Pounders Top Chubby Gangsters, 6-0

by Keith Morehart, Chubby Gangsters

photos by Mary Katherine Evans, Frosty Ballin'

***Disclaimer:  The views and opinions expressed in the following paragraph are solely of the individual and are not the views of this organization (The Chubby Gangsters™) , its parent (WAKA VA Peninsula®), affiliate (Foul Balls™), or subsidiary companies (Luckie’s Dueling Piano Bar®).***

The Chubbie’s were 100% ready to fulfill the moniker given to them only 2 weeks ago during the Gambling Lines as “quite possibly the most enthusiastic and spirited organization in the Raptor League and arrive for every contest fired up.” Week 3 was an off week for us. There was some blog fodder thrown around on the Facebook board after the conclusion of our contest 2 weeks ago with the Foul Balls, and while details aren’t important at this time, we regret any unnecessary comments made about the classiest team in WAKA Raptor/Peninsula.  While personal apologies have been already made and hands shaken, this is our “press conference” apology. Foul Balls singlehandedly resurged the enthusiasm of the Chubbie’s last Fall season with a battle for the ages, and continue to be the most anticipated team to play on our Carolina Blue schedule. Kudos to the Foul Balls for being a team that are literally so much fun out on the field, they make other teams want to be out there too.

***Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the following paragraphs may or may not have been purchased by several teams and/or individuals solely for publicity.***

Valiant Effort by the Chubbie’s, Pounder’s Prove Ready for SFKO

The Gangster’s came into Saturday’s game pumped up! Even though we were technically ahead of the Pounder’s in the standings, both schedule and quality of play tell a different story about the caliber of the teams. The Pounder’s are an insanely good team, and the Chubbie’s, while formidable, are constantly building and searching for the right formula.  That being said, contention had nothing to do with why your beloved CG’s were excited to hit the pitch. The Pounder’s may be one of the most competitive teams on Saturday’s, may easily have the biggest, star-studded roster in Raptor, but they also have some of the most amicable and fun players in WAKA right now!

That’s enough of me being on my knees. Let’s get on with the dirty-dirty.

Rosters were exchanged and Nicki Leblanc proved to be the Queen of Rochambeau still and was nice enough to offer home field to the CG’s, and so we took the field to rock our new look in the field. We were missing several key players on Saturday, including our Pitcher/Charger/Catcher/Team Leader Buster Patterson, our star-rookie infielder David Tortolini, quite possibly our best bunter in Liz Ricker, the knowledge of the game of kickball that comes with Emily Cook, and the energy and fielding capabilities of Tiffany Morehart. This proved to be our biggest challenge of the year, not only because of the competition, but just figuring out exactly what the hell we were going to do.

Let’s talk about offense first. We were pretty bad. The Chubbie’s pride ourselves on being nothing less than at least scrappy on the offensive side of the ball. If the Pounder’s were looking for this game to practice their defensive skills, we sadly let them down. In fact, I believe Lamel Moore and Eric Olsen were the only 2 Chubbie’s to even make it to 2^nd base.

Defensively though, it was another story. As previously stated there were some major changes in the line-up due to both foreseen and unforeseen absences (are wedding invitations really necessary??). Notably we went with a 3 man outfield for the first time all season, and tried to play the odds of the wind coming in from 3^rd to 1^st. The Pounder’s weren’t fazed and tested the right side of the outfield over and over again. However, Lamel Moore made several good catches to keep the game from being blown open. The trench battle was mostly in the infield/shortfield range.

So, if we had an extra male out in the outfield, that left one of our infield positions filled with an extra female right? “Cor Blimey!” you say (sorry, I watched a lot of Doctor Who today)? Well, Brent Wentworth (Third Person Alert) tried to exploit our strategy and kick a very well placed line drive right behind 2^nd base. Erika Chacra said, “Not on my watch!” and while literally leaping like a gazelle across the bag, made a spectacular catch for a critical 2^nd out. Kim Merritt also kicked a nice ball that was aiming to fall 10 feet or so behind the pitcher’s mound. If he was testing their green-as-green-can-be charger Keith Morehart, he passed with a “hell of a catch to rob me on that line drive” (per Mr. Silverbush himself). Greg Woodland continued to be a solid 1^st baseman with one hell of a 1^st to 3^rd throw, while Nick Anderson was literally making it so hard for the Pounder’s to score runs, base runners were literally flying feet-over-head crossing the plate (sorry John LaNeave). Meanwhile Geoff Morehart pitched a solid game from the plate, with an intense last inning no-hitter thrown by Keith Morehart (damn right that’s a 1^st Person alert!). (EDITOR'S NOTE: Is it?) 

Alas, while with the help of some incredible kicking by Jill Simms, Nicki Leblanc, and Tracy Colby, as always perfect bunting by Scott Duncan and Wes McClain, and Dan Shaw’s boot made specifically for sacrifice fly’s (seriously, have you seen how big his shoes are??), the Pounder’s were able to drop 6 effortless runs to take the shutout and what should be a confidence builder for Ft. Lauderdale this upcoming weekend.

I have two final things I would like to add. The first is a good luck and spirited “Kick his ass Seabass!” to both the Pounder’s and JFK (and anyone else who is going for that matter) and continue to make us proud, and make them fear WAKA VA Peninsula League! The second is, did anyone feel as weird as I did when I called Kim “Silverbush”? Guaranteed it won’t happen again.