"Isn't that Doc Vischetti?" wonders Sean Doremus from the back of the bus as we stop at a red light on Route 28.
"I don't know those people," Matt quips as his five family members wave wildly and blow air horns from a royal blue WV beetle with the top down.
"Me neither," laughs Sean, though he can't resist a wave and a grin.
We were on the way to a neutral field in Middlesex for a face-off with the shore district champion. Manalapan Township is a populous Monmouth County suburb with a huge draw of players, putting tiny Bound Brook in our usual underdog position.
We didn't know it until game time, but Manalapan had won their previous games behind a strong lineup of lefty hitters. Most pitchers, like most people, are right-handed with an advantage against most batters, also right-handed. Righty against righty requires a greater turn of the hitter's head, and the distance is shorter between ball release and bat. The pitched ball appears to be coming at the batter before crossing over home plate, making swings more tentative and called strikes more likely. The converse is true for lefty hitters facing left-handed pitchers.
Sean Doremus was a lean lefty with a shock of blond hair that swayed with each pitch. His family lived across the street from our Little League field so he'd grown up chasing foul balls and working the hand-changed scoreboard, eventually graduating to official scorekeeper when not playing for the blue Tri-boro Lions. He really knew baseball, but his passionate play and strong reactions sometimes thwarted control of his throws, like after a good hit or in a close game.
“I don’t know those people,” quips catcher Matt Vischetti when the Manalapan crowd cheers for a walk in the bottom of the sixth inning.
We’re ahead 3-0 behind a one-hitter as Sean repeatedly struck out their five lefties and got the four others on grounders. The walk is only their second base runner of the game and it brings up the third and best hitter, a strong lefty.
“Me neither,” Sean scowls, barely concealing a smile as he delivers three sweeping sliders for the third out.
Final score: Bound Brook 3, Manalapan 0
No comments:
Post a Comment