The Impact of the Sun or "The lettuce wrap at PF Chang's is always a good starter"

We meet as a team for the first time at practice on the Sunday evening prior to the start of the tourney. Everyone has a skip in his step and is eager to get the party started. We go through a few drills and get some batting practice in and newcomers size up the team and vice versa . But everyone is thinking about tomorrow. It is not a tone like one recalls reading the letters of soldiers on the eve of battle in the Red Badge of Courage where young men wrote loved one's expressing their fears they might be experiencing their last night on earth . It is more the tone of fraternity brothers looking forward to a post homecoming game party.

However , on the ride back to the hotel one historian on the team regales us with the story of Isandlwana ( present day Zimbabwe) where in 1879, the Zulu's Black Mamba regiment trounced the British. It seems the British were stunned to see 25,000 advancing Zulu warriors but ferocious gunfire killed may of the Black Mamba until the Zulu force was very small. Then one leader, a fellow named Nkosani, jumped up and advanced to the front line urging the Mamba. The inspired young warriors surged forward overwhelming the British, even though their leader, Nkosani, was cut down. The British then ran out of bullets and simultaneously the moon passed in front of the sun for an eclipse. The Zulu's stopped their killing during the eclipse interpreting the eclipse as a bad omen. When the light returned, they resumed their killing and wiped out stragglers like cooks and messengers and even drummer boys. At the end ,the Zulus went crazy with blood lust killing even the horses and mules. They disemboweled each dead soldier so that his spirit could not escape his body and haunt his killer. And if the enemy solider had been seen to be particularly brave they cut out his gallblader and sucked on it to absorb the dead man's courage and bellowed 'Igatla!" "I have eaten".

Baseball players certainly are superstitious and watch very carefully for omens from the baseball gods but there seems little likelihood of an eclipse and we think we have enough ammunition-so we head into the Monday doubleheader eager and confident.( and more than a few eyes on the Sun)

We open Game 1 with a team called the Snowbirds . The Snowbirds are not a competitive team and have mostly guys who could not play with other teams. We win easily but the game brings to mind the statement about baseball that there is nothing better than playing in a game that is 2-2 in the eighth inning and nothing worse than playing when it is 13-1 in the third. To give you an idea I think we scored something like 24 runs and we did not kick any field goals. ( The Snowbirds gave up 35 in their second game and I think at least two touchdowns)

Game 2 starts where we face Brian Kingman of Dodgertown West who pitched in the major leagues for the Oakland A's in the 1980's. Talk about going from one extreme to the other. We are playing at Phoenix Municipal Stadium and it is extremely bright with the sun facing directly into the fileders eyes.
We get an early lead 2-0 and get them out in a 1-2-3 first inning. We struggle in the second however as a fly ball to center drops as our generally solid center fielder can't see the ball. A follow up fly ball to left field drops as well as the left fielder can't see either as the sun is really very strong and we are soon tied at 2.

We get the lead 3-2 and go to the field there is no eclipse but we are interpreting the sun as did the Zulus, as a bad omen.

We give up yet another fly ball and Charlie our catcher comes out to the mound to assure me things will be fine and to just keep working. As he does that, Marc our first baseman comes over and offers his input

Marc: "Let's eat their gallbladders"

Our third baseman, who was not with us for our history lesson in omens and body organs hears this and also wanders in

John: "why gallbladders, I think we are iron deficient with all this heat and sun let's eat their livers!"

Our shortstop hears this and also feesl a need to weigh in

Paul: Hey fellas, this stuff about eating organs is upsetting my masculine feminine balance. I was up in Sedona doing some altitude training for this tournament and met a couple New Age chicks from California who took me to a vortex to balance my energies. And now I think my masculine and feminine are in order but this talk of organ eating is stressing it.

Charlie: Altitude training? We are playing at sea level.

Paul: I was misinformed

At this point Jeff our second baseman weighed in and had to express his view

Jeff: Wait a minute, if we are eating anything i think we should eat their hearts preferably while beating . If we want to capture their essential warriors then we need to eat their hearts! No one ever said about brave warrior "he has the gallbladder of a lion"

At this point manager Ed Jusino was feeling uncomfortable on the bench wondering what was going on out there and nudged Steve Parsons

Ed: Hey Doc is Dave hurt? what is going on out there?

Doc: he looks fine to me. I don't know what is going on out there

Ed: do me a favor and run out there and see if everything is ok

Doc gets up and jogs to the mound and looks to Charlie to explain what's up

Charlie: we are dealing with a lot of shit out here.....

Marc wants to eat their gallbladders, while Johnny expressed his choices for their livers. Paul is worried his masculine side will overwhelm his feminine side and upset the balance he worked hard to achieve up in the mountains and Jeff thinks hearts are the best option on the menu

Doc: ( nodding in understanding ) Well, The lettuce wrap at PF Chang's is always a good starter

At this point the umpire walked out to disperse us and we went on with the game.

The game turned on us as the sun contributed to about 8 fly balls that fell in and gave them a lead we could not overcome.

So now we have own own Omen. It helps to recall that the Zulu's interpretation of the eclispse as a bad omen was correct . The British reinforeced and came down and crushed the Zulu's.
Let's hope we recover and play well today