{crazyjen}

LOH II vs. ReMax

We won 9-5 last night. Yep, it was a good game. We didn't score as much as we normally do but the bats must have been on vacation or something. I did fairly well myself. I think I was either 2 for 4 or 3 for 4. Something like that, maybe a couple RBI's too. I can't quite remember. Yes, I have a horrible short term memory. Long term and anything to do with movie quotes, I'm all over it like white on rice (bees to honey, mosquitoes to blood...)

Highlights: Um...nothing much exciting happened. Ryan caught everything he could in the outfield and he got a lot of balls out there. In fact I called him a ball hog because he got so many. I didn't get anything except one hard grounder, boring.

Just to shake things up I'm going to tell you what I say while I'm out in the outfield. Granted, nobody can hear me, because I'm usually muttering to myself, unless Ryan has ears like a bat or is standing too close.

• "Come on, hit one to me you SOB."
• "Come on, I'm bored, hit one to me already. What are you scared?"
• "Nice pitch Thomas!"
• "Why don't you try hitting that fly ball to me you b$stard."
• "Hit the f*cking ball girl. This is slow pitch. Walking isn't allowed unless the pitches are utterly and totally horrible."
• "Come on Thomas! Take 'em yourself."
• "Kimmie!"
• "Come on ump, you're killin' me."
• "Back up Ryan!"

Let's see what else. Thomas probably was 1.00 for batting, as usual. Makes me sick and causes Kimmie to say things like, "Mom loves Thomas more than me because he's got a .880 batting average). Nick ran the bases like he's an alcoholic running toward the bar for a drink after waiting all day.

Mom had a lot of hits and did a lot of running. Thought for a minute I'd have to get her a tank of air and a stretcher. jk :)

That's about it.

League of Heroes II vs. Geneva

Our game went well last night. We won but I can't remember the score. I'll post it later.

Highlights: Chris hit a home run, I was 2 for 4, Kimmie caught everything that came to her, Nick was a superstar as usual, we had a mascot in our dugout (Ryley), Thomas was a machine...um that's all I can remember right now.

Here are some pictures that Jimmy took that were my favorite. There were a lot and it'll take me awhile to get the good ones corrected and uploaded so here is a sampling for now.

Nick diving head-first into second base, as usual. I'm surprised he doesn't have permanent scratch marks on his legs and stomach.

Thomas jumping for a pop-up. I call that "doing a Nick"

Ah, he caught it.

Kimmie flicking the ball to Tina at second.

So you might wonder what is so exciting about this picture. Well I'll tell you. Jimmy took several pictures of people batting and everyone makes some sort of face when they hit the ball but no one and I mean no one sticks their tongue out like Ryan here. I'm not sure if he gets some sort of power from it or what. Does he use it to gauge the wind from the batter's box? Any ideas?

Our mascot, Ryley. He looks pretty happy here despite the fact that we didn't have enough dirt in our dugout for him to make a castle.

MN Twin Justin Morneau wins Home Run Derby

Yeah, our first basement won the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium. So friggin' awesome! Just thought I'd mention it.

Josh Hamilton was actually the real story because he hit 28 home runs in the first round. Just to give you some perspective Morneau hit 22 all together in 3 rounds. That's a lot of friggin' home runs to hit and they weren't just short hits they were like 500 feet or something (that I heard from my boss). It got so exciting that the people at Yankee Stadium were chanting, yes chanting for an American league player. Um...Wow!

Just to give you some more facts I watched Bobby Abreu hit 24 home runs in 2005 and that broke the existing record but Hamilton just pounded that record this year.

So Morneau won because he didn't wear himself out in the first round as Hamilton did so I suppose it's a little bittersweet. He won but really Hamilton got the glory too, duly deserved I should add.

League of Heroes II vs. ACME (co-rec softball)

Last night's game vs. ACME was pretty good. We beat them 15-10 but the score doesn't show how close the game really was. Both teams were hitting the ball well, finding the gaps and both teams made fielding errors.

I enjoy playing that team. They are a nice group of people and they have fun just like we do. We can tease and joke around with them more than any other team. They are good sports too, which is always nice.

Highlights: I hit 3 for 4 last night. Thank God. I've been in a slump forever. I adjusted my place in the box and have been working on hitting to right field. So far so good. I haven't had as much power as in prior years so I'm thinking my timing is off. I need to work on that.

Christles hit an in the park home run to right field. Now his ego roll as grown to the size of a small watermelon on the back of his head. If it gets any bigger he won't be able to get on the field through the dugout unless he jumps the fence.

Cassie had some awesome hits, line drives over second I believe. Tina Louise had some awesome hits too. Jedi got on every time he got up to bat. Um...Kimmie didn't let anything get by her at third. Thomas was a one-man show as usual. Ryan G got everything in the outfield that came to him. I caught a fly ball on the run and tumbled over to skin up my knee (falling over seems to be my new MO, of course I've been really going all out for the balls lately, so that would explain the tumbling over. of course I am top heavy so my balance isn't distributed evenly either, maybe I should pad my behind with something to even me out. a prosthetic butt?)

That's about all I can remember from the night other than it was perfect weather conditions and I had a good time.

edit: Mom says I should add this story. So here you go Mom.

So after the game we were all standing around chatting and arguing and the like. I happened to say something that Traci should look at my blog because I put some pictures of her on it and Ryan G. piped up and said something to the effect of, "Nobody reads your blog anyway."

Basically that meant war (he likes to bait me for some odd reason). I set my glove down and started after him. He danced around the bleachers like the chicken he is. He made the colssal mistake of trying to sneak by Kimmie while I was chasing him (she's my sister dork) and Kim got ahold of his shirt and that was all it took for me to get him. I grabbed a fistful of shirt and he kept running but I held on. He was basically dragging me on my feet. At one point I held onto his waist and migrated up to his chest or something I don't quite remember and let my legs drop out from under me so my weight brought us down and I could throw him down. It happened so fast I don't quite remember all of the details. Anyway, I got him down to the ground. It was funny.

So then I said, "I win." 'cause I'm a brat like that sometimes. Then the boys decided to run over and pig pile on us. Ryan on the bottom, then me, then Christles, Nick and maybe Brian. That was a lot of weight. I felt my back crack which actually felt pretty good. It was pretty funny.

Waseca Open Horse Show

Here are some pictures of Traci and Tara riding in the show on Sunday. Traci received two red ribbons (aka 2nd place) which was good because her class sizes were 15 horse&riders. One in showmanship and the other in English Equitation.

English. Nice posture Traci. Heels could probably be down a little more. I'm loving that your feet are positioned against the belly and not pointing toward the inner ring.

You look nervous sweetheart. Loosen up. Your horse looks at ease. :)

Profile shot. Grandma would say, "Smile!"

Riding Western. She looked so much more at ease here than in English. I think Western is more like her personality than the uppity English. Cool, calm, collected and casual, that's Western.

There's that nice smile I was looking for.

That's a girl, giving Heidi-Heidi-Ho the pat-down.

This is 'Sandra (Cassandra) and John (Johnny Cash) Bethke [brother and sister] waiting patiently. Poor 'Sandra was DQ'd from the class because she had no saddle and no hat. She probably could have won riding bareback. She's good. Oh well, maybe next time.

Here's Tara doing pole-weaving with Rocky (he's 19 which is getting up there for a horse).

On the way back. In pole-weaving they cross the start line, weave through 5 poles I believe, whip around the last one and go back through again.

This one looks exciting. I'm loving the angle here, gives it some craziness I think. See how tight the turning is on those poles.

Here's my favorite. Traci running after getting past the last pole. Rocky's hair is waving wildly and Tara's facial expression is priceless.

Softball: LOH vs. Viracon

We lost last night, like 15-12. Shameful. Sad. but hey, that's life. You win some you lose some. That's how I look at it. We tried. We made a decent effort. They just happened to be hitting and we really weren't. We made some mistakes in the infield and outfield but that happens. You can't win 'em all.

Highlights. Fierke was hitting the ball pretty good last night. Burned the short-stop I believe. Had a triple for sure, maybe 2. Um...Nick was as crazy as ever. Running around the bases like a nutbag. Chris pitched the first couple of innings, caught a bunch of pop-flys. Cassie got to play so that was awesome. I can't wait for her to be back at full-steam. :)

Me...well, I popped out on my first at-bat, next one I believe I dropped it between left and left-center, next at bat I struck out (shameful) and the fourth I hit this nice line drive over the second basemen but she stretched her arm up and caught it. She got lucky. The little sh*t. So not a good night for me.

That's about it. I had good intentions to take pictures but just didn't. Sorry. Maybe next game. It's hard to try and concentrate on the game and take pictures. I hate dividing my attention like that. I want my head in the game. Maybe I can get a relative to do it... :)

Tara's Softball Game

Some pics of Tara tittle-mouse from her game tonight.

She hit a nice fly ball into the outfield but the chick got lucky and caught it. Sorry Mouse you got robbed. Happens to the best of us.

Playing third base.

In position.

Twins vs. Brewers: Game 1

Kim, Thomas and I went to the Twins game tonight at the Dome. Kim's friend from work and her man went as well.

It was an awesome game. The stadium was pretty well packed and there was a lot of rivalry going on all night. No fights or anything but some good banter back and forth.

In the end we won our 10th straight game, 7 to 6! Awesome. There were 6 home runs between the two clubs. That was amazing. One home run came fairly close to us, maybe 7 seats down and one row back. It was a Brewer homer though so I yelled at the guy to throw it back which he did even though the Brewer fans surrounding him wanted him to keep it.

Let's see Mauer, Kubel and Casilla had homers. Casilla hit the Subway sign in right field. Kubel went into the upper deck in centerfield, yeah, amazing I know. He just hit the shit out of it and Mauer's was the game-winning hit. He hit a solo shot with 2 down in the 8th inning which ended up winning us the game. Nathan came in to close in the 9th.

Mauer warming up.

Blackburn warming up. He went out during the 6th inning. Bass, Guerrer and Nathan finished it off.

Our Home Run Porch seats.

Kubel's home run! #1 baby! (that's not my hand by the way. it's some dude sitting in front of me)

Kimmie (she's a little drunk), Thomas (a little tired), and me (a little happy)

Softball Double Header

Last night was a rollercoaster of softball hell and heaven. We had a double-header because we had a game rain out (I think it was the 2nd or 3rd game we were supposed to play). Anywho, one game was at 7:15 and the other at 9:00.

So the first game was a complete and utter disaster. We lost to a team (K&A) I would rather stick myself with a red hot poker with than lose to. They 10-runned us, that's friggin' sad, considering we were undefeateded up until then and had pounded on them before. Kim and I were ticked off, seriously ticked off. Not so much that we lost, because, let's face it, everyone loses, but we didn't want to lose to them. That team has a bunch of jerks on it. They are lousy sportsmen and don't play to have fun so it isn't any fun at all with them.

Our problems lied in the fact that we couldn't hit the gaps and they were. They dropped everything in front of us in the outfield and we couldn't get anyone out in the infield. It was sad. We definitely were not in top form.

Highlights, I think Chris hit a nice single into the outfield but got all the way home due to overthrowing at the bases. That was cool. I got on with a nice single and then I was running to third on an overthrow or something and slide into the base which popped off and then the ump. called me out because I wasn't on the base. HELLO! IT FLEW OFF DORK!! WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? PICK UP THE BASE AND HUG IT? I'll tell you what I should have done, knock the third basemen on her ASS so she couldn't tag me with the ball. I'm sorry I don't think that quickly in the moment.

I tell you what though, I've got a nice big strawberrry (aka bruise) on my ass-cheek/hip. Oh it's fun. Everytime I sit, which at work is going to be a lot, it hurts, so I'm leaning on my right hip/cheek right now. Oh yeah, and I was running for a ball in the outfield and I sort of leaned over to try and grab it and did a sort of barrell roll so I've got some road rash on my arm. That doesn't hurt though, it's more the bruise on my ass that's giving me problems....so my question is, do guys dig big bruises like chicks dig scars? I hope so because then it's worth it. Well, it was worth the effort sliding into third.

How about we just move to the second game now before I burst a blood vessel. That game was much better. The team we played was Geneva and they are pretty fun to play. They've got a couple behemoths, not giants, not large men, not big-foots, but behemoths! They just hit the crap out of the ball but we were ready for them. So they didn't drop as much in front of us. We were hitting the ball better as well.

Let's see, since this is my blog, me first. I was probably 2 for 3 I think with a walk (I was talking smack to the pitcher 'cause he couldn't get it anywhere near me. I said, "Are you scared of me or what. I'm just a chick." :) Which anyone who knows better would know I'm dangerous when I hit the ball, "when I hit the ball." I had a nice hard grounder to third that I got on with. I had a couple RBI's I think too and then I had a crappy pop-up.

Nick had a couple nice hits. Oh, but the best was Tina Louise. So her second time up I think the outfielder moved onto the dirt behind second base, which if you aren't into softball/baseball is like a slap in the face, as in "you can't hit it past the infield so I'm just going to move up." It irritates the female population when men do that. Seriously. So Tina just hits the shit out of it. She wacked it so hard it flew way past them on the green and they were running backwards in complete shock and awe and our dugout was screaming to beat the band. It was hilarious. I guess she showed them. She got a triple out it. It was a thing of beauty.

Mom had a really good hit to the outfield but the left-center fielder caught it and fell over. So as he's running in and I'm running out I say, "Hey buddy, you could have let that one go! That's my mom and she's old, she doesn't get hits like that anymore. geez. have a heart!"

I can't really remember anything else other than the taste of defeat, my huge strawberry, being called out 'cause the base fell off, constantly wiping my sweaty face with my shirt, talking smack (it's fun baby especially if the pitcher gets flustered), feeling stinky, sweaty, nasty and thirsty (that shower when I got home, which was almost as soon as I could peel off my clothes, never felt so good) and Tina Louise's triumph.

If any of my teammates reads this and wants to add anything in the comments, go for it. If you do I'll add an edit to this post.

Signing off with "K&A we will beat the crap out of you the next time we play you. Mark my words. Your inside pitching is going to backfire. I'm going to practice hard at hitting right field to that lousy fielder you have all f'in night. She's going to be so tired after that game that you're going to need a stretcher and an oxygen mask. You are going to hang your heads in defeat like the dogs you are. If you're lucky I'm going to let you walk me, just for kicks. You are going to rue the day that you beat us. I promise. I swear. So take that you criminals." (Can you tell I'm a little miffed?)

A beautiful day for softball practice

It was a beautiful day for Softball practice today. It was about 74 degrees, breezy and no humidity. You couldn't wish for a better day than this. It was perfection, if there is such a thing. :)

So, I practiced and batted and caught balls and all that jazz but I also took a little time for some pictures. Which I normally don't do but I couldn't pass it up on a day like today.

Chris the Blowhole, hitting it as hard as he could. It didn't clear the fence though, too bad Christles!

Thomas the Cat, our faithful and dedicated pitcher. Look at that form, it makes a softball player like me want to weep and cry and thank God for Thomas. Well, not really but what's this blog without a bit of exaggeration, eh? Pretty f'in boring I'd say.

Not a particularly good picture but I like the look on his face, how is arm is extended. That's Nick's side-arm throwing.

Bryan the Cue Ball Fierke giving me some tongue. That sounded kind of sick after I re-read what I wrote. Ah well.

Kimmie "curtsy" Harbal soon-to-be-Gwin giving the ball a wack.

Nicky Quicky and his one-hop side-arm throw.

Well, here's another one for ya.

Alright, one last one just for you ladies who read my blog. Nicky Nicky in action. Look at the concentration, the agility, the two-hands. ahhh...my little brother, he's such a good player.

This is my Ma. She likes to play. She's very competitive. Oh yeah, she eggs her children on quite a bit. Comments can be heard such as "God Chris, Nick would have gotten that one." Very healthy form of competition she insights into her children. My favorite that she tells me is, "Jen, if they start hitting those balls over your head I'm moving you." My response usually is, "Mom, how many balls do I really miss? Not that many so why do you say that?"

Of course, we give it back to her. Here are a couple choice comments from this evening.

Jen: "Hey Ma, you're hittin' like a girl!"

Kim: "Lay off those high ones Ma!"

Nick happened to miss one and Christles was there to pick it up. It doesn't happen often that Nick misses one.

This has nothing to do with Softball but I wanted a picture of the sky and what better way than next to a water tower with the name of our town on it. Yeah, I know, makes no sense but hey, this is my friggin' blog I never said I made any sense. :)

Tschuss!