Bruisers: KarenC, DaveM, Rob, Douglas, Nancy, EricB, EricG, PaulF, Jes, BobG, Ron, Jesse, Ann, BobbyJoe, DaveS, Ellie, Mandell, and Emily. A big Bruiser welcome to debuting Bruisers Dave Mohr, Paul Fieseler, and Emily Gist!

Bruiser fans: America, Hollywood, Sunset, Nickole, Terrac, Simon, and Cassie

Bruiser diners who unexpectedly experienced "Service with a Sidearm" at Hill Street Cafe: Emily, Ron, Nancy, EricB, ScottE, Douglas, and KarenC. It was "Tip-a-Cop Night" at the restaurant, with local law enforcement helping out the real servers to raise money for Special Olympics in Pasadena. When a guy with a gun asks you if you want more iced tea, how do you tell him "no"?

Box Score (aka "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly":

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Bruisers	6	0	7	6	3	22
Goat Scouts	8	8	0	14	x	30

Welcome to Bruisers 2006! It was a fun first game with Bruisers and Goats a-plenty, and the weather was really beautiful. The game started a little late because the equipment arrived almost last, but the game got going in due course. It looked good for the Bruisers in the top of the first inning, then the Goats came to bat. Yikes. We wandered in and out of mercy a couple of times, ending the game out of mercy.

Our defensive rust showed during the two or three times where we couldn't stop throwing the ball at bases, allowing multiple runs to score each time (when people are screaming "stop!!", that means you with the ball should NOT throw it!), and during a couple of "Doh, it's coming MY way!" moments. We'll work those out over the next couple of games. :) However, even with all that we did have a couple of really notable defensive moments, like in our 1-2-3 third inning with the awesome EricB(LF)-EricG(SS)-BobbyJoe(C) out of the runner making an unadvised hot dog dash for home because he wanted a home run, a good unassisted out by Ron(1B) at first, and a breath-holding, 2-handed, running catch by EricB(LF). I remember a really good outfield catch by someone (PaulF?), and at least one other good infield play (they didn't get written down; we're outta practice!). KarenC almost had to wrassle the toddler (Terrac) who picked up the foul ball which landed off of left field, but for! tunately nobody had to come to tears over it.

Offensively, we did well (altho' yes, the Goats did better). We had home runs by EricG and Mandell. We had no triples, but plenty of singles. Almost everyone got at least one hit; the others were robbed. In spite of having 18 people in the lineup, we went through the line up nearly 2.5 times. RBIs were knocked in by Douglas (4), Nancy, EricB(4), EricG(3), Jes, BobG(2), Jesse(2), BobbyJoe, DaveS, and Mandell(3). BobG gets the Baryshnikov Award for his ballet move on second base in the first inning, and Rob gets the night's Twinkletoes award for making it back onto second base in the fifth inning.

Our next game is next Tuesday, April 25. We'll be the visiting team against the L.A. Radars on field H9 (the field by the fountain, not where we were last night). I believe we'll be missing Shaunna, Juan and most likely Amy. Everyone else please be sure I know if you're coming or not.

See you next week!

Karen