Game Day Gazette
November 24, 2025
All good things must come to an end and so it is for the 2025 C league season! It was a great year, and we get to do it all over again in less than 100 days. I hope everyone takes this time to rest, get those medical procedures down for your aching knees and shoulders (or whatever else ails you) and comes back stronger and better than ever next season. This is the last edition of the Game Day Gazette for the year and based on our unusual to yesterday’s season ending slate of games, I am not taking the usual play by play approach to today’s Gazette. Thanks for taking the time to read my musings on the games. I also appreciate your feedback (especially when I get the facts wrong!) and would welcome any suggestions to improve this publication.
First, I want to thank all the hard-core players (total of nineteen hardy souls) that showed up for our end-of-season exhibition games yesterday. Here are lineups for yesterday’s games:
Black Bombers: Red Storm:
Jim Foelker Patrick Schmidt
Donnie Janac Raul DeLeon
Tom Brownfield Sal Lopez
Bruce Barnett Paul Rubin
Doc Hobar Henry Flores
Rip Wright Art Monzingo
Terry Thompson Jack Adams
Ken Brown Tim Herer
Mickey Poole Morris Carter
Ray Pilgrim Gary Coyle
Tom Kelm
Special thanks to Bruce and Morris for stepping up to agree to manage their respective teams. In addition, they both agreed to catch and perform the umpiring duties behind the plate.
| Inning | |||||||||
| Game 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total | |
| Red Storm | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | |
| Black Bombers | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11 | |
| Banana Ball Scoring | Winner of the inning receives 1 point; all runs scored in the 7th inning count towards the total points; highest total points win the game | ||||||||
| Red Storm | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | |
| Black Bombers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |
1st and 2nd Innings:
Red Storm– came out hot as they put up two runs in the 1st and three runs in the 2nd inning. Patrick and Raul led off with back-to-back singles and scored on Sal’s fielder’s choice and Paul’s double. Tim led off the 2nd with a single but was forced out at 2B on Morris’s groundout. Gary, Patrick and Raul followed with singles to drive in two runs. Sal knocked in the 3rd run with a groundout to 3B.
Black Bombers- Raul pitched the 1st two inning and shut down the potent Bombers lineup without a run as the Storm quickly grabbed a 2-0 lead in the modified Banana Ball scoring. Jim Foelker led off the 1st with a booming triple to left center but was left stranded as Raul got Donnie to pop out and Tom B. and Bruce to ground out to short. Doc led off the 2nd with a line single but was forced out at 2B on Rip’s grounder to short. Terry flew out to right center and Ken grounded up the middle for an inning ending force at 2B.
Third Inning recap:
Red Storm- failed to score despite hits by Henry and Jack as Tim bounced into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play.
Black Bombers- needing just a run to win the inning, the Bombers overachieved and put up two runs to narrow the Storm’s lead to 2-1. After one out, Jim ripped a ball to left center and ended up on 3B with his 2nd triple of the game. Ray or his pinch runner scored on the hit. Donnie ripped a single to left to drive him home with the 2nd run.
Fourth Inning recap:
Red Storm- bounced back to put up a four spot in the 4th (set the maximum runs for today’s games at four per inning) as all six batters reached base with singles.
Black Bombers- needing four runs to keep the Storm from winning the inning, the Bombers came up short. Rip singled with one-out and scored on Terry’s beautifully stroked drive down the left field line for a triple. Ken drove him home with a hit to right. Using his other worldly speed, Ken tried to stretch the hit into an inside the park home run but Gary made a nice throw from the outfield that beat Ken by a step for the 2nd out.
Fifth Inning recap:
Red Storm- Ray shut down the Big Red machine without a run in the frame to give the Bombers a great chance to win the inning.
Black Bombers- again needing just a run to win the inning, the Bombers put up two runs to close the gap to 3-2. After one out, Jim and Donnie had back-to-back singles. Tom B. followed with a screaming liner for a double to right center to win the inning.
Sixth Inning recap:
Red Storm- Ray shut down the Big Red machine without a run again in the 6th as Gary’s double was the only hit allowed.
Black Bombers- again needing just a run to win the inning, the Bombers did what they needed to do to win the inning by scoring a run to knot the score at three points apiece.
Seventh “Open” Inning recap:
Red Storm- Sal led off the 7th with a single but was thrown out at home trying to score on Paul’s double to left center. Henry singled to drive in Paul and Art smacked a double to right to score Henry but that was all for the Storm.
Black Bombers- needing three runs to win the inning and the game, the Bombers did exactly that. With one away, Donnie and Tom B. singled. With Bruce due up, the Bomber’s used the “Golden batter” rule to allow Ken to pinch hit. He came through with a run-scoring double to right. Doc followed with a walk off double to right to give the men in Black the hard-fought victory.
| Inning | |||||||||
| Game 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total | |
| Black Bombers | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| Red Storm | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| Banana Ball Scoring | Winner of the inning receives 1 point; all runs scored in the 7th inning count towards the total points; highest total points win the game | ||||||||
| Black Bombers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Red Storm | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
1st and 2nd Innings:
I must admit that I was having second thoughts about reporting any of this in the Gazette, so I neglected to keep the scorebook for the 2nd game. I do recall that the Bombers came out on fire in the 2nd game (we kept the same teams except Tom K. moved to the Storm as Jack and Morris had to leave after the first game. The Bombers put up four runs in each of the 1st two innings. Both Jim and Tom B. blasted three-base hits over Patrick’s head in left center to spark the four-run 1st inning. Raul retired the 1st two batters in the 2nd but never got that 3rd out as the Bombers put up another four runs. The Storm bounced back with a couple of runs in the 1st but lost that inning. However, they rallied with a four-run 2nd to prevent the Bombers from getting another point.
Third Inning Recap
Sorry, no details but the Storm scored twice to win the inning and even the score at one point for each team.
Fourth through Sixth Inning recap
Remarkably (assuming my recollection is accurate) neither team scored in this three inning stretch so the score remained tied at one point apiece.
Seventh “Open” Inning recap:
Black Bombers- failed to score for the 4th consecutive frame as the inning ended on a great defensive play by Raul to glove Tom B.’s groundball to 2B, step on the base and complete the throw to 1B to end the inning.
Red Storm- Patrick led off the inning with a single. He moved to 2B on Sal one-out single to left. Paul followed with a walk off single as Ken was unable to come up with the hard hit grounder to his backhand side and Patrick raced home with the winning run.
All in all, everyone had a great time and it was a nice way to end the season. See you next year!