Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #15

Game: August 7, 2011

Buzzards Pound Dodgers, 11-0

Sunday, August 7th, was another Buzzard gathering day at James Field in Auburn. The 2 pm NABA game featured two top teams from the 45+ AA and A divisions. The Gold Country Ol' Buzzards are in second place in the double-A group with a 10-4-1 record, while the Rancho Cordova Dodgers are in first place in the single-A division at 10-4-1. The Dodgers are one of the four young teams to join the 45+ 'old man' division this year. Most of this team is barely over 45 with several players under the age limit as grandfathered players from last year's 38+ RC Dodgers team. They have been moaning that the single-A division is too easy. Before the game they were pretty sassy about their team's skill level and were anxious to put it to the old guys.

A scheduling quirk, due to the five rain-outs earlier this season, caused the Dodgers to play a split double-header on Sunday. They played the Free Agents in a 9 o'clock game at Peterson Field in Rancho Cordova, losing against Donnie Rogers 1-0.

On a warm, mid-80's afternoon, just perfect for day baseball in the Sierra foothills, the Dodgers showed up with 17 young eager players dressed out in blue jerseys and white pants ready to take on a smaller crew of 11 Ol' Buzzards for this game. Going to the mound for the RC Dodgers was strong right-hander, Chris Glick #30. The Buzzards sent bulging biceps, Bob 'Woody' Wooden #22 to the hill to start the game.

For the first two innings, both pitchers held the teams scoreless. Good Ol' Buzzard defense in the top of the first was shown with a smooth 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and made Woody's job easier. The grounder was to Dave 'Evy' Everingham's left. He fielded the ball and tossed it to Dennis 'Little Ball of Hate' Viegas for a quick turn at second and strong throw to Charles 'CJ' Jackson at first base. Sweet play to end the first frame for the Dodgers.

The Ol' Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard in the third with a nice crooked number - 4 - to take the lead. Bake led-off with a base on balls. Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir took first base running for Mike. Next, batting left-handed, Scott 'Donut' Reeves, hit a flare to left field for a single putting runners at first and second. One out later, Ray 'Bull Dog' Henry took one for the team when he was hit squarely on the right butt cheek by a wild fast ball. Ray later said he didn't feel the pitch with all that butt cheek to absorb the hit. It left a small bruise as a reminder of the encounter with the wild pitch. Bull Dog took first base to load 'em up for LBH. Dennis sent the 1-1 pitch on a line into center field for a two-run single scoring Wook and Donut.

Batting next, Evy bounced one deep to the second baseman who had to hurry his throw to first. The throw was high and Evy was safe to re-load the bases. Taylor 'Welzy' Welz hit the first pitch to left-center field for a single driving in Bull Dog and LBH. Woody followed with a single to center, but the inning ended two batters later with the score 4-0.

The Buzzards scored again in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Ol' Bull Dog, one of the last remaining original Buzzards, batting left-handed, singled sharply to left field. Magazine cover boy, Dennis V, followed with a base hit to right field putting runners at first and third. Batting next, Evy knocked a 1-2 pitch for a base hit to right field scoring Ray. With runners at first and third, Evy took off for second base, stopping mid-way to draw a throw, and then got himself into a pickle between second and first, as Cover Boy easily scored from third. Dave was eventually tagged out, after a long back-and-forth run down on a close play sliding back into first base.

Welzy followed with a walk and then stole second base. On the play at the bag, the field umpire old slim Jim, called Taylor 'safe', but gave the 'out' signal. The Dodger fans were confused, at first cheering and shooting off their noisy air horn, but later disappointed at the crazy call. We have seen Jim's work before, but that call and signal were a first for many Buzzards and others.

With Welzy now on second, Woody was walked to put two on. CJ then smashed a grounder to third that the fielder caught, but then threw wildly to second as he threw-out his arm and yelled out in pain. Two runs scored on the play with the game resuming after an injury time-out. Batting next, Tony 'Mongoose' Brashear then hit a sharp liner into center field for a run scoring single.

The Dodgers then changed pitchers and brought in lanky Joe Rivera #55. The hard throwing righty then proceeded to walk Wookie on four pitches. Bake followed with a fielder's choice grounder that was hit to the shortstop. He ran to second base, but threw high to first with Wookie sliding hard into the bag. The play scored two runs leaving Bake on first. Donut continued the rally with a single to left-center field before the inning ended with six runs scored. The Buzzards were up 10-0 on the Dodgers after five innings of play.

Meanwhile, Woody continued to mow down these Dodgers in every inning. Their six hits were scattered in five of the innings for the shutout. Only three runners got to second base and only one Dodger reached third, and that was running threw it in the last inning on the way to being thrown out at the plate. The number of Dodger batters per inning is interesting and shows the dominance by Woody. 1st - 3, 2nd - 3, 3rd - 4, 4th - 3, 5th - 4, 6th - 5, 7th - 4. Wow.

The Buzzards scored once more in their last at-bats in the sixth inning. With one out, Cover Boy walked. Evy, batting next, on a full count hit a high looper into center field for another single. With two outs, Woody blasted a long double to the fence in left-center scoring Dennis and ending the scoring with 11 runs. Woody cut down the Dodgers in the top of the seventh inning and ended the game on the 10-run 'mercy rule'.

This was a nice, solid game with plenty of scoring to put away these young Dodger punks from Rancho in seven innings. Woody pitched a heck of a game and the defense played well. Wood man faced 26 batters throwing only 73 pitches (50 strikes & 23 balls) in the two hour and ten minute game. Bobio gave up six hits with one walk and two strike outs in the shut out.

The defense was tough including two throw-outs on the base path by Donut from behind the plate. One at third base with an excellent quick tag by Bake on a hard slide, into the bag and up his leg, in the third inning on a beautiful strike 'em out, throw 'em out to put a serious damper on an early Dodger rally. The second toss-out came in the fifth inning in nailing the lead-off runner at second base with the tag by LBH. The Dodgers would run no more on Scottie.

In the last inning with a runner at second and one out, a hit to left field looked deep enough to get a Dodger run home. Donnie 'Redondo' Colbert playing with a pulled groin muscle in left field, retrieved the ball and fired to Bake in the cut-off position near the mound. Mike took the throw and tossed a strike to Goose, playing catcher, to nail the runner in a slide at the plate to preserve the shut out.  Nice relay and terrific play. 

The infield defense caught all eight pop-ups in the sun (Evy-3 at shortstop, Bake-1 at third base, CJ-4 at first and in foul territory). Everingham also had a terrific out-stretched, back-handed snag of a screaming liner in the fourth inning. We played good sound baseball. A coach of the Dodgers late in the game in front of the dugout to his team, pointed at the Buzzards and said "that team plays good fundamental baseball, we need to play like that." A nice back-handed compliment that was over-heard at first.

The Buzzard offense got 13 hits in the six innings of at-bats with 12 of them coming in the last four digs. The hit club included Bull Dog, Goose, Welzy and Wookie with one hit each. Cover Boy, Donut and Woody with two hits and Evy had three hits including a double. The RBI's were knocked in by Bake-2, CJ-2, Cover Boy-2, Evy-1, Goose-1, Woody-1, and Welzy-2. Good job Buzzards. The season record is now 11-4-1 with three games left in the regular season.

Buzzard Note #1: Next Sunday is double-header day at James Field. The 10 o'clock against the Free Agents and 2 o'clock versus the Bulldogs. Both games are scheduled for nine innings.

Buzzard Note #2: This upcoming Sunday will be the last home games of the year. So, one more time, we will have smoked meat after the last game. We will gather in the parking lot, north-east corner, under the trees. We will set-up a table with sliced tri-tip and buns with potato salad, chips and cold drinks. The smoked tri-tip is courtesy of local radio personality, Tony B, for his higher than expected radio ratings for the KAHI broadcast game on July 24th. Should be a nice Buzzard feast. Family and friends are invited.

Buzzard Note #3: The last regular season game on August 21st is bumping into a regional Father-Son Tourney at McAuliffe Fields. The Buzzards are likely to be short-handed that day playing the first place Valley Cats. Uh oh. Buzzard Note #4: The mega-critical, single-elimination and first round play-off game will be August 28th. Mark your calendars.

 Buzzard Note #4: The mega-critical, single elimination and first round play-off game will be August 28th.  Mark your calendars.