A Game That
Was Out Of This World!
Hyperbole
Definition: A purposeful
exaggeration or overstatement. In Greek, it literally means to
overshoot.
I often write using
hyperboles to tell a story, in this case to tell the story of a softball game.
My style is unique, but not original, many authors use this technique when
expressing their thoughts and feelings while penning their publications. As an
example, I give you Harper Lee who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. Here she
describes the town of Maycomb, AL and the era. “People moved slowly
then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around
it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but
seemed longer.” She might have used a
similar line to describe our American League game, played on 11/3. The game was
only nine innings, but seemed longer because of the battle and scoring that took
place. Thankfully, for the Visitors, the game was 9 innings long and not 8
innings.
Visiting
Team: Hicks, Wiltshire, Shirer, Doerbaum, Held, Pep, Matta, Reagen, JD,
D’Herin.
Home
Team: Guzzo, Hern, Quinones, Jacobson, Jacobs, Book, Busch, Zelazny, Crowell and
Toro.
It is difficult to
overemphasize the description of this game by using hyperboles, because it was
such a strange game. But, I’ll give it a shot; the game was fly me to Oz, on a
tornado, strange.
Through the first 5
innings both teams were like two equally fast thoroughbreds, running a race,
neck and neck. The score was Visitors:
10-Home: 11 after half the game was played. The teams and the score were
closer than peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich.
During the next three
innings the Home team started to pull away from their opponent. They scored 8
runs and held the visitors to a big fat zero. The eighth inning was their
slamfest. The Home team scored five runs that inning; off of hits by Book,
Busch, Zelazny, Guzzo and Hern. The big blast came off of the bat of Hern, who
had an inside the park HR. After 8
innings the score was Visitors: 10- Home: 19. Note that Jacobs and Quinones
flexed their muscles, earlier in the game, to contribute to that score by
hitting inside the park HRs.
The Visitors came up in
the 9th inning having to overcome a lead that was wider than the
Grand Canyon. Not to mention the fact that our bats had been in the deep freeze
so long, we had icicles growing on them. The team took a never say die attitude
to the plate. Hicks, Wiltshire, Shirer, Doerbaum, Held, Pep and Matta all
reached base before the first out was recorded. Doerbaum had the big blast,
unusual for him, it was an inside the park HR. As opposed to the over the fence
type shot that we have grown accustomed to seeing him hit. Like the one he sent
over the left field fence, in the 3rd inning. Those first seven
batters knocked in 5 runs. A little quick math shows that we were still down 4
runs. The score was now Visitors: 15-
Home: 19.
With 2 runners on base,
JD added a hit and knocked in a run. Now we were down 3 runs, with the score at 16-19 and we had
runners on the corners, with only one out. This is the stuff memories are made
of, memories so thick you have to brush them away from your face, if I can
borrow a hyperbole from the film, “Field Of Dreams”. “Ray. People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa
for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing
for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as
children, longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you look around",
you'll say, "It's only $20 per person". They'll pass over the money without even
thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll
walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll
find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they
sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game
and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be
so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces.”
With the score 16-19,
favoring the Home team, the Visitors had to
have a few more hits, and a little more magic water, if they wanted to take the
Home team to the wood shed. The Visitors recorded their 2nd out of
the inning with runners on 1st and 3rd. Then Hicks,
Wiltshire, Shirer and Doerbaum all reached base. The Wiltshire at bat had
knocked in the tying run. The score was even, 19-19. Shirer’s hit had
knocked in the go ahead run, 20-19. Doerbaum’s single and sent up runners at
1st and 3rd. Held was intentionally walked to load the
bases, in the hopes that Pepin could be retired without any more damage being
done. Big mistake, Pep lined a triple to right field. That all but sunk the home
teams battleship. Matta lined out to right
center to end the inning. The horse was already out of the barn though. The
score was now 23-19. The Visitors swung the wrecking ball, placing 14 men on
base and scoring 13 runs in the inning.
Down but not out, the
Home team tried to rally and reclaim the game, in the bottom of the
9th. Quinones, Jacobson, Book and Busch all reached base, the first
two guys crossed the plate. Only one out was
recorded in the scorebook during that action. The score was now 23-21, the
visitors still in front. Runners were on 1st and 3rd,
when Zelazny came to bat and inadvertently took us to the twilight zone. Bob hit
a ground ball to 2nd base, the ball was momentarily bobbled. The
throw went to 2nd base, to try and cut down the streaking runner. The
ball was then bobbled at 2nd, but the runner was called out and for
good reason. We have a long-standing rule at WHSS that you cannot make contact
with the fielder at 2nd base. The runner must slide or peel off the
bag. Because of interference, the runner was called out at 2nd,
making it the 2nd out of the inning. Meanwhile the runner at
3rd scored on the play, making the score 23-22, in favor of
the visitors. Randy Crowell came up with two outs and singled to right to
push the tying run to 3rd.
The drama was as thick
as a Sherlock Holmes movie. The Visiting team was whistling past the graveyard
while trying to play defense. With runners on the corners and two outs, the game
was on the line. At this point it would not have surprised me if the batter
would have pinballed a hit off the pitcher, bounced it off the first baseman and
the 2nd baseman would have kicked it into right field. That is how
bizarre the game played out, up to this point. The ending was less spectacular.
Donny Held was pitching in relief and got the next batter to pop up and end the
game. Final Score 23-22, the Visitors win a wild one. You might say we
jumped the shark.
Big Sticks
For The Visitors:
Hicks:
5/6.
Wiltshire:
4/6.
Doerbaum:
3/6, two HRs.
Held: 4/5
and a walk.
Pep: 4/6.
Game winning triple.
JD:
4/5.
Big
Sticks For The Home Team.
Guzzo:
4/6 with two doubles.
Hern:
5/6 with a double and a HR.
Quinones:
4/6 with a triple and a HR.
Jacobson:
5/6.
Book:
5/6.
Zelazny:
4/6.
Write up by Nick
Matta
