Talk of the Town takes down beleaguered Rastas

I’ll get to you Tully’s, don’t worry

What in the hell is going on in this crazy world?
The weather I get. With 9 billion people on the face of the earth, the climate is going to take a hit.
But robots playing soccer and the money spent to develop robots that play soccer? That I don’t get.
Passing me on 135 when I’m driving into town only to be right in front of me at the stop sign. That I don’t get.
My four-year old daughters’ train of thought, logic and concept of time, that, I definitely don’t get. (For example, “I’ll ride my bike when I’m a coyote.”)
So, when things start to confuse me, when my fragile reality gets corked out, which is admittedly often, I look to the local softball fields for stability, specifically the Rasta Hairnets. No matter what chaos I may be flirting with, I know I can rely on the Rastas for stability. And they always come through. Because no matter what is going on in the world, the Rastas show up, play hard, do Jell-O shots and blast reggae, and have done so for some time now.
That is until Tuesday night at Gothic Field when chaos, as far as my world is concerned, took hold. My own concept of reality, shattered.
The Rasta Hairnets showed up late, with only eight players, no shots, as far as I could tell, and definitely no tunes to face the Talk of the Town in rec league action.
In fact one Rasta admitted prior to the game, “we’re a sh** show.”
Props out to the Talk of the Town (which, incidentally, was my reality the first 10 years of my life here). With three, maybe four, of their players on the staff at Clark’s Market, they had the sense to somehow get their shifts covered during the busiest week of the year in Crested Butte in order to make it to their game.
Let me apologize to those of you visiting if you encountered a long line at Clark’s Market Tuesday evening, it was important.
Before I hit the panic button though, and considered what medicine may be waiting for me at home to get me through the night, the Rastas started out playing Hairnet softball.
They held the Talk scoreless through the top of the first inning anchored by a strong presence at third by Heather Tomcak.
The Rastas opened up the scoring taking a 3-0 lead when Aaron Tomcak tripled and scored on a double by Scott Tyree. Amelia Poppe drove in another Rasta with an infield single and Matt Gutter does what he always does, cracked an extra base RBI base hit to right field.
The Talk responded in the top of the second inning when Brad Red Bear Nirschl led off with a single and scored on a base hit by Molly Reinhardt down the third base line. Heather came up with another big play at third but the Talk pushed another run home when Aaron, who is as steady as pitcher as any, walked Matt Hart.
Kricket Brigham tapped a RBI single up the middle to tie the game 3-3 (more important asking someone “debit or credit?”) but Tyree and Gutter came through again as Tyree tripled and Gutter pushed him home with a sacrifice fly RBI to put the Rastas back on top 4-3. But before they could get going, a lack of players forced another inning-ending automatic out.
Hart swung the bat this time and reached first on an error (again, more important than asking “would you like a bag for your Cheetos?”). His hustle lauded by Talk stalwart Butch Hamrick who pointed out, “That’s why we run them out.”
Speaking of Hamrick, have you seen that guys neck tan? He has the most intense neck tan I’ve ever seen and I used to paint houses in California when there was no such thing as sun block, at least not on our crew.
At any rate, Hart would then score on a base hit by Melvin Seyfried as the Talk took its first lead of the game 5-4 (Way more important than responding, “Bean dip? Try aisle seven, halfway down on the right”).
Heather and Tyree connected to tie the game back up 5-5 but the Talk hits kept coming and the Rastas fell victim to automatic outs.
Christine Hawk reached first on a fielder’s choice and scored when Seyfried walked. Steve Rosati then put the Talk up 10-5 running and stumbling for a three-run inside-the-park home run (ITPHR).
Todd Eggebraten brought in some fresh energy to the Rastas leading off with a double and scoring on a double by Aaron, but back-to-back ground outs quashed another Rastas rally leaving them one last chance at, you guessed it, redemption.
For a moment it looked like the Rastas were back to their old tricks. They shut down the Talk’s offense and were stepping up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning down by four runs.
Good old Gutter came through again with a single but a couple ground outs left the Rastas still down four runs with one runner on and an automatic out looming.
Brandin Hamilton did what he could, rapping a base hit and stretching it for a two-run ITPHR but that automatic out, once again, quashed the Rastas rally as they fell to the Talk 10-8 and still remain near the bottom of the standings with just one win.
The Talk of the Town, on the other hand, is now one game above .500 heading into the Fourth of July break.
Now, what did I do with that medicine again?