A picture, as they say, often tells a thousand words, so
I won't have to use a thousand words to describe the
quite unbelievable hail storm that crashed into Napier
Park on Saturday to halt our Division One Reserves
semi-final versus Geelong. The still pictures above
don't come close to describing the ferocity of the storm
but it was an almost scary thing to be in the clubrooms
with the machine-gun like sound of these golf balls
crashing into the roof and the glass windows!This
brings me neatly into what I intend to be a tribute to
Waverley's LIFE MEMBERS who continue to be massive
contributors to our club. Maybe foremost on this
occasion is our committeeman and facilities manager TONY
PAGE who must have done a mighty job to get our home
diamond up and ready to play the day following this
incredible deluge. It didn't look promising at all when
I left the club late on Saturday, but you would hardly
notice any hint of problems by game time on Sunday. Here
I must apologise to any others who may have assisted
Tony... fantastic job!
And, in no particular order of importance, I will now
mention other LIFE MEMBERS who were involved at the club
over the weekend. I'll start with current assistant
coach and playing great DAVID CLARKSON who flew back
from Adelaide after being inducted into the Australian
Baseball HALL-OF-FAME at their dinner on Saturday
night... Congratulations 'Clarko'! He was joined by his
marvellous mother MEG CLARKSON who also came down to the
club after flying home but she was unusually unavailable
to score for our Firsts game as she has done for so many
decades. Watching over all of us from his photograph
next to the bar was the beaming face of DOUG CLARKSON.
Deputising as scorer for the Firsts was our tireless
Secretary ROBYN KARLSEN who had also scored for the
Seconds the previous day... what a marvel she is! Club
President ROSS NIELSON was doing the hard yards serving
behind the bar as he so often does these days. He was
enjoying the flow of cool air enabled by 'Super Sparky'
BRAD ORWIN who has started installing our long-awaited
air conditioning systems in the clubroom... Thanks mate!
Omnipresent KEITH SHELDON-COLLINS was, as usual, manning
the microphone as our professional ground announcer,
while his son MATTHEW SHELDON-COLLINS has a couple of
vital coaching roles with the club.
The "phantom" BRIAN HILL no doubt marked the senior
diamonds before anyone else arrived over the weekend and
he is still awaiting his pay rise. 'Fabulous PHIL' DALE
is our current senior head coach. DAVID WARREN, GEOFF
PAICE and WALLY WALDREN were in attendance at the game,
while ROD PATON and BARRY KOSKI would usually be there
if they can... and GARY McGRADY still comes to games.
This is a fair representation of our club LIFE MEMBERS,
with apologies to any I should have mentioned. No wonder
the 'Waverley Nation' remains in such a healthy state.
Unfortunately this positive opening to our game
report this week has only allowed me to stall the
slightly negative news that our Wildcats team suffered
its fourth defeat from our past eight games in a period
of relative struggles that we have rarely experienced
over recent seasons. All of a sudden our vice-like grip
on top position is in jeopardy unless we can win our
last game at Sandringham next Saturday afternoon. Hats
off to the sturdy Essendon team who came to Napier Park
and who kept alive their claims for top position with a
4-2 road win over our boys.
Special credit must go to Essendon's starting pitcher
Dean McIntyre who pretty much shackled our offence with
a superb complete game victory. Dean is the son of an
old (sorry pal) workmate of mine Leigh McIntyre, who was
a fine baseballer himself and one of the really nice
guys you will find in Victorian baseball circles. That
said, we did out-hit the Bombers 10-8... unfortunately
this is no big deal if you don't get timely hitting and
you don't apply pressure via rallies at any time.
Our Wildcats' pitching could hardly be blamed for our
demise, particularly when you recognise the fact that
only one of Essendon's runs was earned as our re-jigged
defence coughed up a very uncharacteristic three errors
versus our visitor's rock-solid none! As often, the ball
seemed to find Waverley players fielding in unfamiliar
positions and we paid a high price on this occasion.
Even the one earned run allowed by our gallant starter
Adam Blackley may not have scored if not for a fairly
routine infield error, yet he will realise that it did
ensue from a fatal leadoff walk.
In the absence of regular starter Donnie Hendricks,
who was on family wedding duties, Blackley was good
enough, even if he has been more impressive on other
occasions. Typically, he supplied a quality start and
you can ask for no more than an opportunity to win which
he provided. Brett Flemming was solid for two innings
and he was desperately unfortunate that a two out error
was to cost him two unearned runs when the game slipped
away in the seventh. 'Lights Out Lee' Hogan applied the
clamps on the Bombers at the end of the game and he very
nearly grabbed a win.
Our magnificent catcher Grant 'Kannon' Karlsen was,
as often, the man for the big occasion with his
stand-out 3-4 that included a "big fly" over centre-left
that breathed life into a stagnant offence to lead off
the ninth. Suddenly, the Waverley giant seemed to waken
just when it was almost too late. Glenn 'Ferret' Mascoll
punched his second hit, a double, for the game with one out to
boost the pulse rate and, when Scotty Wearne followed by
milking a walk, we had the tying run at the
plate.
Who better to have arriving in the batters box with
two on and two out than the focussed Andrew 'Rusty'
Russell who, ominously, had been subdued throughout the
game. In a moment of mild controversy Russell hammered a
deep line drive into right-centre field that sent the
Essendon outfielder scurrying back to the fence. It was
hard to judge where the ball was headed, but fans in the
clubhouse were surprised to see it deflect from the
outfielder's glove. Two more runs scored then, with the
home dugout urging him on, 'Rusty' turned on the
after-burners to slide a hand across the plate for a
stunning inside-the-park home run and, more importantly,
the tying run.
Few in the clubroom could understand the histrionics
that followed or, when the dust settled, why Russell had
seen his heroics reduced to a ground-rule double. Fans
along the right field line later agreed that the ball
had struck an overhanging tree on its way to deflecting
towards the outfielder. Nobody could be quite certain
whether the ball was definitely going to be caught,
whether it might have hit the fence on the full or
whether it might have been a home run? Whatever, nobody
in the 'Waverley Nation' seemed to have much protest and
I'm not going to start one here! Maybe the major point
of contention here is in the ruling, because we know
that when a hit baseball strikes any part of an enclosed
roof and falls into fair territory in the US big leagues
you must "play it out"... that's baseball I guess...
it's just another intriguing part of the game we love!
It does not quash the fact that Essendon and Dean
McIntyre were worthy of their victory and that we will
need to be sharper in future contests which surely loom
against the Bombers. And, we will need to bring
everything we have to take on the Royals at Sandringham
this coming Saturday at 2:00pm for our last game of the
regular season. You won't need me to tell you how tough
we have found the Sandy club to beat this season!
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