Monday night, May 6 at New Scotland, the over-62 Cardinals behind the pitching of Maryland native Bill Chichester prevailed over the Americans
in seven frames, 5-1,

On a pleasantly cool night, Chichester mixed four pitches fastball, sinker, curve and the much-cursed-at knuckler to keep the 1-2 Americans
grounding out much of the night and lifting the 2-1 Cards into second place. Bill allowed only six hits in the victory, none for extra bases.

Americans' outfielder Jesse Braverman got two of the hits, nice liners to left and then he got on a third time on an error. So he was on base
all three times.

Anthony Torre scored the club's only run in the fourth, on his own single, then one of Braverman's hits, a fielder's choice grounder by Mike Hart
and an RBI single by Ed Rogers.

I don't have a full reckoning of all that the Cards did at the plate, but I do remember that centerfielder Mark Josefski showed that though he's
some happy distance yet from ancient, he STILL has speed in them legs. Mark got on first by a walk, then almost instantly stole second, followed by
a slippery run to third on a ground out, and then, on a wild pitch scooted home, sliding, in a minor but memorable collision, under the tag of pitcher Mike Kane.

In the fourth, Cards' shortstop Don Shultis smacked a double and scored (I believe; I was in right field when all this happened) when Rick Saidenburg
singled.

There were several good defensive plays by both teams. The memorable one for me, if I may say, centered on the importance of having
a second baseman with a good voice (an operatic one if possible) and, of course, a good arm when playing at New Scotland.

In the sixth inning, one of the Cards (sorry, not sure which) smacked a nice shot to right center. Americans centerfielder Mike Aiello and
I, playing right, converged on it. I backhanded the ball on a bounce as I was running away from home, toward the fence.

Comes now the roles of the sun and of a good voice:

I turned to throw the ball into the infield, which meant I turned to look directly into the setting sun.

Mama! That's one big blinding yellow ball!

I couldn't see a thing, even with sunglasses. I would have been lost for where to the throw the ball, had I not heard our second
baseman, Rich Garbarino, loudly shouting my name: "Mike! Mike! Here!" (Other days, it's "Mike! Mike Hart!) I still didn't know
precisely where to throw the ball, so I let my toss be guided by Rich's voice.

I threw into his voice.

It worked. Rich caught the ball, spun fast, and fired home, a really fine peg. It bounced once into catcher Mike LaBarge's glove in time to get the
incoming runner by a step from the plate and end the inning.

So, remember that everybody: If you play at New Scotland near sunset, have a second baseman who can go opera for you.

It was nice to see Cards' manager Jerry Hawkins, who's closing in on 78 or 79, playing a good second base. And once again Jack
Radzik made the 500-mile round trip from Rochester to play with the Cards.

Impressive on both counts.

-Mike Hart




-- Edited by mikehart on Thursday 9th of May 2024 03:39:06 AM