Winter Haven Senior Softball

It's Better, To Bring The Leather! 

Usually after the ball game on Friday, a few American League players lounge around after the game and have a beverage of choice. Occasionally, we break out a few cigars, lite them up and look back on the game. If you look into the cigar smoke close enough, you can see images of the game replayed. Staring through the mist, I can see Ron Pepin running full speed in left field, to make a brilliant over the shoulder catch on a deep fly.  I can see Herb O making fantastic catches in both deep right field and shallow right field, to rob players of hits. I can see Mike Wiltshire going into the hole at shortstop to track down a ground ball that should have gone through for a hit, but instead lands in his mitt. I can see Kirk Coffman making a shoe string catch, on a line drive in left field. Those are some good cigars, aren’t they? Unfortunately, I can see a few other images that are not as pleasing, images of bobbled balls, missed throws and bad base running.

In the American league action today we had the Jokers vs the Pokers. One team poked out hits and surgically played the field, while the other team played the fool. I say that with a certain amount of respect, because there were solid ball players on that Joker team, including yours truly. To explain things further, think of the beat and try and focus on the lyrics from the Main Ingredient’s song, from 1972, “Everybody Plays The Fool”. There is a measure of truth in that music.

“Ok, so your heart is broken.

You're sitting around mopin', cryin', cryin'

You say you even think about dying

Well, before you do anything rash, baby, dig this

Everybody plays the fool, sometime

There's no exception to the rule, listen baby

It may be factual, it may be cruel, I ain't lying

Everybody plays the fool.”

The Jokers, Visiting team: Dampier, Laffoon, Toro, Giordano, T. Smith, Matta, Coffman, Kallister, Ambrosia, Poke and Burns.

The Pokers, Home team: Herb O, Wiltshire, Jacobs, DeRidder, Jacobson, Pepin, Gallagher, Vandenberg, Wells, Borrelli and Fabian.

The Jokers, or fools, or comedians, or jesters, or whatever you want to call us, played second bananas to the Pokers, in this game. Both teams hit well. The difference in the game were the number of great fielding plays that the home team came up with, while the visitors sometimes played with butter fingers.

The Pokers took advantage of the errors and added on some timely hits, to take the lead in the 5^th inning. Singles by Herb O, Jacobs, DeRidder and Pepin, along with a sacrifice fly by Jacobson, helped to drive in four runs. After 5 innings of play the score was Jokers: 9 – Pokers 11.

Despite the fact that the visiting team was busy playing jokes on themselves, by juggling and dropping balls, the game remained close. Neither team had a five run inning during the entire game. The Home team did manage to open up a lead as the game wound down. After eight innings of play the score was Jokers: 10- Pokers: 16. Herb O, Wiltshire, Jacobson, Wells, Vanderberg and Barella all had key hits to help their team down the stretch.  On defense, the Home team made play after play, to keep their lead. You could not get a ball past Herb O in right field, he had a gold glove game.

In the ninth inning, the Jokers stopped fooling around and made a run at the lead. Giordano, Smith, Matta and Coffman started off the inning with hits.  The next few players had force outs, with two outs, Poke came up to the plate and slammed a triple into deep center field. (Poke should have played for the Pokers, because he had an excellent game and his name fit better with the other team). The rally ended after the triple, as the Home team nailed down the final out.

Final Score: Jokers: 14- Pokers: 16.

The truth is that even the best player can make a mistake on a given day, everybody plays the fool sometimes, there is no exception to the rule. Rule #2, good fielding and hitting will beat bad fielding and hitting, most of the time.

WP: Wells.

Leading Hitters:

Dampier: 3/ 5.

Laffoon: 5/ 5.

Toro: 3/5.

Smith: 4/5.

Matta: 3/5.

Coffman: 3/5.

Poke: 4/5 with a triple.

Herb O: 4/5 with a triple.

Jacobson 1 / 2 with a SF and a walk.

Vanderburg: 3 / 4.

Wells: 2/3 and a SF.