Buccos ‘participate’ in draw. Who are we?

     It was like kissing your sister. Or winning a participation trophy. Like rain on your wedding day, with or without the irony. The Buccos and the Dukes played to a deflating 8-8 tie in the LA County Senior Softball League in mid-June.

     "Seemed like both teams were trying to lose the game in the final inning," Dukes' manager Steve Miller told me afterward, looking more relieved than dejected.

     He complained bitterly about his team's foible. His lowest-rated player tried to go from first to third on a hard-hit ball to left, egged on by a loud voice in the dugout shrieking "Take third!", even as the third base coach's outstretched hands were frantically waving at him to stop at second. Jim Paul cleanly fielded the ball and fired a strike to Greg Waskul at third, easily beating the hapless runner. If he had listened to his base coach, he likely would have scored the winning run.

     Because…

     In the bottom half of the 7th, I came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded. All I needed to do was stick my bat out and push a ball to the second base side and Doug McIntyre would have scored easily from third. Or try to lift the ball into the outfield. Anything but crack a sharp ground ball to Bill Freeman, one of the best shortstops in the league. But wait! There's Freeman heaving the ball well to the left of the catcher, who of course, misses the catch. And there's Doug....being called out at the plate?

     "The catcher crossed into my running lane," Doug explained later. To avoid a collision, Doug's instinct in the fog of battle was to lurch toward the home plate side, instead of swerving even wider around the catcher. Technically, that's a running infraction, and the umpire called him out, effectively ending the game. The rule says a runner from third must cross a chalk line delineated about three feet to the left of the plate to avoid entanglements at home.

     Nobody was smiling in the high-five lines at the end of the game, brothers and sisters not kissing, just mumbling anodyne compliments to each other.

Run wide

But not wild

The coach please bide

Not the dugout riled

     The Buccos are now 3-2-1, fourth place in the standings, and just a tick behind the Dukes (3-1-2).        

     The past three games – a blowout win, a blowout loss and the anemic tie - has the Bucco manager scratching his head about what kind of team he has. I decided to consult the I Ching, which I often do when I’m trying to understand trends and patterns. But more on that in a bit. Let’s catch up with the trend so far.

     The previous week, Greg Waskul hit three homers to power a Bucco lineup reminiscent of "The Lumber Company" Pittsburgh Pirate team that won the World Series in 1979, as they crushed the Dodgers 18-6.

     Greg's feat was all the more remarkable because his homers came after he turned his ankle in the soft sand in the batter's box after hitting a foul ball into the screen.

     "I was never able to put any weight on my left leg," Greg told me afterward. "You saw the results in the field. I couldn’t bend to get even the easiest of grounders, and even if I did, I couldn’t plant to throw. I have no idea how the hell I hit the ball so hard off of one leg."

     The Buccos pounded out 24 hits (.510 average), including a half-dozen extra-base hits.

     This wasn't the same team we played last week," Terry O'Connell, subbing for the Dodgers at short and who helped lead the Spare Parts dismantling of our Buccos the week before, told me after the game.

     Indeed, it was not. We all came out with our gold Bucco jerseys with black lettering and Jolly Roger insignia, looking like a team to contend with.

     The soft sand around third base was not only problematic for Greg and his gimpy ankle. I slipped, sprawled to the ground rounding third, and got up with a bloodied knee, which Gene Sherman and Doug ministered to with bandages afterward in the dugout. It didn't seem to hurt my pitching: a walk and a strikeout while holding the Dodgers to 6 runs.

     The week before that, the team lost 15-6 to Spare Parts, which took the Buccos apart like an old beater in an automotive shop. I didn't walk anybody in this game. But maybe I should have. The Spare Parts were lacing hits into the holes of the Bucco defense all over the field.

     "I was landing strikes pretty much where I wanted them on the plate, but it was like everything I was throwing was in their wheelhouse," I moaned to Mark Lambert after the game. "They just seemed really comfortable in the box and their bats were on fire." It was like they went into the dugout for the top of the 4th, gulped down cans of spinach, and came out swinging like Popeye. 

     After these last three wildly different outcomes, I asked the I Ching what kind of team we had; what is our trend line. 

     The toss of six Chinese coins yielded the hexagram Sun, a time of “Decrease”, with the image of a mountain over a lake. At first blush, that sounds like a bit of a bummer, but as with all things Taoist, it bodes well: Decrease will inevitably turn to increase. It all depends on making small but needed adjustments going forward in a spirit of humility, the Book of Changes advises. “The mountain edge crumbles into the lake…bringing joy.”

Buccos blown out

Send in the clowns

Buccos bring the clout

Well blow me down