Bruisers: KarenC, ScottM, Don, Linda, Bryan, Andrew, Nancy, Ron, EarlM (Bruisers debut, recruiting points to KarenC), Amy, EricB, Leo, BobbyJoe, KarenT, Mikael, and Mary Beth.

Bruiser fans: ScottE, Simon, and Cassie.

Fuddrucker Dinner Crowd: ScottE, Leo, Amy, EricB, Ron, KarenT, Nancy, Andrew, KarenC, and ScottM.

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	Total
Bruisers	1	5	4	1	1	12
Ecclectic Eccentrics	5	6	2	2	x	15

Welcome to the 2003 season everyone! The day was cold and the clouds hung low, but it didn't stop a whole bunch of enthusiastic Bruisers from showing up. Things went pretty well, except for the Eccentrics losing their pitcher in the third inning (the squeamish should skip the last paragraph). The off-season rust showed a bit with lots of clanking gloves during warmups, but by game time we showed that we were ready for the season.

Defensively, ScottM did his wickets imitation a couple of times (by spectator count), and although the Eccentrics did a good job finding the holes in our ourfield (plus they have guys who can run really fast!) we did manage to catch (or at least stop) a fair number of fly balls. Highlights included a fine 1-3 play by Nancy (P) to Ron (1B) to close the bottom of the third inning, and a neat 6-4 double play from Ron (SS) to KarenC (2B) to end the fourth inning. Offensively, we had no home runs or triples, but dinked away at the Eccentrics with plenty of singles and doubles. Andrew gets the "Creative Base Reaching" award for getting to third while being tagged by the Eccentric third baseman's non-ball hand. Things to work on include pursuing fly balls more agressively, both in the infield and the outfield. RBIs were knocked in by Linda (2), Bryan, Andrew, Nancy, Ron, EarlM, Amy (2), BobbyJoe (2) and Mikael.

Our next game is this Monday, April 28. I already know we'll be missing Amy and probably ScottM. Everyone else please be sure I know whether or not you're coming. We'll be playing a new team, the Running Dogs of NASA, and we will be the home team. They don't play their game this week until Thursday, so I'll try to get a report on their game before we play them.

See you Monday!
Karen :)

Eccentric pitcher report from Cris Windoffer: Gene has a small abrasion from his glasses breaking, and x-rays showed a fractured (non-displaced) orbital and sinus wall. He also had a CT scan (which looked okay) for the record, and he and Craig were at the hospital until 3:15 a.m. (yikes!). The doctor basically recommended the ice and ibuprofen path. Cris is certain that Gene will bounce back to pitch again.