DENTED, NOT BROKEN

First of all, thank you to everyone who called or dropped a note. After a kind of rough night, the aluminum clipboard is resting comfortably, but really isn't up for visitors just yet. I'll let you know and will certainly pass on your well wishes.
And, while we're on the subject, I want to thank Russ Krause for his time with the team. I think he made an impression on all of us, not to mention the clipboard.
For those of you not lucky enough to make it to fabulously refurbished Edgeley 4 on opening night -- and only 7 of our 24 members were absent -- the former Mr. Krause took out his aggression on a perfectly innocent inside pitch during the fifth inning. It had been sort of a tedious game, waiting for hitable pitches and watching the sun slowly fade behind the crack vials. The ensuing foul line drive was about to hit the management in a very inconvenient place and he was only saved when the trusty aluminum clipboard -- the one that contains the schedule and the scoresheets and the lineup sheets and the field permits and Cardboard Ron, and it's all alphabetized and everything; oh, and the highlighter and felt pen and extra S-hook -- when that trusty clipboard threw itself in front of the ball. Clang! This will teach the management not to loll about halfway down the line, leaning against the fence, seething about something or other.
Anyway, enough of that. The Pen & Pencil Club, sharply attired one must say, opened the Center City Softball League season with an 11-9 win over the Fleisher Art Memorial, an expansion team with an expansive notion of the strike zone. Named for Samuel Fleisher, who decreed that all seeking art instruction, regardless of a lack of either funds or discernible talent, should be given that opportunity. It's kind of the way they approach softball, too, but there's not sense being churlish. They gave us all we wanted and came within a couple more hits of a most unpleasant turn of events.
The Sammys scored five in the top of the first and four in the top of the seventh. In between, pitcher Chris Yasiejko shut them out, facing just 22 batters in those middle five innings. And it's a good thing because our half-innings were taking a while. We didn't score much. They just took a while.
We scored four in the first to get back in the game, led by a three-run home run by Steve Lynch into the trash can on Edgeley 3. We tied the game in the second with a single run and it stayed that way until we added three in the fourth, two more in the fifth and a single run in the sixth. Ahead 11-5, we felt pretty good until they took advantage of some good hits and poor fielding by us to score four more and bring the tie run to the plate with two out in the seventh. The batter scalded a sinking liner into right center that Jon Snyder charged. Snyder reached down and made a great shoestring spear of the ball to end the game, and not a moment too soon.
Details? A 3-for-3 night for George "Opposite Way" Miller. Two hits each for Kerry O'Connor, Brian Donlen, Tom Hickey, Mike Galan and former player Krause. Yaz pitched well. We caught a ball here and there, Brennan showed up muttering something about Milton Street, Lynch didn't wear the Yankees hat, Hickey came to his annual game. It was fine. It was a good start and, yes, the view from first place is wonderful. Our loyal fans from the Franklin Orcs were suitably impressed. We get to see them next week as half of our Monday-Tuesday doubleheader. Get your running in.