Bois-Guillaume vs Cherburg

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This past weekend we played Cherburg, one of the stronger teams in our division. They have three Canadians, all good players, a pitcher, a shortstop, and a second-baseman. In our first game we were completely shut down by their pitcher; he struck out nine batters and almost all of the rest he made us hit to second or short. I pitched the first game; we lost 2-0, their two runs coming in the 4th inning on no hits and three errors. The second game we lost 5-1. Our pitcher for the second game pitched very well, recording 9 strikeouts in seven innings.

These two losses bring our record to 5-3, third place in our division.

During the first game I was on second base during a timeout in the action and the other team’s shortstop came over to talk to me. He spoke English; the first thing he asked me was if his second at-bat was a hit or an error, a groundball that was hit up the middle, stopped by the second baseman but he was unable to make the throw to first. I told him I didn’t remember the play, which was true, and he insisted that it was a hit. He kept talking about the play for the rest of the timeout until play resumed. I found it a bit odd that he was so caught up in that one play.

After the game the same player came over to our side of the field and asked the scorekeeper the same question about the same play. She opened up her scorebook, looked at what she had marked, and told him it was an error. He immediately got upset and started yelling at the scorekeeper and our manager, accusing us of ‘stealing’ hits from the other team and saying that when we came to play at their field that they would do the same. A yelling fight broke out, and for a few minutes the player continued his rant and our manager continued to insist that it was not his call, that the scorekeeper made a judgment and it was nothing personal. Eventually the player said his last dirty word and headed back to his side of the field.

The history behind this exchange is that Jean-Luc, our current manager, was the manager for Cherburg the past few seasons and was changed teams this year because of issues between he and the team. There was already a bit of bad blood between Jean-Luc and the other team, and I think this is why such a big deal was made of the situation, as if Jean-Luc had intentionally taken the hit away from Cherburg.

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Photos

Time out
The Canadian arguing for his hit

Comments

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Cherburg area,
Cherburg is a shipping harbour neede by USA invasion. It was badly damaged but it was fixed and became a good place for cargo unloading. My good army friend, Max Feinsand ended us as supply sargeant for a very large PW prison there after the war. I took Mimi there to see the location when we were back after the war. The huge prison was removed and the fields were back in wheat.