Life of Wry

In my happy place for sure today…

Drove to Yuba City for a game this afternoon and the commute was farmland-beautiful. That means both baseball AND riding shotgun taking a million pictures, like some kinda National Geographic wunderkind (not a wunderkind in the age realm, but certainly in the photography realm). Two amazing loves. Not to mention in the car with another coupla loves. Happy place, indeed.

Jim pointed out this classic water tower… so hadda shoot it..

And this shot of the same tower from a different angle (the above was shot on the approach to the tower, made “nostalgic,” the one below as we’d passed it, shooting back over my shoulder, treated with a filter called Madison Avenue) …

There were road shots…

And this one of the Sutter Buttes…

(…Which I messed up by trying to zoom in.. forgetting I can’t really zoom and maintain any kind of resolution, so decided to just turn it into something more water color-y. I must say, though, those buttes are quite impressive, rising out of the valley as they do.)

I like the orchards, too…

Driving through town…

So, yes, we were there for a baseball game.

Peter, when he doesn’t pitch, has been given a lot of courtesy runner duty. So far this season, in ten games, he’s scored five times! Not bad for someone who is not a position player, who’s not getting regular ups. I think he’s having a lot of fun with it and will keep the job as long as he doesn’t get picked off.

More low-res shots…

On second, taking his secondary?

And now on third, beginning his walk down the line…

Here’s our approach to In ‘N Out… post game, of course…

Some bendy palm trees… #nofilter, I might add, just saw, pointed and shot into the dark sky …

And a goofy one of Peter and Solly in the back seat. They played chess the whole way up and back…

(must have been Peter’s move..).

So.. Yuba: we won 6-5 in our closest game yet. I actually thought this might be the one to break the streak, but round about the 5th inning, trailing 1-3, we put a run on the board, and in the 6th we added three more to go ahead 5-3. We added a run in the 7th which was enough to buffer us from their bottom-of-the-seventh two-run threat… but that’s all that happened and when Kreidler caught an infield fly for the final out, we were all pretty relieved, suddenly very reluctant to break our streak!!  Maybe we’re greedy.

Anyway… we are now 10-0. Yuba duba do!!!

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Notes: This was our last commute to Yuba. The drive’s been one of my favorites, for its classic farmland beauty. Yuba’s also been the site of some memorable Peter moments, the most prominent of which was the game, nearly two years ago, when he got his “first look” by varsity as a pitcher, which, because of a great outing, sort of sealed the deal. Dan wasn’t even there, but the reports were so good, he was brought back for another look and off he ran.

I also was so impressed with the Yuba team last night. The announcers, coaches, especially, were such class acts. The announcer, before the game started, devoted several minutes to congratulating the Davis team on its Boras win last week (Yuba won three of four–a very good record there). He mentioned that Davis is ranked: #1 in the greater Sac/San Joaquin region; #3 in the state; #5 in the country … according to MaxPreps. Other rankings, perhaps more discriminating, have ranked us #20 nationally.

In any case, absolutely ANY case, we are playing well and it’s fun to watch. Last night, the play was not so impressive with a difficult pitching outing by Mort, usually so strong, and some silly errors, but they pulled it out, ending the night with 10 hits and great pitching by Bell and Gib. And that first inning home run by Kreider! (The story goes, Ryan texted or snap chatted, or something, the guys on the team in the morning saying he was going to get a home run that day, mark his words… that he just felt it coming on. Uh, wow.) He was amped; also made a killer throw to nail, just barely, a guy at first.. thrilling play.

Later note: Following our win in Yuba City, MaxPreps has ranked Davis, are you ready for this?, #1 in the country. Yes, #1. In the country. The entire USA. Don’t ask me how they come up with this, but there it is. 

Crazy, huh?