Peace of mind about playing time

When I played for the Indians, despite hitting well, I'd often attend a double-header, which of course could go a good 6-7 hours, and I would get one late-inning token at-bat, because there were so many guys. This came to a head when Scott and I went to Humboldt with them to play the Crabs. We spend about 5 hours driving up, brought our families, spent good money on a place to sleep, etc., and he and I each played less than a full game out of the 3 over the weekend. At this point, we were taking the 5 hour exodus back home, vowed to not put ourselves through that again, or anyone else, and decided to start our own squad called the Lumberjacks (as we were driving through the humboldt redwoods). I absolutely hated to have to count the number of guys at the part before each game, and do the math in my head knowing that I would only start if there were only 9 or 10 guys there (despite hitting well!).

So... Scott and I have put together a smaller roster of very talented players. We never want to have more than about 15 total hitters on the squad (so up to 6 guys can be out and we still have 9), so we can give everyone pretty equal playing time. Each hitter was specifically and carefully selected/invited to play, and we are delighted that each of you have agreed to come aboard. We have confidence in each of you. We feel that any 9 of you could score enough runs to win off anyone.

I know that up until now, we've done our best to give everyone a good amount of playing time, and I appreciate those who have brought it to my attention about others not getting very much playing time. Moving forward, we want everyone to know, that if you have payed your money (only a few people haven't yet), then we will make sure you can show up to a double-header and have the peace of mind that you will play at LEAST 6-8 innings (because we play one 9 inning game, and one 7-inning game). If we forget for some reason to put you in, just tell us, we won't get upset, and we'll get you in, because we know how you feel! We've intentionally kept the roster small and turned away over 14 hitters now to accomplish this. I love this year's squad, and I'm confident we can take league this year!

Tom

Sat April 24th: Lumberjacks vs the Express

The Lumberjacks continued to prepare for Opening Day in the Sacramento Rural League with a scrimmage against the East Bay Express from the MSBL Tri-Valley league. We didn't keep stats, but Brad Shannon, Barrett Price, and Tom Macari each had solid doubles into the gap, and Mike Taylor threw 6 or 7 shutout innings, looking very impressive. Javier Gonzalez also looked extremely solid as he shut down the Express in the final innings to secure the win. The Lumberjacks also flashed a little leather: with the bases loaded and no one out, Tom Macari made a nice sliding catch in right field, and fired the ball in before the runner could tag from third, and Brian Karst snagged a line-drive from the next batter and doubled up the runner at second to get Mike Taylor out of the inning unscathed. We were especially happy with how the day went because we got a lot of good defensive practice in before the game, and implemented signs as well.

Tom