Trivia Tuesday

Today's Trivia:  

• On Aug 5th,1984 - Toronto's Cliff Johnson hits his 19th career pinch home run, breaking the major league record of 18 he had shared with Jerry Lynch. Johnson's eighth-inning blast gives the Blue Jays a 4-3 win over the Orioles. (the Rays could use an Orioles loss about now)
• Larry Powell's birthday is tomorrow August 6th.

Of the two games today, the game on Servicemaster turned into it's own trivia contest.  The Visitors included Dampier, Rivera, Duff, Gonzalez, Witmer, King, Constantine, Wells, and Strait against a home squad featuring Coffman, Lafoon, Jacobs, Torres, Butler, Smith, Hill, Powell, and Gibson.

What are the odds that these two teams would score ten runs before making an out.  The score was 5-5 before the first out was recorded and then 10-5 with only a single out having been made.

The Visitors highlights included homers by Fred Dampier and Miguel Gonzalez plus a Chuck Duff double in the first followed by a Chuck Duff triple in the second inning. The Home squad's extra base hits came off a Raul Torres double and a Ron Butler triple. The visitors then continued their slugging ways posting 5 more runs while making only the first out of the game. But the home team scrappers kept trying and by the sixth inning managed to get back to a tie game at 17 each.  Over the span through six innings highlights for the Visitors included another Chuck Duff double  and a triple by Jose Rivera while the Homers had a pair of Jim Lafoon doubles and a rash of singles. 

In the seventh inning the Home Team took the lead for the first time in the game and plated 5 runs on doubles by Kirk Coffman and Jim Lafoon over the Visitors 3 runs mainly due to a homer by Jose Rivera and a pair of doubles.  One by Miguel Gonzalez and one by Chuck Duff (again). 

In the eighth, the visitors closed the gap scoring 2 runs to the visitors 1 making it a one run ball game going into the final frame.  

The hero of the game for the Visitors was Russ King who scored the tying run after smacking a lead-off triple. Tying up the game was all they could muster however when the next three batters went down in order.  Then here comes the hammer with the top of their order up.  With two men on and nobody out, the Frank Jacobs hit a deep sac fly ball advancing both runners.  With runners at second and third the visitors intentionally loaded the bases to get to Ron Butler with one out.  Ron hit a nice deep line drive that was fielded cleanly by Chuck Duff but the runner from third failed to tag up and had to return to third. That made it two away, bases still loaded. Then the anti-climax when the last batter of the game flied out to left center leaving us with that "just kissed your sister" feeling.

Final Score 23 all 

Key Hitters: 

• Dampier  4 for 6 HR
• Rivera  4 for 6 HR 3B
• Duff 5 for 6 3B 3-2B
• Gonzales 6 for 6 HR 2B
• Wells 4 for 6
• Coffman 4 for 7 2B
• Lafoon 6 for 7 3-2B
• Jacobs 4 for 7
• Torres 4 for 6 2B BB
• Smith 6 for 7
• Hill 4 for 6
• Gibson 4 for 6

Submitted by Ron Butler


Meanwhile on Gessler Clinic Field

It was a jungle out there today.  With the visitors, managed by Richie Moots(Herbie O, Simon, Zelazny, Chrest, Matta, Moots, Barnes, Merritt, Leggett, Lee Baker) bringing the heat and the home team, managed by Bob Hite(Thompson, Reagan, Lopez, Schapler, Hite, Marino, Mohan, Bess, Ayala, Gene Baker),  brought out the ‘Richie the Cheetah Marino’ and the other animals. Now no one is sure if they meant Tarzan’s best friend, the fastest land animal or the fact that Richie was robbing the visiting team blind in right field.  Bob Zelazny was so impressed with Richie defense that he gave him the one finger salute.  It was all in good fun and the game was close the whole way. 

With only 10 players the home team employed the old 5-3 defense while shifting into a 4-4 defense on passing downs.  Oops, wrong game. Sammy Lopez and Serge Ayala both turned in good defensive efforts from short and first base.  The visitors, using the old hidden ball trick play (they switch Matta and Leggett between pitcher and first just about every inning) to great effect.  But in the end the home team squeaked out the game 18-15. 

Top Hitters

Visitors

Zelazny 5-5, 2B, 2-3B, HR

Chrest 4-5

Matta 4-5, 3B

Moots 3-5

Merritt 3-5

Home Team

Thompson 5-6, HR

Reagan 3-5, Sac

Lopez 4-5, 2B, BB

Schapler 6-6

Hite 3-5, BB

Marino 4-6, 2B

Mohan 3-5