GAME 5 – Head Over Heels

The Intro





My BLOGS keep getting derailed.





Honestly Mark…did you think I wouldn’t find out? You should have just told me and it would have been a ‘one liner’ in the BLOG…instead of this!





For those of you who don’t know, Mark Doyle is currently a key cog in the Rusty Rebels drive for a championship. In his past life he was known as Marky Mark, lead singer of the Funky Bunch (MUSIC LINK) and of course prior to that he was an underwear model for Calvin Klein.





FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Chuck Cragg, Kevin Boston, Mark Doyle (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch)



Webster’s (that’s a dictionary) defines savant as a person who displays remarkable aptitude in some limited field, usually involving memory.



I (not a dictionary) define savant as Mark Doyle.



Mark is the kind of guy who loves to give you tid-bits of information. Not only that, he delivers them in a way that combines the understated Cliff Claven (Cheers) and a quasi Jack Nicolson (You can’t handle the truth) type of passion. In Mark’s defense, he is almost always right. I probably shouldn’t even say ‘almost’.

However, while I’m sure he’s been wrong on occasion, I just don’t have the energy to prove it. PLUS the guy will go to the ends of the freakin’ earth to prove he’s right.

We were in the Legion one night and he was saying how he hit 2 homers a triple and a double against the Grisslies last year. I said that I didn’t remember us giving up 2 homers to the same player in a single game. Mark starts rocking back and forth and his eyes glaze over while he chants “two homers, two homers.”

Sure enough, he comes back a week later with the actual game sheet just to prove he was right. Honestly there’s no end.

SOOOOO….where exactly am I going with this? Not the first time I've heard that question!

I was in the legion Monday night after the Grisslies impressive win and Marky-Mark sits down at our table. It’s the usual baseball conversation that eventually morphs into another session of Mark’s fun facts. Things like, “only one person has ever captained two different teams to a Stanley cup and his name was Mark”, “the average human head weights 8 pounds”, “the DNA of a panda bear is more closely related to a raccoon than an actual bear”, “sleeping naked is a good way to lose weight”, you know, Mark stuff. I’m waiting for the Rain-man-esque “15 minutes until Wapner” chant to start when Mark catches me off guard with this gem…

“Did you know that the hardest part of a person’s skull is the forehead”? And he proceeds to tell us about a pitcher who was hit by a line drive in the forehead, picked up the ball and made the out AND finished the game. It wasn’t worth arguing because a) he was probably right and b) he would go to any length to prove it. For the record, while this BLOG is generally full of half-truths, this conversation actually happened as described, without a word of a lie.

And like an episode of Seinfeld, where Jerry dates a girl who works out with Elaine and knows a guy who hired George and is now making mittens with Kramer and Frank Costanza, but Jerry started making jokes about it in a club and the business went under; this is where this little story comes full circle.

The very next night (Tuesday June 1st – for the record) Marky-Mark set out to “prove his point”. With the potential winning run on base in the bottom 7th a fly ball was hit between Mark and Cliff (Tucker, I’m presuming). Mark broke on a dead run for the ball. Now he doesn’t run as fast as he used to, but he can still go pretty well. He [claims to have] called for the ball. At the precise moment that the ball hit his glove he went face first into Cliff’s….

Wait for it….

Dramatic pause….

Cliff’s FOREHEAD!!!

Mark is right AGAIN. The forehead IS the strongest part of the skull. Cliff was apparently slightly dazed, but otherwise unhurt. Mark? 3-4 hours in the emergency room, 6 stitches inside his mouth, 3 stitches outside his mouth and probably a grade 3 concussion.

Oh. Don’t let me forget to mention that he held the ball. The doctor was quite impressed with that.

15 minutes until Wapner!



The Pre-Game

In light of recent events, Rob decided to scrap his planned pregame song “All you need’s a Glove” by the Beattles and switched to a Mark Doyle tribute song. This is sung to the tune of Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears. Click the song title for the music.

Head Over Heels

I wanted to field the ball all alone, And forget about bad weather

It’s a tradition I can trace to my childhood days

I’m looking for attention

Please keep your distance, “it’s mine”, all the way, No need for persuasion

I'm lost in admiration, another catch in the clutch

Oh, the game’s on the line, and this ball, this ball’s all mine

Then, something happens and I'm head over heels

I never found out until I woke up on the field

Something happens and I'm head over heels

I held the ball, I held the ball

I didn’t, didn’t, didn’t throw it away (Throw it away...Throw it away...)

I made a fine catch no doubt about that (yeah), Another ball that I captured

I used to think I could only hit, now I know my defense is all class

Yes, Yes, Yes, I have some ambitions, oh (What's the matter with that...)

My mother and my brother used to watch me dive in the air

(Nothing ever changes when you're acting your age)

And dreaming I'm a Blue Jay

(Nothing matters when you feel like a player)

It's not hard to be man when you’ve got a rocket for an arm

(Nothing ever changes when you're acting your age)

Oh, I feel so…

Then, something happens and I'm head over heels

I never found out till I came to in the field

Something happens and I'm head over heels,

I held the ball, I held the ball

I didn’t, didn’t, didn’t throw it away (Throw it away...Throw it away...)

And this is my four leaf clover

Cliff’s forehead is hard, My face is swollen,

this is my four leaf clover



The Game

I think that last night was my 40th game with the Grisslies & in my very humble opinion it was the best one I've been involved with.



The Grisslies won 9-3 but that's only part of the story. On a night when nine of eleven bats really weren't working, everyone had a great game.



Simon had a great night at the plate as did Danny who hit one out and nearly had two.



But defense was the big story. Rob pitched a stellar game with 6 shutout innings. Our infield rotation was excellent with Radar, Dave & Brett contributing at 2nd, 3rd, Short & 1st.



Piero had his first inning of the year in the field playing 1st base. He had a tough chance on the first batter which he played flawlessly for the out. (trapping the mouse)



The Grisslies turned 4 double plays in the game. There were double plays in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th innings. The play in the 3rd was on a flyout to Danny who then nailed the tagging runner going to third.



Cal had another solid game defensively and Ingo may have had the play of the night with catching a foul ball behind the tree along the fence in left field.



In the 6th inning the Grisslies scored seven runs. It was a night when there were a lot of "1 for 3", and most of the "1's" came in the 6th. The Grisslies were able to string together a whack of singles and none was bigger than Ingo's 2 out opposite field hit that plated the 5th and 6th runs of the inning. That took the score from 6-3 to 8-3 and gave us a little breathing room.

So, circle September 13th on your calendars for the Grisslie v. Dusty Cleats rematch. If its half as fun as last night's game, it will be a blast!!!