Week 1 Game Summary - Chubby Gangsters vs. Free Ballin'

Chubby Gangsters 1 - Free Ballin' 3

So, this game is particularly hard to do a write-up for, because the best thing that happened during these 50 minutes had nothing to do with kickball. for anyone who has played in VA Peninsula for even a season knows the name Chris "Bundy" Leblanc, or at least has seen his face paint, or heard his called strike. Bundy plays on Free Ballin' and his quieter, more modest better half (Geralyn Mitchell) plays on Chubby Gangsters and this appeared to be just another "House Divided" episode... until she got up to kick.

Bundy was catching at the time and before a pitch could even be thrown, Bundy called time and walked out to fix the plate. As he picked it up to brush it off and waste time, he turned to Geralyn who gave him a "what the hell are you doing?" look. He adjusts the plate and promptly pulls a small black box out of his pocket. He steps up to her and gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. It was hard to tell the moment when Geralyn really knew what was going on, but it was very obvious what her answer was as she showered him with hugs and kisses. It really was an awesome moment for two very awesome people.

Problem is, how do you follow that up? We just played kickball with our friends. Cause after all, that's how Bundy and Geralyn met and ultimately led us to that moment.

Steve Midlik came out to show his support!

 And the game itself was well played. The first inning ultimately would be the tell all for the entire game. It was wet from the rain and the ball was not easy to hold on to, and even worse to throw. Free Ballin' got runners and just kept sending them around the bases with smart base running on over throws. Bundy went 1st to 3rd and put himself in scoring position which ultimately led to Free Ballin' getting on the board first. Dave Baum and Dave Dixon would reach base and when a miscommunciated fly ball kicked by Frank Council dropped it scored both of them to take an early 3-0 lead.

Chubby's responded in the 2nd inning with a lead off double by Rob Kroll, a sacrifice by Keith Morehart to move him to 3rd, and a long single by Nick Anderson to put the CG's on the board. Unfortunately, the scoring stopped there. For the entire game. Mark Flores didn't let the rain affect his pitching at all and had the Gangster's baffled at the plate. John Wilkinson made some dire catches out in center field to keep the CG's from capitalizing on the wet conditions.

Muscley arms!

Ultimately, both defenses were stingy and other than their respective single innings of scoring, they wouldn't allow any more runs. In fact, there were very few base runners on the rest of the game. Free Ballin' did manage to load up the bases when they got back around to the top of their order, but with some great catching by Nick Anderson and charging by Anthony Leevy they were able to stop the bleeding and no harm was done.

While this game may not have gone down in the records books as a particularly exciting game, it most certainly was one of the most memorable games I have ever been a part of and was a wonderful way to start the season.

Congratulations Geralyn & Bundy!!