**** Sam's Report ****

What a fun game! Today began with a plethora of 19 to 21 Turkeys eager to play. But early this morning I got a call from our opponents' alternate manager informing me that the Eccentrics would have to forfeit because they only had 4 players signed up. OK, so on to Plan B. We Turkeys had enough players to field two complete squads by ourselves, and we invited the Eccentrics who showed up to join us. So we played a regulation C League game, Wild Turkeys-A vs Wild Turkeys-B, with a total of three Eclectic Eccentrics joining our two lineups. Thanks very much to Susan, Seungwon, and Ed from the Eccentrics for joining us for a fun game tonight. And a special thank you to our longtime friend, Bob Koukol, for calling both me and Bill very early in the day to let us know that the Eccentrics wouldn't be able to field a team and to give us time to make alternative plans.

Before the game I tried to split the players so the two teams would be evenly matched. But, boy, did the game look like a mismatch through the first inning-and-a-half! The A-team pounced on the B-team for 7 runs in the 1st and 5 more in the 2nd, while holding the B-team scoreless in the bottom of the 1st. The game had hardly started, and the A-team was already up 12-0 and yielding outs to the mercy rule. But the B-team came back steadily, throwing in a 7-run inning of their own in the 3rd. At the end of four, it was just past 7:00, the score read 15-15. and everybody on the team decided that the most fitting way to end this intrasquad game was to leave it as a tie and go eat pizza!

The Turkeys have made a habit of giving up 7-run innings this year. As usual, both big innings tonight resulted from a combination of good hits and misplays. Phil and Joe led the way for the A-team with 3 hits apiece. Gerardo's two hits were worth 5 RBIs, tying him with Joe for the season's high. But on Gerardo's third at-bat, with two more runners on base, Sam at pitcher vowed that this time he'd personally end Gerardo's long hitting streak. So Gerardo dutifully tapped a weak grounder to Sam to end the inning and his streak. The kid shows far too much deference to his manager ;-) But now his manager is rooting for him never to make another out this year against our real opponents! And, besides, his streak against our real opponents still goes on and on, because Turkeys' streaks can't officially be stopped by other Turkeys.

Gerardo's inning-ending out deflated the confidence of the A-team and inspired the B-team. Trailing 15-4, the B-team batted around to reduce the margin to 15-11. Then one of the B-team's recruits from the Eccentrics, Ed, pitched shutout ball the next inning. Finally, in the bottom of the 4th (and final) inning, the B-team nearly batted around again and threatened to take the lead, with most of the rally occurring after two outs. Key hits in the final inning were a hard double to the opposite field by Chris, and a two-RBI single to tie the score by Jon (giving him a total of four RBIs for the game). But the final outcome of the game also turned on two key defensive plays by the A-team. First Nancy made a great play on a smashing ground ball by Matt, and finally Dave ended the game with a running below-the-knee catch of a hit by Rich that would have driven in Jon from 3rd with the winning run if not caught.

Nancy's heroics for the A-team earn her a special mention, because she actually started out playing for the B-team but volunteered to be "traded" in the 4th inning when Katie and Seungwon (another of the Eccentrics) both had to leave early, and the A-team would have had only 9 players. By being traded, Nancy sacrificed her final at-bat for the B-team, and she was thus the only player on either team to play the whole game and only get two at-bats; everyone else got exactly three. This aspect of the trade also helped to ruin the B-team's opportunity to win in the final inning. Not only did Nancy make one of the key defensive plays to preserve the tie for the A-team, she would have also been the final batter at the plate for the B-team (instead of Rich), with Jon on 3rd carrying the winning run. Given Rich's snakebit night at the plate (0-for-3), the B-team sorely missed having Nancy (2-for-2) at the plate with the chance to win the game with any kind of hit!

Nancy's exploits for both teams are worthy of Turkey of the Week honors. But since there were two full squads of Turkeys this week, it's also appropriate to recognize two other Turkeys who stayed with their respective teams the whole way. Dave is Turkey of the Week for the A-team, because his aforementioned fine catch in LF saved the tie on the final play of the game. Melissa is Turkey of the Week for the B-team, because her and Nancy's offensive production in the bottom of the order kept the B-team in the game, despite the unexpected 0-for-3 effort immediately following them in the order by one of our best hitters this year, Rich. Melissa reached base all three times at bat, even though all three were officially scored as errors. This illustrates the importance of always running hard and making the defensive player hurry. In C League, 3-for-3 on-base on errors is worth just as much to the team as 3-for-3 on hits. Melissa's speed also contributed vitally to the final score on a key play in the 2nd inning, when she flashed home from 3rd just ahead of Nancy being tagged out at 3rd for the final out on a non-force play, so Melissa's critical run counted. Congratulations to Nancy, Dave, and Melissa, the first tripartite winners of the Turkey of the Week award!