Urban Tribe Comes Out Kicking
The Urban Tribe showed the New Kicks on the Block what a veteran kickball team looks like.
John Kelly led off the game with a hit and quickly scored when bad girl Shannon ‘Mayday’ McKenzie legged out an infield squibber. Powered by some sharp fielding and crafty kicking, the UT went on to win their first game of the season 4-3.
The Joggler (1-0) & Kelly combined for 12 strikeouts limiting the Kicks to just 3 runs.
“I was a little rusty, but it was breaking pretty good tonight,” Joggler said. “I was lucky, they just weren’t getting any good leg on the ball.”
The UT’s victory came on a night made cooler by the cloud cover of a dying hurricane. The gusts of Gustav made any ball hit into the air a real challenge. Unfortunately, a couple of shots that would normally be caught, bounced just off the finger tips of our fielders. Another one was lost by Chris ‘the Brewmaster’ Boone when he was distracted by a UT latecomer.
“We make those catches and this one’s a blow-out,” said GM Mark ‘Denim’ Schauerte.
There were some defensive gems however. Tom ‘the Architect’ Szurgot had some sparkling catches at third, as did rookie sensation Ryan Robertson in the outfield. Kelly made an amazing recovery to erase a runner at first. But he came up limping on the play and should’ve had it looked at by team trainer Wild Thang.
When asked about his sore leg Kelly said, “There’s a reason this game is played by kids.”
Too old for the bar?
The offense was decent considering how many players were no doubt distracted by the historic and significant speech being made at the time by the most qualified Vice Presidential candidate to come along since Dan Quayle. Kelly and the Joggler both had shoddy-defense aided home runs.
Veteran players Jim Gould and Karyn had multiple hits, as did Robertson. Adult kickball newbie, Gabby Shilkaitis, also had a hit but confessed, “I don’t remember it being this hard in grade school.”
Indeed last year’s offensive powerhouses Mayday, Wild Thang, Tom ‘Ditka’ Kikta and Christy all struggled at the plate. “I really think we should’ve had that practice,” Mayday was heard saying.
But in the end, the UT is off to a great start. The management will definitely get better at showing up on time and calling out the girl’s positions between innings. We’ll also have some great spectators as we did this week. Finally, there’s no doubt that the rest of the season the UT will dominate better than a Russian birgade over foes in Ossetia.
What did you think of the game? Was there anything you remember that wasn’t mentioned? Leave a comment below.
