Blowfish Chronicles: Won by a Whimper

JUNE 5 V. WILSON TOBS

 

 

 

Won by a Whimper

 

 

 

What is called a mercy rule was instigated in major league baseball in 2006 to help blown-out teams like Kansas City and Tampa Bay avoid humiliation. Any team down by 15 in the fifth inning or by 10 in the seventh or later would be allowed—no, required—to surrender. Does the Coastal Plain League have a mercy rule? That question occurred to me during the top of the first inning of the Cinco de Junio game, when Blowfish pitcher Tyler McBride was spotting five runs to the Tobs of Wilson, North Carolina. 

The answer is no—the league has no such rule. And the question was moot by the bottom of the fourth, when the Fish had accumulated five runs of their own to come within two of the Tobs, who had in the third got two more, forcing McBride to resign. When the Fish went up 10 to 9 in the eighth, and then beat back a final, bases-loaded Tobs assault, to win, I should perhaps have deemed unmentionable any thought of institutional compassion. But it was a natural thought to think in the first inning, when the Tobs had scored three times without yet incurring an out, and then again, with only one out, when two more runs were registered.

What turned out to be the deciding run of the game came in the bottom of the eighth, when Oliver Santos, dashing off from second on a 3-2 count, was able to sneak safely home on a passed ball at the plate. This winning whimper (no bang like a homer) came with a warning, at the top of the ninth, from the gods, who allowed the Tobs to load the bases with a little comedy of the Roman sort. Catcher Phil Morgan deftly fielded a bunt. With force outs possible at second and third, and a play of course possible at first, Morgan paused, ball raised for a throw, to consider his options, then chose bag one, conscientiously covered, in the absence of the bunt-rushing first-man Jesse Barbaro, by second-man Larry Perry. But Perry was looking elsewhere and the ball bounced off his chest.

The next batter popped up a little foul ball just a ways behind the plate, precipitating a fine move by catcher Morgan, who, for all his alacrity and dexterity in making the catch, had, I think, to be prompted by a teammate to get the throw down to third in time to toss out a Tobs runner retreating back from a start toward home and doubled up with a fellow Tob rushing over from second.

The sudden end of the game was for me an ambivalent surprise. A night breeze was wafting through the Cap, and I for one would have been up for a couple of extra innings. But in lieu of those extras, there were others already enjoyed. First, there was this general satisfaction: Tyler McBride, having as starting pitcher given up seven runs in three innings, redeemed himself in the role of continuing hitter, batting in two runs, the second, in the seventh, the one that tied the game. And blows to pitcher egos in the form of hits relinquished were accompanied by a few fast liners and grounders that seemed to be aimed at the mound. In the seventh Branfy Arias blasted a low line drive into a butt cheek of the Tobs pitcher, who then slipped and fell on his wounded behind as he tried (and failed) to pick up the ball in time to make the play. Since he was not hurt I suppose I can cherish the memory, less than I can that of the Tobs single that made Fish reliever Michael Moore smart, where I could not exactly tell. 

Owner Bill Shanahan, redolent of those Pedro road signs from South of the Border, addressed the crowd in sombrero and poncho. And fans were able to watch two visually eloquent contestations of calls. Tobs manager Jeff Steele went nose-to-nose with the home plate ump in protest of a passed-ball trip to first base by resurrected strike-out victim Phil Morgan, and Fish manager Tim Medlin gave the field ump two pounds of bile over a slide-safe call at second. I shall not report the details, only observe that the managerial rant is in baseball often seizure-like and kind of scary-funny. 

 

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