Well, it was a noble try.

Katie's team lost 6-2 to the team from Niles today in the finals and finished second in the league, which was pretty good. :) But they were missing two players and it was the balls that were hit to the places where there were no fielders that resulted in most of the margin of victory.

I'm very proud of them all.

Gretchen says that the end of today's semifinal softball game was like the end of a movie and that I have to write it up for my blog. I, of course, will attempt to comply.

But I don't have the scorecard. All that I have is my faulty memory. It will have to suffice.

We resumed the game at both teams' home field, Chippewa Park, after the game was called on account of darkness after seven innings with the score tied 2-2. I don't know how well the managers and coaches of the other team slept, but comparing notes on our side, we discovered that none of us had slept well and we were all up early.

There was barely enough chalk left in the locked supplies bin to chalk the infield foul lines -- certainly not enough for the batter's box! And why should there be? The season was over and there would be no more games played there.

Well, there was another theory blown to heck. :)

One of our co-managers, Laura, had called in and made sure that we would have an umpire for the game. He showed up shortly before the scheduled start at 10 AM. We compared notes on the rules -- a darned fine idea after yesterday's game, where a critical play turned on an extremely fine interpretation of an ambiguous rule (which was, in my opinion, ultimately called correctly) -- and we were off!

Both teams had blown through all the available innings on their best pitchers, since pitchers at this level are limited to three innings per game. So it was into the depth on the pitching staff. Happily, we had some. Sofia had pitched a good seventh the previous night and proceeded to give us a good eighth and ninth inning. Both teams had scoring chances, but neither scored.

I had told the girls before they started today that all they had to do was play good defense and they would win, because they were good hitters and they would eventually hit. And the defense on both sides was being just good enough. Coach Michelle had set our lineup with the best infield defense, which put tall, reliable McKayla at first, quick Katie S. at second, and strong-armed Elia and my Katie at short and third. Outs were recorded in all manner of ways. Katie snagged a foul pop-up at one point. At another time, a hard shot bounced off her and into foul territory. The third-base coach for the other team called for the runner who had just advanced from first to second to run to third. And Katie recovered, grabbed the ball, and tagged her out easily.

I recall too that the opposing pitcher caught a short pop-up on the infield with two out and the bases loaded when I came in for coach pitch in the bottom of the ninth. And their catcher caught a foul pop. There were good defensive plays all around.

Came the tenth inning and we knew that Emma would need to come in to pitch, Sofia having exhausted her available innings. I had looked at the lineup and had realized that we could keep the infield defense intact by rotating up the middle, bringing Emma in from center to pitch, moving Sofia from pitch to catch, and sending Ava from catch out to center. So that's what I told them to do, not having actually consulted with Coach Michelle first. (I apologized later.)

I don't remember exactly what happened in the top of the tenth, but we got through it without giving up a run, although there were at least a couple of base-runners. I remember the bottom of the tenth pretty vividly. :)

I need to pause to explain to you about "coach pitch". At this level of our local girls softball, when a pitcher gets a four ball count on the batter, instead of issuing a walk, the opposing coach is called out to pitch. The coach can throw three pitches; the batter gets up to three swings, getting as many swings as they had strikes left on them in the count. So if the count was 4-2, then the coach throws three pitches and the batter gets one swing. A foul ball on the last strike is a do-over.

Watching Katie and later Julie as well play at this level last year, I reached a conclusion about coach pitch: a large percentage of the difference between the teams can come down to whether or not the coach can throw hittable pitches. And my theory about hittable pitches is pretty simple: not too fast, minimal arc, and in the strike zone. And please do not bounce the pitch on the plate, because that is going to require a miracle to hit.

(Come to think of it, one of our girls actually did hit a pitch from the opposing pitcher on the bounce today. I forget which girl... :) )

So I don't want to buzz the ball in there, but I do want it moving fast enough so that it's not dropping rapidly as it crosses the plate. It's a fine line. But I am an old junk ball softball pitcher from my days of pickup softball in grad school, so I can usually get two of the three pitches in the right zone. And that means I can usually avoid striking out my own team. :)

I had started the season handling the coach pitch, then had been moved to first base coach, then I got bronchitis and lost my voice, and went to keep score on the bench. As scorer, I used fifty years of experience at filling out a scorecard to help us position the girls better on the second time through the order, because girls at this level have a strong tendency to hit the ball to the same zone all of the time.

And now, after a long journey, I was back at coach pitch again for the end of the season and the playoffs. I hadn't had to do a lot of coach pitch in the current game, because the opposing pitchers were throwing a lot of strikes. So were ours. And the girls on both sides were hitting or striking out off the opposing pitchers, keeping the coaches on the bench, which is almost always the best thing for the team on defense.

Katie was leading off the bottom of the tenth and worked the count to 4-1. I got the ball and walked out to the mound. (I am too old to "trot".)

"Make it good, Dad," Katie called out. "You know where I like it."

And I tossed it in and got it to a good enough spot. Katie hit a hard grounder through the hole between first and second base, past the drawn-in right fielder onto the outfield grass. With the ball in the outfield, runners can advance until an infielder controls the ball on the infield. And I shouted out, "Go two!"

(Yes, I know this is the job of the first base coach. I am, however, probably the loudest person on the field when I don't have bronchitis. :) )

And Katie zipped into second. So we had a runner on second, nobody out, and now the force was off at second. Force plays at second and third are the bane of the offense at this level, as many hard-hit balls that would put you on base with no one on are much more easily converted into force outs.

Next up was McKayla, one of the two authentic power-hitters on the team. Earlier in the game, McKayla had doubled and Katie had scored the first run of the game from first base, because Katie is fast. Any sort of hit into the outfield was likely to win the game right here.

And McKayla got under the pitch and lofted a pop-up toward second. Katie took a few steps off the base. A crowd of girls converged.

The ball hit the ground.

Katie, listening to Coach Mike at third, scooted over there. McKayla was safe at first. First and third, nobody out. No force at home, and now the infield will have to come home with the throw, because Katie is the winning run.

Alondra was up next. She got in some good cuts and fouled a couple of pitches off impressively, but ultimately struck out swinging. One out.

Elia strode to the plate. Elia has more raw power than any other girl on the team and owns the team's only homer of the season. I badly wanted to get the chance to coach pitch to her.

I didn't get the chance. She found a pitch to her liking and lined it to short left field. It was hit hard enough that it bounced off the chest of the girl who tried to catch it. Katie scooted home, avoiding the catcher who was standing on the plate.

I was standing right behind the plate on our side of the fence and I wasn't sure she had actually touched the plate as she danced across it.

"Touch home," I told her.

She went back, tagged the plate, and the umpire signaled safe.

I guess I did have one thing left to do in the game, even if it wasn't coach pitch. :)

The game was over. The Lightning won, 3-2, and are advancing to the finals tomorrow to play the first place team from Niles. They get to play in Bandits Stadium, the professional fast-pitch park over in Rosemont, which will be a kick.

But it was a great game. And either team could have won. They both played their hearts out.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. One of the other coaches on our team characterized this game as being like the U.S. vs. Russia semifinal hockey game some years ago -- it was the game that both teams really wanted to win.

The one thing that I am certain of: this was the longest game in the league this year. :)

Katie's team played a heckuva game against the other remaining Des Plaines team in tonight's semifinals.

It isn't over yet. The game was called on account of darkness with the score 2-2 after seven innings, one more than regulation.

We'll resume tomorrow at our Des Plaines home field at 10 AM.

Sleep is for the weak and sickly, I suppose. :)

Katie's team played against the Lincolnwood team tonight in their first round of the playoffs (Katie's team had a bye during the play-in round) and won 15-3. This means that tomorrow they will face the other surviving Des Plaines team in the semi-finals.

Fingers crossed! Today, we were blessed with good pitching, good defense, good hitting, and a lot of hustle! That will take you a long way. :)

Tonight, I headed down to Wrigley Field and watched the Cubs beat the Padres.

Tuesday night, there is a Windycon meeting.

Wednesday night, Katie has softball practice.

Thursday night, Katie's team has the first game of their playoffs.

Friday night, if Katie's team wins on Thursday, they will play again.

Whee!

I have spent a fair amount of the weekend trying to finish up some code for the upcoming release at work.

I have also managed to believe that the pitching clinic that Katie was supposed to go to was today instead of Saturday. Saturday, sadly, was correct; I was not.

I am sure that I have brain cells, but I think I need to work on the auxiliary memory.

Tonight was the Des Plaines Girls Softball outing to the Bandits game. The Bandits are a women's professional fast-pitch softball team that has won their league's championship two years in a row. Sadly, their luck was not good tonight as they gave up five runs in the first inning and lost 5-0, but everyone -- especially the girls! -- seemed to have a good time.

Some additional notes on yesterday's softball game:

Katie had two hits, including one where she hit the ball towards first base, but hustled down the line so quickly that she rushed the first baseman to the point where she couldn't make the play. Thus, the value of speed and the general encouragement to run!

So when you're handling coach pitch, you head out from your dugout and the opposing catcher (usually) flips you the ball. The opposing catcher in this case had been drilled to make her throws crisp, which they were. This was a bit of a surprise coming at me from a distance of less than 10 feet. It was rather worse when one of the throws caught me in the knee. My good knee, or at least the one that has not been surgically repaired. Fortunately, it caught me just to the left of the kneecap, or it might have done some serious damage. As it is, it's just a bit sore today.

The girls on Katie's team did a fine job of hitting off of the opposing pitcher yesterday. This is a good thing. :)

The regular softball season for Katie's team, that is. They won today, beating the Skokie Schwarbies by a score of 8-2. Elia hit a big three-run home run (the team's first of the season) to give the team a 3-2 lead and they scored five runs in the fourth to win going away.

The Lightning finished in second with a record of 9-2-1, going 9-1 after an initial loss and tie. They are an impressive bunch of girls.

Playoffs start on Tuesday, but finishing second in the ten team league will mean a first round bye, so the next game is Thursday. Fingers crossed!

The good news is that Katie's team won their next-to-last game of the regular softball season today by a final of 2-0. It was mightily hot when the game started; not a whole lot cooler when we finished, but the sun was down and there was a breeze.

The bad news is that the air conditioning at home failed today while I was at the softball game. We have a call in to our A/C guy; I hope we hear from him in the morning. I am sure that he has a million other calls right now.

*sigh*

Someone elsewhere in the larger group ran a lint-like tool against our Java code today and sent us the list of complaints. Most of them were actually real problems. I fixed the ones in my area and sent the others off to the developers working in the other areas, because I could fix the bugs, but why deny them the valuable learning experience? :)

About the time I was almost finished bug hunting, it was time to take Katie off to her softball game. Her team won 3-1 over another of the local teams, scoring two runs in the bottom of the last inning before the game was called for time.

If I'm counting correctly, her team is now an impressive 7-2-1. This is not good enough for first place, but it is definitely good for second. :)

Katie's team got to play on the big fields over at Rand Park today. They had a good hitting day, scoring 2 in the first, followed by the maximum allowed of 5 runs in each of the next two innings on their way to a 12-3 victory in 3.5 innings.

When they hit, they hit.

Sam and Bonnie came by today to finish the fence. With some help from Katie as we hammered in pickets, the fence was finally finished and Ruby the Dog could be released from her tether. This made the poor dog very happy.

Afterwards, I took Katie off to her softball game against the Skokie Indians. Her team won 6-0. Katie did well, getting two hits, driving in two runs, pitching well, and snagging a humpback liner at shortstop for the first out of the last inning. (The rest of the team did well too, but I only need to tell you how well Katie did. :) )

Katie's team met the team from Norwood Park today at Chippewa, which is our home field.

It was an unusually close and low-scoring game which Katie's team won by the final score of 2-1, with Katie driving in both runs with a first inning double. And she got the game ball, which made her very happy!

And I'll just say that the Norwood Park manager was everything that I like to see in a manager at this level.

The weather today was good, so the softball practice that had been called for Katie's team worked out well. Only about half the girls were there, but it was a holiday weekend and relatively short notice, so that was just fine.

I wasn't sure what we were going to be doing later in the afternoon until someone at the practice mentioned that our neighborhood pool had opened this weekend. So off to the pool we went, where we splashed around for a couple of hours.

After dinner, I hit both grocery stores and came back with deli meat which was rearranged into a variety of sandwiches and sandwich-like foods, including the Reuben that Gretchen made for me. I greatly appreciated this, because eating a Reuben in a restaurant is a crap shoot, given the chance of sulfites in the sauerkraut.

And now, we are hoping to get everyone to bed soon. We'll see how that goes.

It looks like we're shipping the product, which is good.

After work, I took Katie over for an impromptu session of team batting practice over at the batting cages at the nearby park. This went pretty well, but my voice is now completely shot.

Maybe it will be better tomorrow. :)

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes!

Julie was home from school sick today with a tummy bug, which made things more complex. She's feeling better now and we're hoping she'll be able to go on the school's field trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo tomorrow.

I have the head cold Katie had over the weekend, which is not a plus. :)

The roofers probably will not return until Thursday, when the rain is supposed to stop.

But happily, Katie's softball game was canceled, which is much better than playing in rain and slop. (Especially when I have a head cold...) The next game is Thursday by which time things should have dried out a bit.

My new VM almost works. My old VM goes away in an hour or so. It would be good if we could move past almost soon...

And now it is time for bed.

Time is once again failing at its basic mission, because everything is happening at once.

I have at least one critical bug that I need to fix for work. This means that my vacation plans for the week (which were without form and void) are completely up in the air until that's done.

However, my old work VM goes away very early on Wednesday morning due to a hardware upgrade at work, so I have to get the new VM up and running with everything I need transferred before then.

And Katie has a softball game tomorrow afternoon if it doesn't rain (which it may).

And, despite the fact that I seem to be coming down with Katie's cold, I went to the Cubs game tonight.

And tomorrow is my birthday. :)

Oh, and they may or may not be back to continue working on the roof tomorrow, depending on the state of the rain.

Chaos! It's not just for breakfast any more!

We had a make up game today for the girls' softball team. Our team won, 5-0. Katie pitched two innings and got a big hit to drive in the last run.

Julie decided she did not want to play today. We're trying to encourage her, but it is being difficult.

And, in a moment, I'm off to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play the Yankees. :)

This being the first day in a while where there was the opportunity, Gretchen and I slept in. After we all went out for lunch, I set out for Menard's to find a bracket to replace the one that had failed on our basement handrail. Menard's is much larger than the last time that I had been there and there were a great many people who had no idea what I was trying to describe. Finally, we found someone who knew what I was looking for and led me to the correct aisle. Then I picked up a basket of marigolds and some moss roses for Gretchen and headed home.

Collecting Katie and Julie, we went out to the backstop in the schoolyard for some batting practice. Both girls acquitted themselves well, which was a fine thing. Katie darned near took part of my body off with a line drive back through the box. I might have been able to defend myself better if I hadn't had two more softballs in my glove. As it was, the ball glanced off the pre-existing bruise on my right forearm and doesn't seem to have done any damage -- although it's hard to tell given the state of the bruise! In any case, this was a good thing to get done before tomorrow's game.

Then it was off to Mariano's to pick up the remaining parts for dinner. This consisted of:

Some Telera rolls

Some Provolone cheese from the deli

A big bottle of milk

Some Lunchables for Julie, since I was there

Some kid hot dogs that were on sale

Doritos for Katie

Some beer for Gretchen

OK, not all of those things were for dinner, but they were the targets of the mission. And off to the checkout line I went.

Now I like the new Mariano's, but some bugs are still being worked out of the process. (Some of them are bugs that Jewel has too, as I'll point out in a moment.)

So the checker rang up the Telera rolls as bulk rolls, which would be fine except that I have not yet found generic bulk rolls at this Mariano's and the bulk rolls are 49 cents each, while the Telera rolls are $2 for five, according to the large sign on the case. Since I had seen them rung up both correctly and incorrectly, I knew what I was looking for and informed the cashier that these were not bulk rolls, they were Telera rolls, which are a different price. He then tried to convince me that I had to buy five of the rolls to get them for $2, which is also not correct. Eventually, another cashier punched in the correct code and I saved my 27 cents.

He put the rolls in the bag and then rang up the big, heavy bottle of milk and went to put it in the same bag.

"No," I said. "You do not bag milk with bread, because if you do, you do not get to eat the bread, which will be crushed by the heavy milk."

(I have never actually been a bagger at a grocery, but I am old enough to know how this is supposed to be done. This is not just a Mariano's problem -- I had to ward off a checker at Jewel who was putting the bread in with the canned goods.)

Finally, he picked up the beer.

"ID," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"ID."

So I am now being carded for buying beer. This is, I suppose, the most complementary thing that has happened to me recently. Fine, ID produced.

And off to home with the groceries.

Where I had a pleasant evening heckling the TV with Gretchen. :)

Now, it is time to go read to Katie from Dragonsinger, which we started last night...

We got the message that Katie and Julie's softball game had been rained out just as we were pulling in for pre-game lunch, so we had lunch and didn't go to the game. Since it had just started to rain as we were leaving the house, this was a good decision. By game time, it was very wet out.

Tomorrow's pitching clinic has been moved to an indoor gym. :)

Katie and Julie's team had their first scheduled softball game of the season today. Sadly, they lost 3-1, but they played hard and well.

In other news, I finished reading the third of the Karres novels to Katie before we left for FKO, so I had to find a new book to start on last night. Happily, I already had a book in mind that Katie proceeded to agree to, so we are now reading Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. :)

We're actually still in spring training for softball, but Katie and Julie played their first game of the season today, an exhibition against one of the other local teams. They generally acquitted themselves well. Their team scored five runs in the final inning to win 5-2, with Katie scoring the final run.

I handled the coach pitch duties for all but one inning and managed to (mostly) throw strikes, so we'll count that as a win too. :)

Next Tuesday, weather and schedule permitting, there will be more batting practice.

In the meantime, I'm going to take a couple of aspirin...

The next set of armrests for my office chair arrived yesterday. Sadly, the 5.5 inch spaced holes are drilled so shallow that I don't think that they would hold the arms in place, even if I had the right screws for a hole of that insufficient depth. So they're going to have to go back too. I have ordered different armrests from a different company and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Today was Katie and Julie's first softball practice of the season. Both girls did well and had a good time. The next practice is on our local Election Day and -- due to a confluence of scheduling conflicts -- both of the lead coaches will not be available, so I will be helping run the practice with one of the other assistant coaches. Hilarity will, no doubt, ensue.

When we got home, Gretchen had asked us to work on cleaning up some of the disaster in our garage. I broke down a number of old boxes for recycling and put other boxes up on the high shelves for storage with some help from Katie and Gretchen. This improved the situation substantially. It's still a mess, but it's less of a mess.

Then I headed out to Home Depot, Ingressing along the way, where I picked up some patch seed for the lawn, because Ruby has been very hard on parts of the lawn, and some new LED bulbs for the ceiling fan light fixture in the living room.

We had ground beef left over from the prior day's meatloaf, so Gretchen and I fried up some hamburgers and we had a simple dinner.

That'll do. :)

There must be some way to get everything working at the same time. I may eventually figure out what it is.

In the meantime, Katie and Julie have their first softball practice of the year tomorrow. :)

Things were done.

I finished working up the tax paperwork for us and for my dad's trust so it can go to the accountant next week.

I took Katie to the small group pitching clinic today where she acquitted herself reasonably well, given that this was the first clinic she'd been to since the big clinic last spring. At the end of the session, she almost hit the target ball (about a foot in diameter) with a pitch from distance on one try on the fly. Only one of the girls did hit it, and she did it on the bounce. Now, I just need to remind Katie to practice. (Practice, practice, practice.)

Gretchen and I managed to get four loads of laundry done today, which has greatly reduced the backlog.

And I grilled meat for dinner, which everyone enjoyed. Even Ruby, who got the scraps.

While I was going in and out the door to turn the meat, Ruby kept running out with me and dropping her squid for me to throw. Normally, she plays keep-away, but she seems to have figured out that dropping the squid where I can pick it up will actually result in the squid being thrown.

(For those of you at the Capricon SpaceTime Theater show, yes, I have a dog who fetches Andorran Ticklers. Life is like that.)

And tomorrow, it is back to work.

And Spring Break for the girls. We'll see how this goes...