On a warm-ish day down in Tombstone, Arizona a base ball doubleheader was about to be played. I could probably write a better set-up than that, but I'm tired, dammit. Anyway, the teams in question were the Bisbee Black Sox and the Tucson Saguaros. Would the Black Sox ride the momentum of sweeping the Saguaros last month? Or would the Saguaros be bolstered by the fact that neither "Tucson" nor "Saguaro" came up wrong in firefox's spellchecker? (Whereas Bisbee and Sox did.) Let's find out, shall we?

The Saguaros had the minimum of 6 players, but the Black Sox had extra players to help fill out our roster, which was very kind of them. The first game started off with the Black Sox staking out an early lead, but the Saguaros fought back in a way that an actual Saguaro wouldn't, and jumped out ahead big. Thanks to performances like yours truly going 3 for 4 (among others, I only really keep track of my stats, and not that well) the Saguaros prevailed by a mark of 12-4? (I think, someone can correct me on that), our second win of the season,

I should note here that these sets of games were advertised in Tombstone's local newspaper, and did they ever come out in droves. Well, maybe not droves by our standards (certainly by Florida Marlin standards), but it definitely was more people attending than I had seen in any other game. There were a few people who decided to dress up for the occasion in the vintage style.

I also had the, uh, joy of getting my first heckler. I like to wave my bat slightly between pitches, and a gentleman took offense at this. Said gentleman is also among the confused hordes that thinks if the ball HITS the plate it's a strike. Course his anger fueled me in my fairly good performance.

Anyway: The second game. Like in the first one, Bisbee took an early lead. Also like in the first one, the Saguaros came roaring back for a big lead, lead by three team home runs (though two of them were by one of the players the Black Sox lent us. Oops for them I guess.) The score was 13-3 entering the bottom of the 7th, but the Black Sox would not give up. They had a furious rally (Aided slightly by some WAR killing fielding by me) that saw them bring the score to 13-9. With the tying run on deck, the Saguaros finally got the last out, completing the sweep. I also went 3 for 4 in that game with a few RBIs.

This was the final "regular season" set of games for both teams. What's next? Possibly some mystery tournament at the start of March, but for sure a tournament down at historic Warren Ballpark down in Bisbee March 19th and 20th. I actually have a nifty poster for it right in front of me that I'd show you if I owned a scanner. You will probably hear more about it on this website.

One final thought: If you're a truck driver on the interstate, please don't drive in a manner of someone who deserves to be attacked with a crowbar.