Sunshine Softball, Game 2

By: Russ | Published: May 5, 2010 | Filed under: Events, Networking

Softball season is in full swing (get it, full swing? Ha!) here at the Sunshine NY community of small businesses and entrepreneurs. As such, we’re thrilled to bring you a recap of the second game of the Sunshine season, written by Tim Smith, owner of award-winning NYC Event Video Company Avenue 5 Films

Your intrepid Sunshine softball team reporter was a little worried about the team’s prospects for last Friday’s game 2 after running into powerhouse hitter Jenny Alcebo in the NoHo office an hour before game-time and finding out she wouldn’t be suiting up due to what can only be deemed a brain fart. “I have to babysit tonight,” Alcebo said unapologetically. “I totally forgot there was a softball game.” If this dedication to the team was contagious, the Shiners would surely be in trouble. I hopped in a cab with Adrian the phone man, slick fielding shortstop Tony and Sarah the self-proclaimed “PocketAsian’ (so says the back of her jersey) making it to the field on 28th and 10 with 20 minutes to spare before first pitch.

The Shiners fell behind 7-0 in the first inning behind a TERRIBLE performance by Bill Mailler who found it hard to concentrate on pitching because he was fixated with trying to hit home runs over the short fences in the outfield. Not to worry, though, he left that up to the batters of the opposing team who treated his pitches like the meatballs they were and sent many of them sailing over the fence and to the soup kitchen on the next block where grateful patrons enjoyed them with their spaghetti dinner.
Shners made out after out without getting on base until yours truly reached on a mighty swing that led to a ball that rolled about 12 feet, good enough for a single and an error that allowed me to take second. This did give team Shiner momentum and led to 3 runs, cutting the score to 7-3. Our evil opponents continued to feast on our pitching, however, stretching the lead to 11-3. Things would have been really bad if team captain Caitlin McConnell hadn’t shown up with a case of Coors Light to ease the pain. McConnell- whose skills on the field would never be confused with those of Jenny Alcebo’s unathletic cat, was MVP by simply deciding to not take the weekend roadtrip upstate that had been on her agenda. Said McConnell, “I had this trip planned for months but realized no one else on the team was capable of buying and carrying beer like me so I cancelled it.” McConnell, who was stationed at catcher for a few innings, received tips on how to squat from the umpire during the game, but inexplicably seemed to get worse at is as the game went on.
Wild-eyed reliever Rob came in focused to relieve Mailler in the third and mowed down a bunch of the scared opponents to give the Shiners at least a chance to come back. Things looked bleak in the 3rd inning, though, when Shiner 3rd Basemen Ricky made an amazing play on a grounder to keep the runners on base and then threw to first to try to get the runner. What happened next is still a mystery. “I threw to what I thought was our first basemen, that Smith character, but he was actually standing in the outfield,” a confused Ricky said. “I threw kind of near him but not quite because when I threw he wasn’t looking at me but instead I think he was talking to a butterfly he had captured.” The ball rolled slick-fielding Jade in right field who scooped it up and threw it in to keep the runner from advancing past second.

As the light quickly disappeared and seeing the ball became impossible, Smith and Tony feigned injuries so they wouldn’t become Shiners with shiners, and spent their time on the bench pounding Coors Light and making bets as to which teammate would get hit in the head first with the softball. Comical plays included Larry’s dive and miss for a ball in the outfield, Mailler’s drop of an easy pop-up and amazing catch by Brianna in which her cheering cost the team a potential double play but was a great play nonetheless. Other great plays included game-saving catches by Troy in the outfield and steady glove work by Brianna, Jade and Tony.
As the beer continued to go down in rapid fashion the Shiners kept getting closer. An amazing double play in the sixth inning in which Mailler threw to first basemen Nick who stuck his glove up as high as he could in the dark to keep the score tight and end a rally by the Evil doers Sunshine faced. Said Nick, “I was annoyed at some other players on the team who bailed playing the field because THEY didn’t want to get hit in the face and left me out there in the dark to get hit in the face. Luckily I didn’t get hit in the face and caught the ball.”

The Shiners came up in the bottom half of the 6th and the hits and runs kept coming until a funny thing happened- we took the lead 14-13! The bench erupted and Shiners could almost taste another victory.
Rob continued to mow down batters but in the 7th he gave up the tying run and then loaded the bases with two outs and faced the toughest batter on the other team. To give you an idea of how good this guy was, one of the balls he hit off Mailler earlier in the game is still traveling and NASA has given it a name and is following it’s orbit. Rob worked the count full and with Shiners holding their collective breath, struck out the Babe Ruth of casual corporate league softball!

In the bottom of the 7th, Mailler and Rob led off with singles before always consistent Kondo (who left his glove at the last game FYI in case anyone happens to find it) smashed a double that brought in Rob and gave the team an amazing 15-14 comeback win! A pile-up at homeplate ensued and the Shiners headed straight to the bar (after a celebratory shot of Patron of course) for a night of revelry and the occasional pizza slice. Will the Shiners ever lose? Probably, but if you don’t read the weekly review, you will never know. Stay tuned for this Thursday’s game 3’s match-up in hipster hotbed Williamsburg!