The Starting Block Stumble...

...is a new Olympic event. Who can stumble the greatest? Indians win!

Perhaps it was the rain. Perhaps it was the opposition. Perhaps it was the unique way the stars were aligned. Perhaps it was the lack of team unity during the pre-game "Whoa Bundy" cheer. Whatever the reason(s), our play in Sunday's season opener was less than stellar.

As much as it may have looked like it, being down three-zip going into our first at-bat wasn't our game plan. Being up three-zip going into our first at-bat would've resembled our game plan a little better. Sure it would've been difficult, nigh impossible, but we like to aim high!

We must acknowledge Rob E.'s uncanny ability to notice the sinking ship he was on and jump off early. By getting tossed in his first at-bat of the season, in the first inning of the first game of the season, Edger shattered the previous Indians record, which no one really knew about anyway. Now there's a record that will be tough to break.. Start your office pools now: Who will break the tossed-from-game record? Bonus points if you predict the game.. Maybe Edger shouldn't have said what he said to the ump, but all the same, given how many players we had to start the game, perhaps a warning would've sufficed..

Whilst our sink was shipping.. oops.. that is actually how it appeared in my mind before typing.. scary.. Good thing I wasn't trying to type "cunning stunts". Ahem.. as I was saying, whilst our ship was sinking some bright spots could be seen, mainly on the poopdeck. Even down 9 runs, we didn't consider ourselves out of it.. Strong will? Delusional? We prefer the former.. After scraping together 3 runs we had the bases loaded twice without being able to capitalize.. Chris and Enrique had a couple of key hits to drive in some runs, but a few more timely hits from the entire team and we would've had ourselves a real ballgame..

Team leader Kelly was excellent in the leadoff position, doing his job of getting on base. New guy Shane showed potential, this being his first true game in quite some time.. It'll take some time for him to adjust to the pitch speed here at the big show, but he seemed right at home in the field, catching flies with ease.

With a bye week next weekend, we are looking to have an intensive practice on Sunday, or, alternately, a nice leisurely exhibition game. Whichever one happens, the Langley Playaz better be ready on the 24th, cuz next time, we'll mean business (irregardless of how the stars are aligned).

It should be noted, though not quite sure what to say about it, that the ump got a pitch to the cup. The pitch had quite a bit of oomph behind it and a few players in our dugout chuckled, some more than others. Taking a minute to walk it off, the ump was back to work very quickly. Kudos is due.