Week 2 Prompt III

It was the first, but not the best-- or was it?

Weird baseball games are always the best, they are always memorable, whether in a good way, or a bad one. The first weird game I played was when I was ten, and it was quite queer, but I don't believe that it was the strangest one I have played in. I played an extremely queer one when I was fourteen, in the state Junior League championship game, when the umpires told us to "Not look over there where the lightning is. It does not exist." There was also the game when I was sixteen in New Jersey, where the other team had two players and a coach ejected. But the first weird game I played in was highly unusual.

I was ten, and I was having a pretty good game, considering that I was a ten year old. We were playing Mount View, I was starting in right field, and it was sort of an interesting game from the start in that there was an announcer, which never happened in any other little league game I ever played. I was having a good day hitting the ball, and I had gone three for three with three infield singles by the fifth inning. But the game was tied at 9-9, when the umpire called the game on account of darkness, even though the sun was hardly getting dimmed yet.

Since it was only one full inning left in the game, and neither team really wanted a tie, we went back to Mount View, this time to a different field, one that was much lower quality. Our leadoff hitter singled, and eventually, with two outs left, he rounded third to head for home on a hit. The throw came in, he was almost certainly safe, but the umpire called him out.

So we went to the bottom of the final sixth inning. Our pitcher walked two batters, and ended up having a runner on second and third, with two outs. The ball was hit out to shallow right field. I ran in on it, knowing that if I caught it in the air, then the game would go to extra innings. I dove, for the first real time in my baseball career, which was probably the reason I closed my eyes. It went in and out of my glove, and they scored two runs and won the game. Since we had travelled all that distance to play one inning, we started playing a scrimmage with them. The umpire left. The coach came and told me to take the ball on the bounce and throw it to the plate next time. I was not upset by it though, I was actually pretty pleased. It had been fun. We got a few innings in, when someone somewhere realized that Mount View's pitcher from that last inning had already pitched too much too recently according to the pitch count rules, and shouldn't have pitched the game. The game would have been forfeited to us, but it turned out that our pitcher had the same thing, and it was illegal for him to have pitched the last inning of this game because of his pitch count earlier that week. So, the umpire was called back, and she was very annoyed at it as well, and we played the inning again, this time with legal pitchers.

Once again, our lead off batter singled, and with two outs was once again rounded third headed for home on a hit. The throw came in, he slid again, and once again, even though it was pretty obvious that he beat the tag, he was called out precisely like before. This was a little frustrating for that to happen once again.

Our new pitcher walked the first two batters, and got in a two out, runners on second and third situation again. And once again, the ball was hit out to shallow right field. Again, I ran in on it, but this time, I took it on the bounce. The runner was trying to tag from third, and I made my first ever throw to the plate from the outfield without hitting the cutoff. It went quite high in the air, but made it down right to the catcher, while the runner was only about two thirds of the way to the plate. Our catcher stood and waited for the runner, who ran towards him, stopped, unsure what to do. Our catcher lunged out towards him, and the runner tried to jump over the tag, though he was drilled by the tag in the knees, and was tipped over in his jump because of it and almost fell over because of it. He staggered on, missing the plate. The umpire said "Safe!"
Mt. View knew that he was out, it was so obvious that neither they nor their parents cheered at all, they were pitch silent, knowing that they were given a gift from an umpire who was determined that Mt. View would win and was irate that she had to come back to make them win all over again.

And we ended up losing the game because of that.

Thinking back on that, it actually might have been the weirdest game I've ever played in. It certainly was very memorable.