Poppies and Playing

On Saturday Walter and I were running errands and I saw a small field full of red poppies. He automatically knew that I wanted to take pictures of it and we made a quick top at home to pick up my camera. I told Walter that the Poppy is the state flower of California and I thought of my Dad. He knows the scientific names of plants and flowers and could probably tell you what environment they grow best in and how much water they need.

On Sunday we had a doubleheader at home against the Vienna Mosquitoes. This team got 4th place last year and was returning their American pitcher/coach. The Mosquitoes did not have their starting Austrian pitcher so they had other unexperienced pitchers pitching in her place. It turned out great for us and awful for them. In the first inning we scored 20 runs!!! We had 14 people bat before they got an out which was a hard line drive to the third baseman. There were many nice hits with line drives or balls in the gaps in the outfield. Normally, those hits are singles or doubles when playing teams with decent outfielders. However, this team was not so fortunate. There were many hits to right or center that turned into triples or homeruns because of a bad angle, bobbling of the ball, poor throw to the cut, the cut dropping the ball and poor throw to third or home. Several of us batted 3 times in the first inning, it was totally nuts. We then batted once more and scored 1 run and then the game was over after 3 innings. The final score was 21-0 and the game lasted only 1 hour.

The second game was less exciting, but we still mercied the other team 10-3 in 5 innings. The funniest part of the games was the 3 American Football players sitting on a bench behind the center field fence. They were cheering for our team and quoting baseball movies and being really really funny. Jamie, our new American player hit a ball over the center field fence in the first game. It was right near where they were sitting...The quarterback Vinny stood up and looked like was going to catch it. He was yelling out, "We got action!" It was cool.

After the games, which only lasted from 1-4 we hung out and watched a soccer game right by our field with some teammates and the football guys. After the game, the 3 guys, Jamie, Neeli and I went for pizza and laughs. We quoted lots of movies and it was just fun sharing stories since 5 out of 6 of us are American. It was a really fun day with lots of jokes stories, hits and good times.