Yes that is seven "Thank You's." The first Thank You is to Jim McQuade for agreeing to drive down to Coeymans to be our 9th (borrowed player). Thank you #2 is to Dave Schillinger, who came to the game, even though he was experiencing a serious headache and nausea, because he didn't want us to forfeit (due to a late cancellation). Thank you # 3 is to Gene Hallenbeck, who agreed to let us use a quality player like McQuade as a borrowed player. He also agreed to supply us with a second baseman after Dave had to leave because he just couldn't play on, as he started feeling worse as the game went on. Thank you to Jim Bonaparte who came down to play, even though he was supposed to be managing his undefeated 18+ team in a game at Bob Moore. The last three Thank You's go to John Rigos, Shawn Martin, and Greg Mangione, who were our borrowed second basemen over the last 3 innings. Class acts, all of you! THANK YOU!!!
Without all of you this game would never have happened and that would have been a shame because it ended up being a really good game. The Cubs jumped out to a 2-0 lead, on a double by Paul Miles, a single by Ron Massaroni, a RBI double by Mike Girard, and a RBI single by Jim Bonaparte. Mike Kane did a masterful job limiting the damage picking off Massaroni, after his single left runners on first and third. He got two easy grounders to get the other two outs of the inning.
The Whiz got those two runs right back in the bottom of the first, on consecutive singles by Joey Burns, Shawn Martin, and Gene Hallenbeck, followed by a RBI fielder's choice by Mike Kane. The Whiz would take control of the game in the bottom of the third with a 5 run rally. Greg Mangione got it going with a single followed by a fielder's choice. Siriani leaned into an inside curveball to get a second runner on base. Burns walked to load the bases and Shawn Martin brought two home with a 2 RBI single and moved to second on the throw back in to the infield. That brought clean up hitter Hallenbeck to the plate. After a brief conference at the mound the Cubs decided to try two pitches out of the zone to try to get him to chase, and if that didn't work, and they were down 2-0, then they would go ahead and intentionally walk him. Well that was a bad idea. Gene hit a pitch that was around knee high, but got too much of the plate. It was the hardest hit ball I have ever had hit off me. It was about 5 or 6 feet high all of the way to almost making it into the woods way out in lefty field. When you go to play a PBC, you will realize just how hard that ball was hit to make it all of that way. By the time that the ball made it back to a deep cut off man, Hallenbeck was plum tuckered out, standing at third. The relay was misplayed, and he continued home for the 5th run of the inning. Girard avoided more damage by getting two ground outs sandwiched around a walk to Jan Friedman.
The Cubs would close to 7-3 with a run in the 5th on a single by Dan Hernandez, a walk to Jim McQuade, an infield single by Miles, and an RBI ground out by Ron Massaroni. The Whiz answered back with an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning, that didn't seem like much at the time, but ended up as huge. You see the Cubs would not say die, down 5 runs to the undefeated defending champs. With one out, Jim McQuade worked his second walk of the game. Paul Miles walked and Ron Massaroni reached on an error, scoring McQuade. Girard hit into a fielders choice, plating Miles with the second run of the inning. Jerry Rosen followed with a line drive double that went far enough to plate Girard all of the way from first. Now it was a two run game, with Rosen at second and Jim Bonaparte coming to the plate. Everybody in the ball park, at that point realized that because Dave Schillinger's spot was next up, Jim would have to hit the ball far enough to run all of the way around the bases (the temporary fence at PBC has been removed for the Summer). You see, when your 9th player has to leave because he is ill, you take an out every time his spot in the order comes up. We got a meaningless out in the 6th, but the out in the 7th loomed large. Even with some of his players calling for Kane to walk Bones to end the game with a 8-6 win, he showed class and pitched to Bones. The Cubs' first baseman lined a ball down the right field line, scoring Rosen with the 7th run, but had to keep running to try to get all of the way around the bases with the tying run, but was cut down at second on a close play. Didn't matter. With Schillinger's spot up next the game would have been over, even if he was safe at second.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the job that Jeff Friedman did at shortstop tonight for the Whiz. He made 7 plays at short, in the first 5 innings and none of them were routine. Some were even reminiscent of Randy Craft. That is the best job at shortstop that I have seen in the 55+ division since Randy retired.
The Whiz walk away with a 8-7 victory, and remain undefeated, at 8-0. The Cubs drop to 5-3 with the loss. As always, we are all looking forward to getting together again for another highly competitive game. Next up for the Cubs is a meeting with the Damn Yankees on July 7th, at New Scotland. I wish all of you a very happy and healthy 4th of July weekend.
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Wednesday 29th of June 2022 09:47:44 AM
Had Dave's spot already been up once? If so the lineup would condense with no penalty? Although after all the concessions already given it might have been better not to take another one.
5-7: If a team has no reserve players and a player is ejected, an out shall be recorded each time his spot in the order comes up for the entire game. If a team has no reserves and a player is forced to leave a game for any other reason, an out shall be recorded when said players turn comes up the first time. After that, the lineup shall condense with no further penalty.
Both sides thought that once you go from 9 to 8, for any reason, the penalty would be an out each time the spot come up. The last out of the game was the second time.
Oh well, lesson learned.
Thanks for shedding the light on this.
It is only the regular season. Wins and losses are not that important.
The effort my very short-handed team gave was more important to me.
With Dave Mitchell, Ron Lochner, Mike Reutter, Andy Hoyle, and Ron McCarthy missing from the batting order, we did quite well scoring 7 round on Mike Kane. I like our chances to do better when I have those guys in the line up.
