The game was held in wonderful conditions in the park under the shade of the trees and the backdrop of JPL and the San Gabriel Mountains. Mild temperatures, clear skies, green grass. The only bad thing was the difficult sun in the eyes of the right fielders. The Turkeys and the Crawdads played their second game of the year wondering who would lay claim to best of two matches. And for the 2006 season it looks like the Turkeys have the bragging rights.

The game started out with us scoring a-plenty. Hits and extra bases were common. Geeze...this evening even saw the safe double by Tim who hustled it out standing up. It was Jose's last game of the season, as he will be leaving town on a much anticipated vacation to Mexico. He was in top form playing most innings at shortstop and leading the infield. His batting was on form and his RBI count was enhanced by the fact that he batted right after Matt who continually took extra bases, scoring several times after Jose's hits. And Matt earned his first home run of the 2006 season...but more than that, it was a three run homer. A series of pictures tells the story.

As the game neared the end, with the Turkeys up by 9 runs, the Crawdads came up for their last batting. The first out came fairly early in the inning when Mark, playing shortstop for Jose, flipped it to Bill at third for a force out. Then things began to come apart. As usual our opponent discovers that 7 run innings are our bane. Hit the ball everywhere but where we are and you'll score 7 runs. But we were up by 9! The game ended on a diving catch of a pop up by our catcher Rich. Turkeys win the game by a run...or was it two? Who cares, because we were ready for dinner and stories.

Jack voted Matt Turkey of the Week based on hitting and RBIs. He would have had the "cycle" had he hit a triple ("cycle" is single, double, triple, homer in a single game). Sam will review the scoresheet and confirm this nomination and/or make his own nomination.

Eleven of us took repast at the local pizzeria...both meat and vegtable pizzas were consumed. The night ended by 9:00 PM as Sam, Mark and Bill left for home.

Pictures are in the usual place. Here's Sam's report of the game:

For the second game in a row, and for the fifth game this season, the Turkeys' defense could not escape the plague of the double 7-run inning. But this time we figured out how to win anyway. Just postpone our opponents' second 7-run inning until their final turn at-bat, and have a 9-run lead when that inning starts! Tonight the Turkeys withstood a furious 7th-inning 7-run rally by the Crawdads to hold on for a 19-17 victory. After an impressive opposite-field grand slam home run by the Crawdads' manager capped their rally and brought them within two, Turkeys catcher Rich ended the game spectacularly by diving into the spare bats to catch a short foul fly.

Turkey of the Week honors this week go to Debbie and Matt. Debbie's Justine-imitation performance at 1B demonstrated for the second week in a row the value of solid play at this important position. Debbie played flawlessly, recording a total of 8 putouts, including a couple saves of slightly errant throws and a great catch of a line drive. On offense, Debbie was one of three batters (along with Sam and Matt) at the top of our order who reached base all three times at bat and and together scored 8 of our 19 runs. Matt played flawlessly in RF as usual, but tonight was his time to shine on offense. Batting cleanup, Matt got a double, single,and home run in his 3 at-bats, producing 5 RBIs and 3 runs scored. His 3-run homer in his final at-bat drove in the Turkeys' final three runs. Without these runs we would have headed into the bottom of the 7th trailing 17-16. Great hitting at just the right spot in the order!

Honorable mentions this week go of course to Rich for his spectacular game-ending catch, to Gerardo for a great running catch in left-center of a hard-hit ball ticketed for extra bases in the 3rd inning, and to Jose for another solid performance at SS. Gerardo had the Crawdads muttering from the early innings onward "don't hit it to LF". Jose, playing his final game of the year for us, fielded a total of 5 balls for outs at SS, including a hot liner in the 2nd.