Game On!

We're on the back edge of the rain now, there ought to be nothing falling about the time that the gear arrives at 9am. Your shoes may get damp on the long walk from Lloyd's Diner to sign in, but we've got numbers and you might have 5+ months to dry out your shoes. Get in the car! Play ball!

And Now There Are 20

While life has gotten in the way for a few, we're still looking at enough to play. Keep an eye on the sky for the scattered showers, which ought not be bad enough to wash out the game. Around 8:15am, we'll make that determination, but even if light rains come, they will go, you won't melt, and we will play!

3:30pm update: Still at 20 .... play ball!

Game(s) On

The numbers look good for games this week and next, then get even better for October 25th and November 1st - both games could be a season-high!

October 10, 2:24pm update: We're now at 17 for tomorrow. Historically, this announcement has brought even more out of the woodwork. So play ball!

October 10, 7:52pm update: holding at 17. So go to bed (or at least pass on that last drink) ... and dream of donuts both on your bat and in boxes by the dozens near the sign-in sheet until 9:45am!

... and look for the basketball court to find the baseball field. The former landmark, a big concrete grandstand, has vanished!

At Least 3 More Weeks But Not Today

A tough call. But no game.

This week's rain likely filled the bowl in which this week's permitted field sits. Even though the rain has gone, a long week of forecasted rain into this morning surely beat down our numbers. So will 50 degree temps (with a windchill into the 40s.) In contact with 4 players this week, all were out for the week. The numbers simply wouldn't be there for a full game.

Stay in your PJs and watch the 9:30am battle for 2nd place in the AFC East, go out for brunch, take her to the in-laws or The Big E, catch the Red Sox finale. We'll come out swinging next week.

Three more weeks of games, four or more if the temps rebound and interest stays strong.

Wanna Be a Patriot?

... then play baseball, The American Pastime! The Patriots seemingly have already mathematically clinched the AFC East and since Jacksonville hasn't already started scoring, there's no way they're winning this week. If our game starts on time, you'll be off the field by kickoff. Play ball!

No Game

With widespread rain Saturday night, sporadic rain forecast through the morning, and the permit for a filed that collects water, there are certainly a handful of players now sleeping with their alarms off and getting 18 would be unlikely even if it were to not rain. Let' come out swinging on the 20th!

At The Half

In what may be our shortest season ever (remember back to that February of '15?) it's also possible that we've got more games left to play than we've got in the books. Now with 5 rainouts, we've had but 11 games. And there are 10 more Sundays scheduled through October. If we keep playing only to November 1st, it would make this Sunday just the beginning of the 2nd half of the season. Adding November 8th means 12 games left to play. And autumn's the best time of year to play baseball.

Two more 9am games before September's time shift to 10am games.

The permit is still in flux, hopefully to our benefit (there's a call into Dave Dombrowski's office.) So if you didn't get emails over the weekend, you're not on the list - get in touch!

Baseball: Fall Begin With a Whimper

No game. While it will be a blistering summer day, Framingham got drowned around 5:45pm, then again for a couple of hours around 9:30pm. The hoped-for fields are still soaked. But there are still 10+ weeks remaining on the schedule - and more if we go into November.

The Fall Permit

An email went out to the mailing list with new details. If you didn't get it, get in touch!

Final Week of Summer

At least according to the permit, this could be our last game at our "summer home". The application is in, with vague assurances ("shouldn't be a problem") that we'll have a field through October. But ... come on out tomorrow for what could very well be the Summer Finale!

Next week - possibly as late as Friday - we'll learn where we'll be for the fall.

Through August, the Game Day schedule, starting one hour before First Pitch:

8:00 - :05     Gear arrives at the field.

8:05 - :25     Groom the field, stake the bases, warm up.

8:25 - :50     Grab a ball bucket and a helmet, give one to another player and start BP.

8:30 - :50     Manager’s split the teams.

8:45             Sign-in deadline.

8:50 - 57      BP ends, announcements, split onto benches, home team takes the field.

9:00             First Pitch.

 

Game's begin at 10am starting September 6th.

The 5th of July

Uncle Sam and a bunch of players want YOU ... 

to have a safe and happy 4th of July and to be at the field the next morn by 8:45am!

No Game. More Rain

"If the rain comes they run and hide their heads
They might as well be dead
If the rain comes, if the rain comes."
~ Rain by Lennon / McCartney

As our next game - on the 5th of July - approaches, the lads from across the pond are disqualified from this discussion: which is the greatest American rock and roll band?

Father's Day Rained Out

Here's hoping that all of your other Father's Day wishes come true!

With summer officially beginning on Sunday afternoon, thus concludes the shortest Spring schedule - only 5 games played - in our 18 year history. Incredibly, there are only 7 weeks of the Summer permit remaining before the expected 11+ weeks of the Fall permit.

Record-setting

We’ve not had a rainout since Memorial Day 2014. But with a deluge at 4am (which will keep 6 players from getting out of bed, so we'd never hit 18), a band of rain likely coming through in the next couple of hours, then a possibility of more rain by the late innings of our game, the streak is over. And so is our spring schedule, with 9am games beginning next week.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.” ~ Casey Stengel

Last 2 Weeks of Spring Schedule

Through May, gear arrives at 8:30am, with all signed in by 9:15am to get underway at 9:30am. Come June, and for the three summer months, it's a 9am First Pitch. 

Game Day schedule, starting one hour before First Pitch:

:00 - :05     Gear arrives at the field.

:05 - :25     Groom the field, stake the bases, warm up.

:25 - :50     Grab a ball bucket and a helmet, give one to another player and start BP.

:30 - :50     Manager’s split the teams.

:45             Sign-in deadline.

:50 - 57      BP ends, announcements, split onto benches, home team takes the field.

:00             First Pitch.

Opening Day 2015

At long last, the bunting is hung for our 18th-ish Opening Day. That it coincides with Mother’s Day is unfortunate but we’ll be off the field by 12:30pm. Optimism abounds, with the farm system producing a good group of rookies to join the veterans (some long-lost.) We’ve certainly never started this late. And it’ll be hot one. Bring some fluids, grab the med kit’s sunscreen ... and play ball!

We've Been Permitted!

The last 2 weeks of May are unusual, but we're otherwise at our usual summer home. This Sunday, we'll dig into the dirt and leave the rust behind. Throw off the mound, take (reasonably) unlimited BP, try and remember how to catch a fly ball...

Gear arrives at 9am, with all arriving by 9:15am - the time to be signed in for games in May.

Opening Day will be next week, May 10. Prepare Mom now. All Moms are invited to come and toss out the first pitch. We could serenade them with "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". But let her know that you'll be getting the exercise that she wants you to get. Until the Babe Ruth League season is over in June, we're off the field no later than 12:30pm. You'll lavish her soon after!

Details will be emailed later on Saturday. If you're not getting emails, get in touch!

Two Weeks Until Opening Day

We still wait for the official permit, but we will be somewhere this weekend. On dirt, on the mound, in the batter's box. At 9:15am - the "one more minute and you're late" arrival time for games this Spring.

Two Years Later ...

Revelry, Bravery, and the Cowardly by DC - April 16, 2013 6:20am

Except for a period of years when my work involved the Marathon, whenever I talked to people from outside of the Boston area, I invariably had to educate them as to why I was partying in public on an April Monday. Patriot’s Day was a holiday commemorating the legendary, but was little known outside of Massachusetts and, as a former part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in Maine. For the most reprehensible of reasons, all the world now knows.

For all but a few years of my life, I’ve lived within a mile or so of the marathon route, always near the check points that are 8 to 10 miles from Hopkinton, in Natick and Framingham. An aunt lived on the route for about 15 years. A friend had a Natick home on the route. There, in that driveway, by 10 o’clock on a Monday morning in April, we would gather before the roads closed and fire up the BBQ. We’d hook up an extension cord and find a rock radio station that was playing a marathon of songs about running. We’d simultaneously switch on the TV to watch the 11am Red Sox game and to monitor the runner’s traditional noon start. But we didn’t need the TV to know when the athletes were nearing us. Serving as notice would be the approaching helicopters.

Near noon, the wheelchair athletes were zipping past and we marveled at how on this day they could reach Boston faster than we could typically get there in our cars. By 1pm, the elite runners had passed and we’d start to pass out beers and burgers to the enthusiastic among the throng that was beginning to clog the street. Quickly, and for as far as the eye could see, the street filled with a mass of humanity, a brilliantly-colored river that bobbed and babbled with more energy than the Charles.

We, the sidewalk revelers, would clap and shout out in excited recognition when friends, family, and the familiar were spotted for the few seconds that it took for the crowded current to flow onward. We would clap and shout out personal encouragement to strangers who had their names or causes on their signs or shirts or skin. We’d laughingly point out to each other and share the joy with those runners who had rigged a decorated Christmas tree up their back or were dressed like Groucho Marx, Spiderman, Snow White, or a pair of Minnesota Twins.

Away from the street to flip a burger, we flipped TV channels to simultaneously catch the end of the Sox game as the elite were completing their day’s journey. Bill Rogers. Joan Benoit. Ibrahim Hussein. Jean Driscoll. Uta Pippig. Ernst van Dyk. Historic names in historic region on a historic day.

As the torrent trickled (“Did anyone see Johnny Kelley or the Hoyts?”) those trailing were often visibly gassed and overheated on even the chilliest of April days. For them, we’d call out our most earnest encouragement, as if our words could possibly lift them but a little farther on, perhaps through downtown Natick and even on to where the welcoming women of Wellesley College would be waving “Kiss Me” signs. But they couldn’t possibly reach Boston. Could they??

The final scene is always that of the street sweeper. Long before nightfall, they leave the course in such a pristine state - with nary a trace of orange peel or water cup - that it is as if it never happened but was all a joyous mirage.

For spectators, it was a rare carefree day. Taxes were mailed or benevolently extended for an extra day. The streets were fully alive, if ever so briefly. Spring had finally come. We marveled as so many athletes publicly undertook their ultimate challenge, often running in support of those who were even more bravely taking on private and personal challenges each and every day.

Long before another 52 weeks pass, we will undoubtedly have resolved to again take to the streets, to again revel and marvel. With tempered spirits. With heavier hearts. But revel and marvel we will.

Today, as too many brave men and women are facing their toughest battle - survival - others are braving unknown dangers to sweep the streets as the first act in hunting down and bringing to justice whoever it was that perpetrated upon us this act of cowardice. May the wind be at their backs.

The Opt-In is Out

The mailing list is wiped clean each season. Specifics like the schedule aren't posted here. So getting onto the mailing list is the only way to be in the know. If you haven't received the opt-in email to get onto this year's mailing list, get in touch. If you haven't responded, get off the bench!

Hello, We Must Be Going

A long 5 months away. We made it!

 

Re: the permit: word is that - when the residency requirement is met and when the field work has been done - to "expect the usual." But, the first Sunday in April has passed. It's time to go!

This weekend, Mother Nature graciously relents. As of last Friday there wasn't even an accessible, snow-melted tennis court or basketball court  - a space to just to throw and do pepper. "The usual" still had frozen piles and sloppy melt. Tennis court gates were chained, others piled with snow. Forecasts called for start time temps near 39. And the secretary must have quit before sending out the opt-in. But, it's time to go!
 

The permit may not come for another couple of weeks. We won't be on the dirt anywhere - to start mound work and hitting from a batter's box - but there has been enough melt ... somewhere. This Sunday at 9:30am, likely near our Fall "usual", let's throw / pepper, and see. It's time to play ... catch.

It Happens Every Spring

 

Tomorrow, my glove goes to the shoemaker for a new coat of gold. When I get it back, I'll be ready to start throwing - against a cement wall or with anyone who wants to find some dry space in a parking lot somewhere. And I'm pulling together the administrative stuff to get the season off the (snow-covered) ground.

 

Here's where we're at:

 

The permit application is in and there's every indication that we'll be permitted for our 17th season. But - without mentioning the 4-letter word that now covers the field - it is unlikely to be ready for April 5th.

 

As we near The First Sunday in April, we'll see if there's enough melt to do more than find a space to throw. I expect that we'll gather that day at 10am, but without a permit to trample the field we may do little more than throw and shoot the breeze. If weather permits, we'll find a piece of field where we can hit some fungos. And wait for the permit. Once cleared, we'll do 2 weeks, possibly 3, of full rust-scraping sessions - throwing off the mound, hitting from the batter's box, etc - to get game-ready. It's likely that the first game won't be until May 3 or even May 10.

But the season's opt-in email could be in your mailbox by week's end. Reply to stay in the loop!