My Samoa Athletic Club softball team played their final 2011 game against Babe's Pizza at Cooper Gulch last night. The players were in a good mood and we were still fielding a complete team after many injuries that will happen to players over 50 years old. During the game our Left Fielder Mike Burghart had a line drive hit his way and went down on his knees to scoop it off the ground. One of the players for Babe's was at 3rd base and thought the ball was trapped and ran home. Mike threw the ball to our 3rd baseman Randy Landowski and Randy stepped on the bag for a double play. The Babe's players threw a fit at umpire Henry Felix and for whatever reason started yelling obscenities to our team for the call. One of their players who is around 60 yelled "You Queers" out loud and tried to start a fist fight with one of our players! Talk about not good sportsmanship. I did not expect a homophobic slur during a game between Senior adults. May his AARP card be revoked!
Oh, we have been guilty of whinning but not at this level. And yes, I have been guilty of telling the Babe's players that their team name should be "Babie's". We are just trying to have fun and get some exercise and social interaction in a semi competitive setting.
I would like to thank the "Mossbacks" of Eureka and "Lets Play Ball" of Blue Lake for their participation and hope to see you with wood bats next year. Overall we had fun.
Samoa Athletic Club players for 2011 were Bob Sprague, John Parker, Dudley Walters, Jamie Robertson, Tony Hernandez, Randy and Billy Landowski, "Doc" Jones, Mike Burghart, Dave Damme, Scott Griswold, Glen Ferguson, Steve Ritter and Bob Borden.
May the DL list avoid us all next year!