Crackers send the Gray Hares running for cover

Septuagenarian hits a single and scores

The recreational league is on fire as we enter the midway point of the season. The Bushwackers defeated the Gas Holes 16-12 Tuesday night to take sole possession of first place. The Gas Holes stand alone in second place and the Mountain Spirits Likkers and the Crackers are tied for third.

In fact, after dropping their first two games of the season, the Crackers are on a tear through the recreational league ranks, winning their last five games, including a 29-4 crushing of the Gray Hares Tuesday night at Pitsker Field.
The game could have been much closer had the entire Gray Hares squad showed up. If there’s one thing I can’t stand is when teams fail to show up for their scheduled games.
Three men were missing. One player is on the disabled list with a broken rib. Another was at the play Into the Woods and the third was too busy entertaining friends and family to get to the game. Broken ribs hurt, Into the Woods is a great play and friends and family are important—but this is softball and what could possibly be more important than softball?
Furthermore, the Gray Hares aren’t particularly young, with an average age of 60-something. That means they were born sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s. Children of WWII. Coming of age during the police action in Korea and perhaps drafted for Vietnam. Marching against racism, attending Woodstock, maybe shacking up with “their old lady” in a commune and dancing to disco.
The Gray Hares have seen it all in their lifetime. FDR, Eisenhower, the Kennedys, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon, the lunar landing, Watergate, Jimmy Carter, hostage situations, Ronald Reagan, Iran Contra, Bill Clinton, both Bushes, color television, computers, cell phones, the Internet. It’s mind blowing to think about what the members of this team have witnessed and been a part of in their lifetimes.
Not that they can’t, or shouldn’t, be playing because of their age. I would argue that they are as fit, and in some cases more fit, than most people their age and a lot of people half their age.
The roster includes an internationally successful triathlete in Lee Cannon, though he was missing this night, as well as endurance athlete Skip Berkshire. Berkshire has completed the Grand Traverse twice, completed the Leadville 100 running race three times and the Leadville 100 bike race once, and has climbed Denali.
In addition, what they may lack in youth, that is youth in the Western philosophical sense, they make up for in experience. They play smart softball, eliminating errors both in the field and on the base path. It’s just that in order to be successful, they need their whole team. You know the old saying, no pun intended, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, whatever that means.
So when they’re short a few key players, they tend to lose big.
Berkshire summed it up best concerning the inconsistent commitment of his teammates that evening.
“That’s the trouble with old people. They do whatever they want,” said Berkshire.
The Crackers connected for a total of 37 base hits en route to their 25-run rout.
The entire batting order and then some got up to hit in the top of the first inning, with lead-off hitter Brandon Snyder connecting for two stand-up triples as the Crackers took an 8-0 lead.
The Crackers stepped it up in the top of the second inning to score 10 more runs, forcing the imposition of the 10-run rule.
Kat Sauter went two-for-two in the inning alone, including a two RBI single. Jeff Ryba stroked a couple two-RBI doubles and Danielle Langlois and Shawn Harrington each tapped RBI base hits.
The Gray Hares rallied in the bottom of the second inning to score two runs, pairing base hits with incredible patience at the plate. Kathy Cannon led off, roping a single to center field; Rich Crawford singled; and Barb Crawford walked to load the bases for Berkshire with two outs.
Berkshire Jedi-mind-tricked the Crackers pitcher into his second walk in a row to push two runners home for the Gray Hares’ first runs of the game.
After giving up 10 runs in the previous inning, the Gray Hares defense clamped down to hold the Crackers to nine runs in the top of the third inning.
Had it not been for a series of two-run inside the park home runs (TRITPHR) hit by Harrington, Eric Beavers and Snyder, it would have only been a three-run inning by the Crackers.
Margot Levy’s gutsy effort at second base helped hold off the 10-run rule, as did Rich’s work at shortstop. With the bases loaded and nine runs already in, Rich scooped up a ground ball up the middle and flipped it to Levy at second base for the third out, holding the Crackers to 27 runs after three innings.
What?
It could have been 30.
The Gray Hares defense truly shone in the top of the fourth inning, holding the Crackers to a mere two runs. Granted, the Crackers were polite in that they stopped stretching singles into triples, but the Hares did have some solid defensive plays.
Lou Beckman barehanded a base hit to right center and fired to second base to hold the runners from advancing. Rich turned on a throw from the outfield to fire to Cannon at first for a tag-out, and then flagged down a line drive to end the inning.
Beckman, proud septuagenarian, backed her defense with a little offense, leading off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. Rich slapped his second base hit of the night and Joyce Kohler scored Beckman with a single to shallow right field.
Levy tapped a base hit and Sam Lumb capped the Gray Hares rally, crushing an RBI base hit to deep left for the Hares’ fourth run of the night.
Rain, lightning and fatigue forced the game to be called after the fourth inning, leaving the Hares just 26 runs shy of a win and the Crackers with an impressive 5-2 record heading into the second half of the regular season.