GAME 13 - Making Good Decisions

THE INTRO

Alternate title:  In go-d We Trust.

Ingo Bartens was a Grisslie last year and this.  I took a few little good natured jabs at him last year, but really, there isn't a heck of lot to pick on him about.  Plus there is the fact that he thinks that the Internet is an international spy agency, so its not like he'll EVER read what I write.

The amount of research that went into finding ANYTHING on Ingo was outrageous.  Its a lot easier when people give me a story that I can run with and maybe enhance a little.  This one sadly, is all true. 

Ingo (I'm sure you've all wondered this) is a German name.  Well sort of.  Ingo is usually only 'part' of a name.  The "ING" part is actually a reference to an ancient god.  I read tons on this but I'll try to summarize.  The Danes (Denmark) and the Angles and Jutes (Germany) shared a common ancestry and shared the same general territory although they were largely nomadic people.  In general they were sea faring people who lived off of the rugged North Sea.  Got it?  Their common god was Ing.

Now Ing or Ingo usually has a suffix, like Ingold, (Ruling god), Ingolf (Wolf god), Ingomar (Famous god) or Ingoblad (Courageous god).

And there ends today's history lesson.

What I was able to discover about OUR Ingo is that his full name is actually Ingofische, which translated literally from the ancient Germanic-Jutish means "god of fishing".  So his name is a real heritage thing.  And I mean thousands of years heritage, a throwback to a nomadic age when people had to fight for survival against the Vikings and Norse to get their share of good eats from the North Sea. 

I think the cool part is that Ingofische lives the name too.  He's long been know as an avid fisherman.  People often ask Ingofische where he made his fortune.  While he's a little too shy to admit it, Ingofische was able to retire and dedicate himself to the oldtimers league after making, designing and marketing a series of clever fishing novelty items which are pictured below:

The very life like "Drinking Bass", wine bottle holder.

The, always in style, flailing fish mailbox.

Every woman's dream, the spawning salmon comforter.

Yes, Ingofische has done well, and largely he's done it by being true to his name.  And you know what, his truck was pretty cool to.  "Was" is unfortunately the operative word for the truck, because Ingofische bought a new boat with his royalty money.  For years Ingofische had an old aluminum row boat that he never had any trouble launching.  The new boat however was decidedly bigger and needed to be in a great deal more water before it could be released.

Now our Ingofische is a clever man and he made sure to read up on the depth requirements and degree of entry for the boat before giving it a try.  But he was confident and damn-it he came from thousands of years of sea faring stock.  If anyone could handle a solo boat launch, it was Ingofische.

  Yeah, that's Ingo at the back of the boat

THE SPEECH

Rob is drained.  Back to back nights performing and doing lyrics can take a lot out of a guy!  The good news is that no matter how much work there is, no matter how difficult or demanding the task, he is ALWAYS there to deliver 100% effort.  Today Robbie reworked REMs "Losing my Religion".  I think I like Rob's version much better.  Rob sang this as an Ingofische tribute!

Click the song title to hear the tune.  (for those of you that don't know this; and I found a least one of you at the tournament on the weekend....its easiest if you right click on the song title and select 'open in another window' from the menu.  That way you'll hear the song but still have the BLOG open to read or sing along.  I know most of you sing).

Making Good Decisions

The outfield is bigger

It's bigger than you

And you are not me

The lengths that I will go to

The distance I will dive

Oh no I've broke my cup

Hurts to get up

That's me playing deeper

That's me in the spotlight

Making good decisions

Trying to keep up with you

And I know that I can do it

Oh no, here comes a wallop

I need a new cup

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I saw the ball zing

I think I just threw out Al Fry.

I throw crisper

I take every hard 2 hopper

Can throw to any base I reckon

But, hitting the cut off is what I do

Get the lead runner is my rule

Oh no I've broke my cup

I can’t get up

Consider Saunders

The hitter of the century

Consider Casullo

And the hit that brought me to my knees

What if all these hard line drives

Come flailing around

Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I saw the ball zing

I think I just threw out that Hargreaves guy.

THE GAME

This may have been our best game of the year. 

There are really so many moments to savour; its hard to pick just one. 

What can I say, it was shaping up as a real pitchers duel, you know baseball; its won and lost between the lines. Rob was really pitching lights out.  He had his fastball working.  The batters were eating out of his hand.  He pitched a gem, really throwing some heat. 

And defensively we flashed the leather.  Brought 110% and laid it all on the line.  We held nothing back, playing for today. 

Sure.

I'm sure that people will be quick to tell me I'm nuts, but the final score surprised me.  I thought that it was much closer. Seriously!  In fact I thought we played better in this game than we did the night before against the Torn Ligaments. 

Tonight, we didn't play lazy, there was good chatter between fielders and very good setup defensively.  We caught some tough balls and just misses a few others.  We missed a couple of opportunities to turn two, but even then we still made sure of one.  The was only one GLARING miss of a cut off man. 

Even still, I don't know how we gave up 17. 

And offensively, 3?  Seriously. 

Anyone with batting lineup suggestions, please forward to weswingbad@hotmail.com 

You know why their called slumps? Because they don't last forever.  We will pull out of this.  Some sage advise from Batman would probably help!