few Sundays ago I was finishing up the third game of an unusual tripleheader – one that started with two 30-and-over adult league games and finished with an American Legion tilt 20 miles away. I’ll admit it, too – after 20-plus innings of baseball, I was more than ready to head home and take a long shower.

The set-up

The last game was well played. The visiting team put two on the board in the top of the first, and the visiting team plated three runs in the bottom of the third. The score stood at 3-2 until the top of the seventh (and scheduled) final inning, when carelessness on the part of the home defense allowed the visitors to tie the score at 3.

The game remained tied, 3-3, until the top of the ninth inning, my 23rd of the day.

With one out, a new pitcher took the hill for the home team – a lanky lefthander, who, I was told during the pitching change (by the home coach, no less), had an excellent move to first.

Continued...