Some pix from last night's game

Akamites 24, Catfish 2

Hi Fish and Friends,

 

It was a tough loss last night to the Akamites. Still, as ever, the Fish played better than the score reveals.

 

Highlights include the Abbate Triple Threat: Matt the Baffler (who baffled both at the plate and on the mound), John the Abbatoirist (who slaughtered the ball at the plate), and, in his triumphant return to the Catfish, Art L’Artiste (who, if you’re interested, can tell you how to get to Carnegie Hall, and who had a stupendous catch in short field). Those two runs were also a big highlight, both scored by Jon Butters Elwell; one RBI went to his own bad self, as he got us on the board with a homerun in the bottom of the 2nd, and the other RBI went to the H Bomb Hasley, fierce as ever at the plate.

 

We were a lean machine, missing several Fish: Evan the Beast (who was off being trained by his batting coach, Li’l Beast Edith), Kate The Scalder (who was off in New Orleans, attending a conference that has to do with a little side gig she has in publishing), Nate The Lawyerator (who has left us for Boot Camp, ostensibly to train for the National Guard, but really in order to transform himself into a Robo-Lawyerator for future Catfish seasons), and Beth The Mórrígan Moore (valiantly sacrificing Catfish glory in order to see off The Lawyerator and bid him farewell). In DL news, Marc The Magical Clavicle turns out to really have a magical clavicle, as the bones are magically healing on their own and he will not need surgery.

 

Overall, we Fish, as always, have nothing to be ashamed of. Brilliant catches and hits were made and smashed by the likes of Let’s Go Pickles Picazio, Chris Chrazy Eyes Eyer, Hot Stuff José, Richard Richie Rich, and the above aforementioned Fish. We knew all along, in the words of Chrazy Eyes, that “even if we lose, we shall still have had the cruise”—the Charles River Cruise of last Tuesday. They can’t take that away from us, Catfish Nation—nooooo, they can’t take that away from us! (Imagine jazz hands here and Carnegie Hall.)

 

Please join us next week, June 30, when we play the Straw Dogs on field 8 at 5:30.

 

 

June 23, 2014, vs. Akamites

Batting Order

1. Ryan

2. José

3. Chris

4. Butters

5. John A

6. Art

7. Matt

8. Erin

9. Rich

10. Judy

 

 

Pitch	Matt
Catch	Erin
1B	José
2B	Judy
SS	Butters
3B	Rich
SF	Art
LF	Chris
CF	Ryan
RF	John A

 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
Akamites	1	7	3	0	9	0	4	24
FISH!	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2

 

Catfish victorious over Mudhens, win 14 - 13!

It was a glorious day in Catfish Nation last night as we had our first victory in over a year, beating the Mudhens 14 – 13!

The Catfish are truly coming into our own. We were all on fire at the plate, and all of us made it to base. Ryan Pickles Picazio, though robbed several times, had at least one double, as did Hot Stuff José and Evan The Beast Mauser. The Aforementioned Beast also had a key home run in the top of the third inning, securing our lead against the ferocious Mudhens. The rest of us all had singles, often several of them: Butters Elwell, Kate the Scalder, Matt the Baffler, Erin the H-Bomb, Richie Richard Wladkowski, our rookie Chris “Crazy Eyes” Eyer, and even yours truly, Captain Batty.

Defensive highlights included Butters making all 3 outs in the first inning, and some serious snags of line drives by Crazy Eyes and Hot Stuff. Perhaps the biggest highlight of all was when we held them to 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th. They got a grand slam that inning, folks, but did the Fish hang their fishy heads and cry? Did we give up? No! We bellowed. This Shall Not Stand. We rose up to form the Impenetrable Wall of Fish of Olden Times, and we chased those clucking mudhens out of our barnyard.

Actually what probably kept us going was what Crazy Eyes kept chanting: “Even if we lose, we’ve still got the cruise!” Fish were focused on the game but also quite relaxed, secure in our knowledge that Fish Power comes from within, not from any scoreboard, and it also comes from enjoying the good times, like the Awards Ceremony Cruise that we Pressers will happily partake in today. Also we should note that The Mudhens were a very nice team, one of the nicest ever, and we couldn’t ask for a sweeter bunch of hens to provide our first win of the season.

Edith “Li’l Beast” Mauser cheered us on adorably the entire time.

Much celebration with beer and pizza followed at the Muddy Charles Pub. Please join us next week, June 23, when we face the Akamites on field 9 (same field as this time).

Go Fish!

Batting Order

1. Ryan

2. José

3. Butters

4. Kate E.

5. Chris

6. Evan

7. Matt

8. Erin

9. Rich

10. Judy

June 16, 2014, vs. Mudhens

	1,3,5	2,4,6	7
Pitch	Kate	Matt	Kate
Catch	Erin	Erin	Erin
1B	José	José	José
2B	Judy	Judy	Judy
SS	Butters	Butters	Butters
3B	Chris	Chris	Chris
SF	Matt	Kate	Matt
LF	Evan	Evan	Evan
CF	Ryan	Ryan	Ryan
RF	Rich	Rich	Rich

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
FISH!	0	3	3	2	0	4	2	14
Mudhens	0	2	0	2	4	0	5	13

What the Fugactiy 20, Catfish 4

Dear Catfish Nation,

We were up against a tough team last night, though they were awfully polite, and their pitcher was full of southern hospitality. Still, not quite enough hospitality to keep their score under 20 runs. But overall I think we Catfish felt that we’re playing better and are approaching our pinnacle of peak performance. Defensively we were quite strong, nearly impenetrable, especially, as you can see, in the 1st, 2nd, and 5th innings. Kate The Scalder’s pitching was truly smoking, as she baffled them into hitting a lot of pop-ups, most of which we Fish caught! Richard “Richie Rich” stopped some bullets at 3rd base, as did Jon “Butters” Elwell at shortstop. Hot Stuff José, nursing a tricky ankle, filled in at 1st  and caught many bullets himself from Butters. Butters also made a very graceful running catch, which was a stunner. Superb catching and hustle in the outfield by Nate the Lawyerator, Ryan “Let’s Go Picazio” Picazio, Beth The Mórrígan Moore, and Matthew the Baffler. The H Bomb Hasley showed lots of hustle behind the plate as well as at the plate, as ever.

I think we all managed to scrabble our way to base, though many of us were also robbed of sweet hits (I recall Hot Stuff José in particular in this regard). The Mórrígan had a great night at the plate with at least two singles. Still, all our fierce determination and scrappiness was not enough to overcome the mysterious fugacity of the other team. I asked their captain “what the fugacity is fugacity, anyway?” and got a response that mentioned something about thermodynamics, evaporating water, and equations. Personally I think it is a cover up for the juice: steroids. If you read between the lines of the Wikipedia entry, I think you will agree with me.

As always, we prefer to focus on the positives: We held them to 20 runs, a clear improvement over last week’s 26 runs. And we ourselves broke our mysterious “5 run” streak. Apparently we’re no longer stuck on 5 runs. Granted, it would have been better to break this streak by scoring 6 runs instead of only 4, but still. Anything to shake things up a little.

At any rate, please join us next week, June 16, when we play the Mudhens on Field 9 at 5:30.

For more on fugacity, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMBoLiQJMFQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugacity

June 9, 2014, vs. What the Fugacity

Batting Order

1. Matt

2. José

3. Ryan

4. Butters

5. Kate E.

6. Nate

7. Beth

8. Erin

9. Judy

10. Rich

Pitch	Kate
Catch	Erin
1B	José
2B	Judy
SS	Butters
3B	Rich
SF	Matt
LF	Nate
CF	Ryan
RF	Beth

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
What the Fugacity ?	1	0	5	4	1	4	5	20
Fish	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	4

Fish stuck on 5 runs, fall hard to Whybunts

Hi Fish and Friends,

It was another difficult loss for the Fish last night, though there were several triumphs nonetheless. For one, we had our John "Tslammin' Tslammy" Tsai back, after a long and difficult recovery! He batted with a pinch runner, and though he made serious and solid contact, he waz robbed of his hits. Still it was a glorious sight to see. He also pitched a few innings for us. Go Tslammy! I hear that he is sore today but smiling. We hope he'll continue to feel well enough to play a bit for us, but that he'll know when to take it easy. No Presh Tslammy!

Also, Evan "The Beast" Mauser returned, with the cutest little Catfish Edith in tow. She once forced him to make use of a pinch runner just so he could quickly get back to the dugout to coo at her and tend to her whims. But he didn't seem to mind so much! Next game we'll have Edith the Beastlet batting clean-up for us and she and Butters can take turns at shortstop.

As always we made some fantastic catches, in particular some I recall by Nate The Lawyerator, Butters, Evan The Beast, and John The Abbatoirist Abbate. Matt The Baffler did his usual magic on the mound and also ran the bases quite aggressively. Kate The Scalder did a great job at 1st again, making for a fiery team with Hubbie Butters at shortstop. Hasley H-Bomb caught with her usual aplomb, Richie Rich was raucous at 3rd, and Hot-Stuff José, The Beast, The Abbatoirist, The Lawyerator, and The Mórrígan Moore fended them as best they could in the outfield. And though the score belies this, our bats were on fire. Nearly all of us got on base. I do think we had them running scared in the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd innings, but that 5th inning was the doozy.

Afterwards beers and pizzas were consumed with great relish, which is all that really matters, along, of course, with the great fun that was had by all, and the poignant memories we shall forever hold in our fishy little hearts of that sunny summer evening.

Join us next Monday at 5:30 on field 8, when we play What the Fugacity.

June 2 vs. Whybunts on Women's Softball Diamond

Batting Order
1. Nathan
2. Kate E
3. Butters
4. John T. [w/ pinch runner]
5. Evan
6. Beth
7. Matthew
8. Erin
9. Judy
10. José
11. Rich
12. John A.

	1, 3, 5	2, 4, 6	7
Pitch	Matt 1, John T. 3, 5	Matt	Matt
Catch	Erin	Erin	Erin
1B	Kate E.	Kate E.	Kate E.
2B	Judy	Nate	Judy
SS	Butters	Butters	Butters
3B	Rich	Rich	Rich
SF	Nate	John A.	Nate
LF	Evan	Evan	Evan
CF	José	José	José
RF	Beth	Beth	Beth

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	TOTAL
Fish	2	1	0	0	0	1	1	5
Whybunts	7	0	1	4	9	5	X	26