DC, KEC, and MCC have all been hit with injuries, taking them out of baseball and soccer. Mary Claire strained a muscle in her upper leg and had to be carried off the field. She could hardly walk for the next two days. After about 8 days, she was finally able to go out, warm up with her team, and play just as aggressive as ever.

Kelly hyperextended her knee last week and also had to be carried off the field. She was able to play only briefly in her game this weekend because her leg is still sore.

Danny tore a muscle in his back-left side in practice. (He only practices pitching.) He was unable to pitch his next game. With the mounting losses, the coaches sure want their starter back. One advantage to being a varsity player is the special attention he gets. The coach sent Danny in for some special treatments including heat therapy and, on Friday, “shock therapy”. The therapist hooked up four wires to Danny’s back and turned on the juice. His arm and back twitched uncontrollably. The wires were placed on several parts of his back and the shocks repeated. Danny said it was really strange.

Saturday morning, Danny felt noticeably better. He may be able to pitch as early as next Saturday.

Kelly and Danny both opened their seasons with wins today.

Kelly played forward for her soccer team. The three forwards did a lot of passing, enabling each girl to score one goal. Final score was 3 – 1. Kelly was surprised her goal went in. She reported that it stayed on the ground and kind of curved in. Bend it like Kelly.

Danny took the mound to open Brookwood’s season. Brookwood went ahead early by 2 in the first inning. His first inning pitching was four up, three down, with one strike out and a great pick-off at first. The second and third innings had a little more excitement, with the other team getting 3 runs on Brookwood’s 4. His fourth inning was short. A one pitch grounder to the first guy. A one pitch pop to the second. And a two pitch pop out to the third for a total of 4 pitches. The fifth inning was his last, which included a visit from the coach, but he pulled off a three strike-out inning, allowing only one guy on.

The closers did a good job, and the game ended 5 to 3, with Danny recording the win.

(The latest find for The Colonel’s War Chest.)

Location: Georgia, United States

Nasty George found Colonel Smut’s War Chest (Traditional Cache) at 2/26/2005

Log Date: 2/26/2005

Superb hiding place! Great cache in a great place. I will be returning to Tybee in the near future. All of the other beaches like Daytona, Myrtle, PC, etc. have lost their soul. Tybee is like a fine woman, “a little on the trashy side”.

Sometimes they call her “LM” which is short for Lawn Mower. Or “LMK” for Lawn Mower Kelly.” Or sometimes they just call her “mo” for short. But mainly, on the soccer field, they try to stay out of her way!

Kathy, Kelly, and I went to watch Mary Claire play soccer yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful, cool sunny day. Perfect for us spectators. The opposing Norcross team, however, thought the fields were closed because of the rains from Ivan. What rains? The sky could not have been bluer.

The three coaches split the team in half and held a scrimmage. The coaches took positions on the field and were able to play + coach at the same time. Claire’s team is so good, that this became one of the most intense games she has yet played.

At one point, Claire was driving towards the goal and had to go one-on-one with one of the more fit and competitive coaches. With some fancy footwork, Mary Claire was able to literally trip up the coach, and he landed on the ground as she got it around him. He ended up with a bloody nose, and Claire was able to take a shot on goal! (Blocked by another coach playing goalie. Rats.)

Later that night, the fallen coach called and invited Claire to “play up” on another travel team. We think her current team is already playing up.

A recent visitor to Colonel Smut’s War Chest enjoyed the Gnarly Tree enough to include two photos of it with her posting.

The Tybee Photo Gallery can now be found on mac.fiveforks.com under Galleries. These are combined digital photos from Jeb, Bob, and Grant’s cameras. If you want to save one for printing, use the “Show Full Size” link you’ll find under every medium size photo.

Danny’s rec league team, the Braves, had their ups and downs this season, but somehow they managed to go into the playoffs ranked first. (Danny couldn’t figure that out.) There were four teams, so they would have one play off game and one final game. The Braves would play against the Cardinals who had several of Danny’s friends on it, including the good hitting / pitching / first-base combo of John M. and Scott S.

Gramalie and Grandad came out for what turned out to be a perfect evening for baseball. It was clear and cool. Kathy and I were also there while the girls were at Sunday school.

Danny put on a great show for his four biggest fans. He started off as catcher with Hutto pitching. Hutto pitched well, and Danny aggressively defended the plate. There was a threat at third, but they held the Cardinals to 0 runs in the first inning.

Danny bats clean up, and with one man on second, he came up to the plate. Two outs and the count went full with Danny fouling a couple of hard hits outside the third base line. One foul almost took out his coach.

We were all yelling “base hit” hoping to drive in the man on second. Danny’s last hit was a solid connection, and the ball sailed over center field and cleared the fence by six feet. Home run! Braves were up 2 – 0.

With the Hutto-Cashel pitching combination, the Cardinals reached third base all three first innings, but could not score. Danny came into pitch the fourth inning, throwing mainly fast balls.

John M. is a great hitter. He’s hit Danny twice and Danny has struck him out twice during the season. Danny was throwing great, but John got the bat on one, and hit it almost to the fence in right field. He got on second, and that would lead to the Cardinal’s first score. Danny was determined to make that the last score. It looked like he added another 5 m.p.h. to the rest of his throws, including a very quick throw over to first to catch a Cardinal trying to jump back. The first basemen was equally surprised that he caught the ball. It even knocked him off balance and he fell on his rear end (while applying the tag!)

The third man in the line, Dean A., up is very smart base runner and had managed to steal third. I told Dad how I like Danny batting behind him so he can drive him in. Danny likes to draw the throw over to first or second to generate a run. As I was telling this to Dad, Danny was walked. He ran down to first, watching the pitcher, who was not paying attention, so sure enough, Danny rounded first to draw the throw. Danny saw that even the second baseman was not positioned correctly, too far in front of second base, so he decided to go for the steal. The pitcher threw the ball to second, but Danny ran in behind him, and meanwhile the man on third scored. Score 3-1.

Danny would be knocked in making the score 4-1, the final score.

Kathy and I cannot recall a game where Danny got to do so many things in one game, so Gramalie and Grandad picked a good one to drive out for.

The next day at school, Danny and John M. were debriefing. Danny had to reschedule work to make that game, and he told John, “I’m glad I was able to show up for that one. Not sure we would have beat you guys if I hadn’t.” John said, “No kidding… you made all four runs happen!” (As if Danny didn’t know.)

We had a big sports Saturday with Mary Claire and Kelly both playing soccer, and Danny playing baseball.

Kelly saw a lot of action playing at the YMCA field. She was on defense and the other team was HUGE. (So most of the game was spent on Kelly’s side of the field.) She played fierce and unafraid of the MONSTER girls. Kelly’s team didn’t have subs, so she battled the entire game.

Our favorite moment was when Kelly took the ball from back, middle field and curved out to the right around three different ENORMOUS players. She moved it up the side until the opposing team kicked it out. One of the GIANT girls said “We can’t let her dribble down the line like that!” Kelly is always very aggressive about retrieving an out ball and throwing it back into play. She uses her head and usually gets the ball to an open teammate. The “Magic” held the score to 0 – 0 until the very end when the AMAZON women’s team scored.

Mary Claire played forward and goalie. In between tieing her shoes, she played her usual speedy game. It was a close, but the Blazer’s took the lead early and held it. Kathy and I huddled under an umbrella in the drizzle, and I was able to grab a couple of good photos.

Danny’s game was was exciting. He pitched the first three innings. He had a good first inning and really enjoyed striking out one of his old teammates, John M. The second inning was terrible with a lot of walks and errors, and the Braves went down 4 to 1. In this league a pitcher isn’t allowed to go more than 3 innimgs. We were a little surprised when the catcher came out to pitch the 4th inning. We were even more surprised when Danny came out to catch! The switch worked, because the team came back and tied the game 4 to 4. Danny had some great throws down to second base and first.

The end of the game included a controversial call at home plate when the other team’s winning run was ruled an out. The runner failed to slide into home, mowing over a surprised (but unhurt) Danny who was trying to make a play with a throw in from the outfield. A wild pitch to the next batter allowed a man on third to try at home. Danny was able to scramble back to the ball and toss it low into the pitcher’s glove for a just-in-time tag at home. It was perfectly executed and the third and last out of the game.

The coach thought Danny did a great job catching. He was surprised to find out he hadn’t caught a game since he was eight.

I told Danny that high school baseball may be played at a higher level, but rec league sure delivers a lot of excitement and fun.