The Final Score Was 19-1

What else more is there to say? :)

Rain Delay

July 22's game has been postponed to July 29, 9:00 p.m., due to inclement weather.

Video: The last game of the 2009 regular season

For those new to these videos, I do not trim them down into a highlight reel. Instead, I post the raw video. As if you were slipping in and out of consciousness during a game and only caught bits and pieces, so are these videos. When you are 80 and in an assisted living facility, you can watch these videos and better remember the good times you had watching Russ' Softball in 2009.







Next game: Wednesday, 9 p.m. (It might be 9:10, but, be safe... be there at 9:00.)

Photo Spread: Did you know you can only recharge batteries for a limited amount of time?

Photos! My camera's batteries died shortly into this short game. And the extra set of batteries I grabbed, I think, have died for good. We'll see, but, rechargeable batteries do have a limited lifespan. They may be at the end of their life. Which didn't work out too well for me, since I still wanted stills, in addition to moving photos. Nevertheless, I took the best out of what I had. Its still a big post. Its just not the best stuff ever. Enjoy(!)(?).

 

Jason gets ready to pitch

 

John gets ready for practice

 

Waiting for the game to start. We waited a little over ten minutes past our start time.

 

Another image of waiting around. This time, its vertical, so its different. ;)

 

Melissa and Grace chat about Grace being done with school.

 

Sitting all alone... he is such a zero. :P

 

Brian and a kid. (Hey, if I knew everyone's name, I'd have a different job, m'kay?)

 

I love the sky and sunlight in this photo! So cool.

 

Aah... blue skies, bright lights, but everyone's in focus... *sigh* Its so pretty!

 

Dan the Man.

 

Its (un)lucky number 13! Seriously, if its both a luck and unlucky number, then isn't it just... a number?

 

Brian, laughing it up as pitcher.

 

An umpire. For no other reason than I could. :)

 

Sarah. (Again, my batteries died, so I'm going with what I've got!)

 

Cool shadow, cool sky... Just... cool!

 

"Go after it!" is probably what they were saying... in the peanut gallery! Oh, snap.

 

Melissa, trying to be all cool with her hat and shades, hiding from the cameras.

 

Not a good picture of Mike, but, I'd rather have some Mike than no Mike at all. :)

 

Sarah laughs, disbelieving that she swung when she knew she shouldn't.

 

Jason goes up to bat. This is apparently taken during the second inning.

 

Normally, I don't publish photos of the pets that make an appearance. However, since this is the Jurries family dog, I'll allow an exception. This is Fred, a Basset Hound. 

 

Good thing I'm almost out of photos... I'm getting to the point where I write really weird, nonsensical captions just for the sake of taking up space. Like this caption, for example.

 

And... that's it! The last picture my camera took for the 2009 Softball regular season.

Next week: Tournaments start! Wednesday at 9 p.m. Be there, or... not be there. If you are on the team, be there. If you are a fan, be there. If you are not either one of those... I can't imagine this blog holds much interest for you (nor the other two groups, but especially you!), so... I guess you can skip.

Recap: Mercy me! That's the last game of regular season

Hello, readers! It has been a while. In addition to our week off, your not-so-humble writer has been working. Ergo, blog content has been light. Not this week! (Well, kind of this week.) I was able to get away and go to the game, which went down like this:

1st Inning
Top: Nate gets to second base. (NOT LIKE THAT. Unless you were thinking about softball. Then, like that.) Becki gets to first base. Which, how many other sports are there where if you get to the third of something, its a compliment? Anyways. Becki gets out, same with Julie. Nate runs home, shows emotion. Dan gets to first. Kelli strikes out, bringing Russ' to three outs.
Bottom: Brian pitches the first inning. Kyle and Julie work together to make a good play for the first out. Kyle makes a great catch. However, the ball was going so fast, Kyle said that it "might have broke my glove."
Score: 2-1, Buntes favor

2st Inning
Top: Mike goes to first. And then he's tagged out, Sarah gets out as well. Jason makes it to first base (insert "and he'll only ever make it to first base" joke here), Melissa strikes out. Our half of the inning goes remarkably fast -- a lesson the other team could have heeded later on...
Bottom: Jason takes the pitcher's mound. Nate makes a good try to get someone out at first. Dan catches a high and pretty.
Score: 6-1, Buntes favor

3rd Inning
Top: Jason goes to first. Same with Becki and John. Brian strikes out. Becki gets out, same with John. Two runs are scored in-between.
Bottom: The third inning, otherwise known as the inning where WE GOT THE POINT ALREADY STOP SCORING RUNS. They honestly reached the limit for home runs in an inning. That's how bad the inning went. Ten runs were made. Becki and Julie worked together to get the first out. As Grace pointed out, throughout the season, Julie has gotten very good at doing the splits!
Score: 16-1, Buntes favor

4th Inning
Top: Nate walks to second. Kelli gets out. Nate makes it all the way home. Kyle gets home, Sarah gets to second, Dan and Melissa get out. And... that kind of ends the game. We got mercied. And we got mercied good. What a way to end the regular season.

Next week begins Tournaments, which lasts for three weeks. Its always odd, because you never know if the team will last one, two, or all three weeks. The first game for us is next week, July 22, at 9 p.m. ET. Beyond that, I don't know the times... times will be posted on a as-I-find-them-out basis. :)

(Thanks to recent cosmetology school-graduate Grace for the notes!)

Play like Mickey Mantle

During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
-- Mickey Mantle

VIDEO: June 17, 2009

Here are assorted video clips from the June 17, 2009 softball game. A little over 22 minutes total of video is represented here.

You may notice the videos are not in widescreen, like the last ones. I was experimenting with another shooting mode my pocket camcorder has. Instead of taking HD video at 60 frames per second, I used the VGA mode, which is supposed to be more web-friendly, but at lesser quality. (By the time I got done exporting and uploading to YouTube, my HD videos looked less than stellar... trust me, the source files looked better.)







Next week's game is June 24, at 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time. We are the visitors that week.

Photo Spread: June 17, 2009 game

The morning saw rain, and the afternoon was very gray and dreary. However, by the time we got to practice, it started to clear up a little, and was a little bit sunny for the game.

Coach Nate supervises practice time.

Brian takes some hits. As in, softball practice. Not as in physical abuse.

Hi, slightly-out-of-focus Leslie!

And its off to the main field for the game!

Some unnamed people try to avoid the camera.

Its laughing time!

See? Laughing time.

No one's laughing, Jason. You can stop.

Nate looks on from the bench, as Alyssa writes in the scorebook.

This is my favorite picture of the night. Dan and Kyle look on after a play. Don't ask me which play, I don't know. For all I know, they were looking at a squirrel. Very intensely.

Lots of players and fans tonight!

Hi, Rebecca!

John gets ready to bat.

This photo of Grace brought to you by... Meijer. (Because of the blue Meijer bag? Sponsorship joke? Yeah? .... anyone?)

Derek came by to watch the team play, so, naturally, he and Brian smoked together.

Oohh! Steep angle!

This week's challenge: Whose shoes are these?
Last week's answer: Julie VanVoorst

Devan smiles on.

Mike tosses one bat in and he goes up to home plate.

From zero to... well, its still zero, actually.

It's Kelli! And lucky number 13.

It is a laughing kind of a night, isn't it?

Smile smile. (Yes, I'm running out of caption material already.)

Sometimes, I actually bother to get an action shot. Like right here.

Brian gets ready to hit the ball, which is thrown by the pitcher to the batter. (There, did I change the captions up enough?)

Dan and John discuss the game thus far.

And from their talk, John goes out onto the field.

Nice hat, Jason.

And now the game is done. Goodbye, Russ' team + fans!

Next week's game is at 6:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. For those who are on Pacific time, please adjust accordingly./

In Summary: The June 17, 2009 game

As you may have noticed, I was not around for the June 10th game, hence, no documentation. Not so for this week! Photographs and video were taken my yours truly, while Grace took copious notes. Those notes are what can make this recap happen. (Thanks, Grace!)

1st Inning

Brian pitches the first inning. Nate caught the ball! Not fast enough to get to first. But he gets first out. Kelli just about caught a high and pretty. Two runs scored by the Independents.
------------------------------------
Nate gets to first. Becki gets out, but we still love you Becki and you still love softball, for pete's sake. Kyle brings the ball over the fence! And then? Home run! Two runs scored by Russ'. Julie walked to first, Dan went to first also.

2nd Inning

Its Jason's turn to pitch. Becki gets the first out, Dan catches a high and pretty.
------------------------------------
Mike and Sarah strike out fairly quickly. Jason gets to second base (in sports, people!), Melissa strikes out. Neither team wins any points.

3rd Inning

Brian is back to pitching. He... doesn't take it completely well. "Butler. You're pitching the rest of the game," he exclaimed. Dan and Melissa both made great catches, which I know is absolutely compelling to read about when I have no visuals to demonstrate, but, trust us: they were good. Grace then wrote on the notes: "Think Dan gave B(rian)T(enBrock) a heart attack. 'Sarah, don't get hit by the bat!'"
------------------------------------
Brian gets to third. Becki gets out. Devan gets to first. Julie out. John out. I think someone got a run in this inning, but, I don't know who. Just... give it to yourself, gentle reader. Congratulations. The inning closed out, 2-3, Russ' favor.

4th Inning

Butler gets the first out. Kelli makes a good catch, and Julie does the splits to get the last out. Yoga in the ballfield? (That's my commentary, not Grace's.)
------------------------------------
A few people made it up to bat, and most didn't score. Fine. I can repeat this for every inning, for every game, even the good ones. What made this inning special was this: we were playing, when suddenly we heard a player yell "whose kid is this?" Out by the outfield, one of Brian's kids had found a small hole in the fence, climbed through and was now on the playing field. He was quickly escorted out, to the amusement of everyone. Nate, Sarah and Kyle all make it home, ending the inning 2-6.

5th Inning

Brian is pitching again, and is one big basket of nerves. Julie advises him to "shake it off." So, Brian does some shaking there on the pitcher's mound. Good. for. him. Julie does the splits, again. Showoff. Kelli makes one good catch, prompting Grace to write "WTB Kelli!" A long story short: The Independents score a lot of runs.
------------------------------------
Mike walks to second. Julie strikes out, same with Jason. Mike the makes it home, so, good job Mike! Kelli gets out, closing the inning 6-7, Russ' favor. (I have to say, I was busy taking pictures and video that I never really noticed that we were winning for a couple innings. That's pretty cool!)

6th Inning

Melissa catches a foul ball, proving her dedication to catching no matter what. Kyle gets the second out, and then dives for the third. The other team scores one run total.
------------------------------------
Brian strikes out. Same with Devan and John. Melissa makes it to first base, while Sarah gets to home. (Sometimes, I wish baseball terms weren't used as metaphors for dating. You can read this all totally the wrong way!) Inning ends 7-8, Russ' favor.

7th Inning

Brian doesn't want to pitch, because, this is how he is. There's some good teamwork on the field to get some outs, even through the other team scores two runs, bringing them into the lead. The same kid who walked out into the field almost got injured by a stray pop up ball. Poor kid.
------------------------------------
Becki gets out. Nate gets out. Julie gets out. Just like that. And the game ends, Independents 9, Russ' 8.

Next Week

June 24: vs. Southside Party Store, 6:15 p.m. (V)

Video: 2009 Softball Game 5

Above is a collection of short videos taking during Game 5 of the 2009 season. I didn't edit it down to a 90 second package, like a good journalist would have. Instead, I took the lazy option: I stitched together all 9 minutes worth of footage. Worse, my good video editing programs still won't cooperate, so, you get these clips without any fading, audio editing, transitions, titles, or anything else. It is just raw video. Like watching a home movie.

Highlights to look out for:
2:00 - Mike's battle for home plate
3:45 - Start of the triple play.
And... somewhere in there, is one fan's shout-out to a player who couldn't play because of an injury, plus lots of video of people swinging the bat. LOTS.

EDIT: If that video doesn't work, here's a YouTube version (which allows for fullscreen):

Photo Spread: June 3, 2009

Here we are, another week of Russ' Softball. This was the fifth week on the schedule, the fourth week we've played. Isn't that incredible? The time is going by so fast. Anywho, here's what you guys visit the blog for: the photos!

Warming up before the game.

Nate takes a turn throwing during practice for a minute.

John gets ready for some practice.

Mike smiles ahead.

Dan keeps his eye on the target. Its like he's the got the eye... of the tiger. (That would be funnier if I could SAY that joke to you, so I could sing that last little bit.)

Sarah lets her hair down during practice. Literally.

John, Alyssa and Dan keep note of what's happening on the field.

I think its here that Kyle scrapped his knee up really well.

Get him out, Kyle, get him out!

And he keeps on running!

The girls strike up a pose.

WHOSE SHOES ARE THESE?
Last week's answer: Brian

Jason takes off running. See that dust cloud by his feet?

Rebecca takes a turn up at bat.

John gets ready to score a run.

Nate's looking a little blue, but, that's a white balance thing, not his attitude or anything. Seriously, there's a bit of a blue tint to that photo, isn't there?

Sarah takes her turn as catcher.

What do you get when you add one and one? Eleven.

Hey, the bats are there just as often as the players.

Jason and his 'shades.

Okay, so I didn't have pithy commentary for every photo. I just kind of started to repeat myself.

Coming later on to the Russ' Softball blog... more video!!!

2009 Game 5: The Recap

Thanks to note-taking from Grace, here is a nice little recap of what went down during the June 3, 2009 game:

Practice: Practice went fairly well. We had some problems catching the ball, but overall, everyone was in great spirits. Especially Kyle, until he realized who we were playing tonight. "Is that the team with the guy in the spandex shorts?" he asked. "I HATE this team!"

First Inning: Butler was pitching tonight. No, not pitchy. He wasn't singing. He was throwing the ball. Kyle did a nice slide to catch a ball, but didn't get the out. The other team got off to a very strong start, grabbing five runs immediately. Nate scores Russ' one run to end the inning.

Second Inning: Second verse, worse than the first. The opposing team gets seven runs, totaling 12 total. At this point, the word "mercy" was starting to float around. And no one would let that stand. Mike ran to home, but got caught between third and home, and had to wiggle his way out to score a run. Sarah has an easier time getting to home, same with Jason. The inning ends, 12 to 4.

Third Inning: Julie does some splits to get an out. There was some good tag-teaming to get the third out. No runs were scored by the other team. Russ', on the other hand, got a few. John went home, Nate followed, same with Kelli. (I have a video of that... it'll be up later.) nning ends, 12-7 -- above mercy territory.

Fourth Inning: No one scored. On either team. Dan and Mike both got on base, but, they shut us out as good as we shut them out earlier on in the inning.

Fifth Inning: The tides turn. Jason got to second, same with Mike. That is as far as they got. Earlier on, though, the other team scored three more runs, closing out the inning 15-7.

Sixth Inning: This is kind of the sixth inning and seventh, because we got to go up to bat twice, since it didn't matter if the other team got more points, did it? John scored another run, closing out the game 15-8.

Next week's game is at 6:15 again.

Photos: May 27, 2009

Whose foot is this?

Last week's answer: Coach Kyle

Thanks to Grace for taking photos from this game!!! :)

VIDEO: What does Russ' Softball mean to you?

This week, I turned my camera's video function on and asked a few players: what does Russ' Softball mean to you? Here are the answers. PLUS: Some random game footage! PLUS: Its all very raw video, with no titles, transitions or fades. PLUS: The video is right here:



Next game: Wednesday, May 27, 7:10 p.m. eastern time.

The Team Photos

I figured I'd give you all a chance to see each photo. So, I made this separate post!





Next game: Wednesday, May 27, 7:10 p.m. eastern time.

Question: Does anybody want individual portrait photos while in uniform? I'll only be at about half the games, but if you do, just let me know before and/or after the game and I can snap a few for you.

Photos: The Double-Header

Time for a super-deluxe photo spectacular! More photos than your computer can load efficiently. Isn't this just cool?

Jason practices pitching until Brian shows up.

Nate goes over the team roster, making sure everything's in order.

Everybody practicing on the field.

Chillin' with the kids.

Julie's looking at something. I don't know the context of photos, I just take them! ;)

Pre-game talk, while waiting for our field to clear out.

The roster!

Brian pitches both games for us.

Becks gets ready to catch some balls!
(Yeah, there's no real way to make that sound exciting, is there?)

Nate. Standing.

Oh look, here's Brian again! Out of the 300+ photos taken, I picked these?
Let's try to change things up now...

The fans watch the game, not the photographer. :)

Julie makes a run for first base.

Look at Brian run! This is what I lacked last year: action shots. Let's see if that improves this year.

Nate adjusting his cap as he responds to a teammate's comment. (Maybe about the hat?)
Oh, also, he's smiling. (Yes, he can!)

LOL, Jason! Legs are for balance, not falling down!

He's a good sport about it. At least he didn't have far to fall down! (Get it? Because he's shorter than the average West Michigan man? Haha?.... I laughed.)

John smiles as he goes up to bat.

Kids are cute. Am I right?

This week's guessing game: Whose shoes are those?
Last week's answer: Becki. Congrats to Vicki for answering right first!

Sarah gets ready to catch.

Ooh! Blurry semi-action! This is new, you have not seem much of this before.

Kyle gets ready for his turn at bat.

Hi, Kelzinga!

Mike focuses on the ball.

Brian takes a swing at bat. (Swing at bat... swing... bat... ? Boy, is this a tough crowd or what?)

A sun-beaten Carleen lets the ball have it.

John gets ready for another turn.

Nate, in action.

The coaches look on at their team.

Butler gets ready... for whatever may happen. What if they throw cans of soup? He'll be ready. Soccer balls? He'll be ready. He's ready for whatever may happen.

Nope, nothing in there, Dan. You have to catch something.

Melissa, catching and doing her best not to get hit by the ball.

Watching from a distance. See that? That is called a "wide shot." This is supposed to give you some sense of perspective, keeps things alive and interesting. Did it do that for you? .... No? Well, its there, at any rate.

Kyle gets ready to...

... run!

Sarah takes another turn at bat.

Hi, Moe!

Hi, Sarah!

Devan, Nate and Dan ponder the game's actions.

Lucky number seven!

Walking through the gate.

Nate smiles, because, it takes more work to not smile, so why not brighten the day?

Devan gets his game face on.

Mike wonders if there are any treats left after the game.

Next game: Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. eastern time.

Recap: A Well-Balanced Double-Header

Russ' neither came out ahead, nor came out behind, but rather maintained a balance: One win, one loss. The first game was won by a lot, but we worked hard to get there, and we had fun doing so. The second game? It was pretty clear what was going to happen right away. Any attempts to put up a fight were shut out immediately. It... was brutal. (And we play them again in a month!) Grace took notes, so I'm now able to bring you: the game summaries.

(Note: I am not a sports journalist. RBIs? Line drive? Sacrifice fly? No clue what those mean. This is written in a very informal way.)

Practice Highlight
- A little kid got hit in the eye. Kids, am I right?
- Mike was running to get a ball, didn't quite know where on the field he was, and... ran into a trash can.
- The game started a little over ten minutes after the scheduled time.

Game no.1
Inning no.1 - "Wow, we are kind of amazing!"
We had a little bit of trouble with fumbling with the ball when throwing to get the other players out. But when we got up to bat? That's when the confidence took over. Nate, Dan, Kyle, Becki and Mike all ran to home, scoring us five points. (That's right, this blog does math for you.) Three of those points were all scored at once, which was an incredible boost for team spirit right there. Inning score: 5-2, Russ' favor.

Inning no.2 - "Wow, we were amazing last inning!"
There was some more fumbling with the ball. Brian, the evening's pitcher, got a little mad, in his Brian-esque way. All in all, the other team only managed to get one player by us, giving them an extra point. Butler struck out, Melissa walks to first, Devan struck out, Leen got to first, John out. Inning score: 5-3, Russ' favor.

Inning no.3 - "Let's more than double our score, okay?"
There is a good play made by Jason, but I can't remember what it was. Mike makes a catch "high and pretty," as Grace put it, which worked out really well for us: the opposing team scored just one more run. When its our turn up at bat, it is pretty much an explosion of awesomeness, except for Julie. Julie ran to first. Julie thought she was safe. Empire said otherwise. Julie tried so hard to not be so mad! Basically, here's how it went: lots of the team got runs. Dan, Mike, Kelli... lots of runs. Inning score: 12-4, Russ' favor.

Inning no.4 - "Don't slide!"
I try not to bring Grace's note-taking in that much, because she was doing me a favor, and she wrote notes so that I could turn them into these wonderfully unreadable paragraphs. However, I think I'll just write what she wrote for while the opposing team was at bat: "Devan gets high and pretty. B(rian) T(enBrock) walks one. Boring." Short, sweet and to-the-point, no? Other team gets two points.
When its our turn, Becki slides in to third base, in spite of her mom yelling rather loudly, DO NOT SLIDE BECKI! Classic. She winds up scoring for the team. Inning score: 13-6, Russ' favor.

Inning no.5 - "What's a bad habit?"
While catching, Melissa gets hit in the head. And there was a joke made about "bunting," but, you really had to have been there. Or have a better memory when writing up recaps. One of those two. We shut the "others" out from getting a single point. Kyle runs to home, scoring Russ' another point.
Someone mad a mention about having a bad habit, leading me to state: "You know what's a bad habit? When all the nuns steal from the poor." Thank you, I'll be here all week.
EDIT: Apparently, the joke doesn't work, because logically, nuns live in an abbie and wear a habit. Still.

Innings no.6 & 7 - (We can really just combine these two)
Brian does a pretty sweet slide action. Julie does the splits for an out. Dan catches a high ball. And... well, other team scores two more, but that isn't enough to win the game.
Game score: 15-8, Russ' favor.

Game 2 - "Hey, weren't we good just two minutes ago?"
The entire game can be summarized as such: It took about forty minutes to get through the game. Immediately we realized that we were like David and we were facing a team with a few metaphorical Goliath's on them. Plus, we were tired, and the other team didn't have a game right before. Nate made a couple good catches, but, it really didn't matter if we caught the ball or not. The other team was good. And we didn't/couldn't/didn't bring it. Everyone is frustrated, because we did so good last game, and this other team makes us look like we've never played softball before in our lives! It took some doing, but we kept spirits up enough so nobody left the field feeling terrible. After all, we had one amazing game right before. Absolutely classic.
Game score: 0-8, Russ' mercied after five innings.

Next week's game: Is at 7:10 p.m. eastern time. I leave you with this sports quote that, according to the Internet, is supposed to inspire you. So, um... feel its spirit?

The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
-- Hank Aaron

See you next week. Pictures + video coming to the blog soon.

2009: Game 1

Charles had to work. So, no in-depth game recap. A long story short is that there was a shorter game. The team had a rusty first start, but gets a week off to fit in some practice time and become a stronger team. (At the end of the day, though, this is for fun. And if you can't have fun playing softball, then maybe you should work for Charles, because tonight was not fun for him either. However, he digresses.)

Grace was nice enough to take some pictures of the men and women of the Russ' Softball team. These are the pictures.

























Guess who? Post your guess in the comments and the answer will be revealed next week!
And don't even ask Charles, because, he'll need Grace to answer this for him! :)

Next week: No game. Enjoy practice and/or the season finale of Lost.