the draft hoping to land certain players – Lambert, Greg Waskul at third, Doug McIntyre in left-center – and I got them. Donna gave me good scouting reports on my other picks.

     In the end, each team was roughly equal, with a similar number of high, middle, and low-rated players. We all congratulated each other on what fine rosters we had.                                                                                                       -----              -----                     -----                -----

     I quickly discovered that pitching and its prep, not to mention getting ready to hit, gets in the way of managing in the dugout. Who's going to coach the bases? Who can run for the hobbled? Who's keeping the scorebook? I had drafted veteran leaders to make sure these tasks were getting done  - and they did just that.

    They also were a whirlwind at the plate. The first three batters in our lineup – Mark, Doug and our top-rated shortstop Joe Blachman - went 9 for 9. The Kids also hit well. The game turned in the 6^th inning when I walked their lowest-rated player to load the bases, sending Ben and his bench into a howling crescendo. The next hitter drove a single to left, where the setting sun was shining into the eyes of anyone facing it. Joe took the cutoff throw and fired a strike to Patty Rebbe, the Bucco’s catcher. Patty raised her throwing hand to block the sun blinding her, and that’s where Joe’s throw hit her. She showed us her grotesquely crooked ring finger later in the dugout.

     The Buccos went on to lose the game 14-11. Afterward, Patty went to Urgent Care, where she got treated for two fractures in that finger.

      “This is a good team that's only going to get better as the season goes along,” I told the team afterward. “Patty is hors de combat for a few weeks, but hopefully she can rejoin the team later this summer when we're really rolling.”