Ciao a Tutti!
For those who are not familiar with it, this article is the regular assessment of events that are worth assesing, by our most experienced player... (thanks a lot REG!), with some additional comments from the coaches' side. I hope you will enjoy it as we did...
P.&R. - "The Karaoke Bros."
Well, as an observer/player this past weekend in Mallare, I just couldn't refrain from sending out a little blurb on the exploits, games, fun, rousing and carousing that took place. Some of you might know the Rowdies Gazette which I have published for many years (for fat old beer drinkers only). All comments are made purely in fun. And, if I butcher the name spellings, please forgive me.. you'll know who I mean I'm sure. As for the real facts, I'm writing this from memory, and those cells are fading daily. Any distortions or untruths are purely intentional.
The trip itself seemed to go pretty smoothly getting there. Some of us could not find Mont Blanc tunnel once the French gendarmes put us into a detour, but we did see a few extra roads that weren't on the intinerary. So that made us a bit late arriving. At that point finding the hotel was the next challenge, but eventually all logistics problems were solved and we were able to start the weekend of fun and games with what most of us seemed to like the most.. eating and drinking.. oh and playing some ball.
Friday nite saw the strick cufew of Coach Peter and Rado severly challenged.. especially by Coach Peter and Rado themselves. Normally, they are not permitted more than 1 hour of sleep per nite during road trips, but this time they must have been getting at least 2 hours. I have the feeling that some folks might have had a bit of a headache on Saturday. Charlie can sure vouch for that I'm sure.
At the Saturday nite meal, there were a few folks consuming very little alcohol. My hat is off to anybody who managed to eat all 84 courses and still waddle onto the field the next morning.
However, it appeared a few of the Dragon ladies wanted to form a dance group to accompany the Peter-Rado duet (or whatever name they go under).
Looks like a lot of other hidden talents in both the coaching staff and players of the Dragons.
Rumor has it that curfew was almost observed on Sat nite (or should I say Sunday morning) with certain parties scouting out other bars in town.
On the game front on Saturday, we did pretty well. Won 2 and tied 1 from what I recall. That game we tied was the toughest one of the day and our butts were saved by Delphine coming up with a pressure packed clutch hit followed by another from Riza. The big sticks... (guys that is) were struggling.. thank goodness the girls saved them.
Being a team who does not want to win too easily, we kept finding ways to help the other teams out.. always a nice gesture on our part.. then they feed us better. BaseRunning 101 rules were forgotten a few times just to keep things interesting... eh! (that 'eh' is from my Canadian heritage).
Some other plays that stood out (other than some goofy ones)..Rado striking out a ton of batters over the weekend to get us to the final. A really good performance.. I guess as long as he has enough beer fuel, he can pitch all day long now. We should get more runs for him. Then he wouldn't have to strike out all those poor batters just to ensure a 0-0 tie game.
Speaking of hitting, we had some really good hits from Jessica, Delphine and of course an inside the park grandslam homerun from Floriane. It's a good job everybody on base (all ladies) were quick afoot or they would have been trampled by the batter. From the guys, only Rob managed to put one out of the park. But we had some good hits from Ben, Ken, Peter and Rado. Even ol' Reg got a couple of RBI's in the Sunday morning game.
Another hilite was a superduper slide into homplate by Magali (you know...the little lady shortstop that must weigh about 50 kg sliding into a 120 kg catcher.. and in shorts no less). Best part, she was safe at the plate. Lotta spunk to do that.
The final game was interesting to say the least..not easy to work 20 people into one 5 inning game. Even then we kept making it close. Seemed to give up a few runs except for Delphine who pitched a scoreless inning. Anyway, the crowd loved it and it was a chance for all the ladies to experience a final and get that feeling of 'we're in the final now, not behind the plough'.
That's about all that comes to mind to this writer. Maybe the coach would like to add a few comments.. let's see what comes in the next paragraphs.
Reg
