Skip likes me. He thinks I’m a good pitcher. I’ve heard him say that I “kick ass”.

And, I have a decent ERA. So he started me in the All-Star game. And I pitched two and two-thirds innings of the worst ball I’ve ever pitched. I was pwned. That’s pretty much all I can say. The fact that the Hamilton Conference had Alex Williams start just makes it worse. Even when I pitch well I can’t match him and I was just totally ugly.

I gave up more runs (nine) than hits (eight). I managed to strike out two. But every guy who got on base came around to score. And looking at the box score, my game score was 3. That is the lowest I’ve ever had. Ever.

But you can’t keep a good woman down. I came back and pitched against Allentown on the 29th and we won. Matty didn’t play that game. The lunatic had said he would, but he must’ve changed his mind for some reason. Doesn’t matter. I’d've gotten him too. I needed a win to wash the taste of that nasty loss out of my mouth.

I didn’t mention it yet, but I am now the #3 starter. Billy Madison has been moved down in the order. Not because of what happened. The reason is that he asked to be moved down. He’s been struggling and he told Skip he thought it would be better to try him lower down in the order. So winning that game against the Angels felt doubly good. I can make it as a #3 pitcher. Even if I was pwned at the All-Star game.

These players were selected for the AC OOTP-Allstar Team :
P Chris Ball from Hartford
P Casey Lane from Hartford
P Shannon Young from Hartford
P Ryan Moore from Hartford
P Luke Kennedy from Hartford
P Ike Smith from Hartford
C Pierre LaVillenuve from Hartford
3B Jesse Vargas from Hartford
LF Michael LeClair from Hartford
RF David Ramirez from Hartford
CF Grady Chalmers from Hartford
3B Brad Wilgus from Hartford

And some guys from other teams, too. But that’s practically a whole team right there. Another middle infielder and we’d be able to do it cuz Hottie can play MI. That’s pretty darned impressive.

And you notice, I’m there too. Well, I was Pitcher of the Month for April but lately I’ve been struggling. It feels good to be chosen. It helps me remember that everyone struggles sometimes but that the great ones pick themselves up. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Speaking of picking up and moving on, someone e-mailed me and asked how I could play on the same team as Billy Madison. Look, he made a mistake. He looked at me and saw a girl, not a pitcher who was his teammate. He’s not ever going to see me like that again so I’d bet money that he doesn’t ever lay another hand on me. If I lose, I get the opportunity to kick his ass. He may have 40 pounds on me, but Alex taught me to fight and to fight dirty.

YES!!! After all his talk and swagger, when it came right down to it, I outpitched him. Now, I know that he and Casey have a deal going about who wins their head-to-head matchups. But Casey is ever so much better than I am. He has a CM to prove it.

There are some days when everything goes right. They almost went right for Ben Thompson too. He allowed one run in the first. Grady singled to start the game and then stole second. Hottie brought him home. But that was the only run the boys were able to tag him with. I have the best boys in the world, but Ben Thompson is a great pitcher. He gave up 5 hits in 7.1 innings. And he struck out eight.

That would usually be good enough for a win. But I was pitching some of my best ball ever. I struck out fifteen Halifax batters. I gave up six hits, but they were scattered. And I pitched the whole game. I threw 129 pitches.

That would be a good performance from anyone. But from me, it’s fantastic. My ERA is now under 2. W-L record is not something a pitcher has direct control over–ask Ben Thompson. But ERA is. And I am very happy with my ERA. If I keep pitching like this, the wins will come.

I ended the month of May like I started it. With a win. But I couldn’t get one anywhere in between. “Mae” is my middle name but maybe my mama should’ve picked June or April.

It was a nice win. And it didn’t count on my projection. By that I mean I’m still projected to win eight more games. Only now I’ve won this one, my total for the year would be 13, not 12. One at a time. You play them one at a time and you win them one at a time. Right now, I’d be happy to win 13 games. If you would’ve asked me that at the start of the season, I’d've said it was low and that I’d easily do better. But you don’t know until you actually play them how they’re gonna turn out.

But two runs, in nine innings. That’s an ERA of 2.00 and very respectable. The boys put up 8. I struck out ten. Not a record, but it was enough to give the crowd $10 pizza deals when they got home. (If a starter strikes out ten, you can get a large pizza for $10 form Domino’s in Hartford–any way you want it. I told Matty he didn’t have to cook for us because we had a good pitcher on the mound.)

Speaking of Matty. He didn’t get to play against Madison or me. In the first case I think the lunatic was trying to prevent an incident. I’m not sure why he didn’t play against me. Last time we fought to a draw. I guess he’s afraid Matty might go easy on me. I dunno why. But then, he’s a lunatic.

I got to start against Neal again. It used to be cute, now it’s getting old. It rained for about an hour during the second inning and it really threw me off. I gave up 3 runs, two in the third and one in the fourth. Then Skip decided he didn’t want to watch me struggle anymore so he brought in Obi Wan. And the boys won the game in the ninth. Hottie Vargas hit a three-run shot to bring it up to 7-4. And that was your final. He was, of course, Player of the Game.

Billy Madison says he walked into a door. That’s why he has a black eye. No, nothing happened. No story here.

But there is a story. Billy Madison grabbed me. He grabbed my breast and made a rude comment that I won’t repeat here. And so I kicked him. Hard. He should’ve been wearing his cup. And when he was goin’ down, I punched him in the eye for good measure. If Grady hadn’t've grabbed me, I’d've probably actually hurt him. (I later found out that Grady got in a few hits on him too.)

This is my fourth year with the team and no one–no one–has ever done anything like that. I think the last time someone on my own team tried something like that was my sophomore year of high school.

Skip found out. I didn’t tell him. Grady says he didn’t tell him. But there were a couple guys who saw what happened. So it was probably one of them. Skip “invited” me into his office to talk about it. I was sure he was gonna chew me out for punching Madison. But no, he said he understood why I did that and that he was gonna have a talk with Billy about what happened.

And he did. He called Madison in and shut the door. But I still heard some of the words he was shouting. Skip isn’t one to raise his voice, but I guess Madison gave him some lip. My favorite part was where Skip told him the only reason he would still be in the #3 spot was that it was in his contract. And that he was sure he could take up a collection from the rest of the players to pay the penalty if this ever happens again.

Which won’t be necessary. He lays a hand on me again and I’ll kill him. And if Grady or someone tries to stop me, I’ll kill them, too. This is not something I need to put up with. I’m on the greatest team in the league. These are the best bunch of boys in the world. Except for Billy Madison. He’s a black sheep. And if he ever steps out of line again, I’m gonna slaughter him.

Baseball is a game of skill. And the more skill you have, the better you’re able to perform on the field. There are a variety of specialized skills required for fielding each of the various positions as well as hitting and pitching.

Our team has mad baseball skillz. If you look at the leaderboard for batting average, you’ll see that six of the ten men on that list belong to the Hartford Oceanhawks. And four memebers of our rotation are on the leaderboard for earned run average. We have 38 wins and 12 losses. That’s the best record in the league.

But baseball is also a game of luck. How many runs the boys are able to put up for you depends a lot on how lucky they are at stringing hits together. Well, I have the best boys in the league. Look at the leaderboards. But I also have five no-decisions. And Billy Madison has six.

In my last two games I pitched 14.2 innings. And gave up one earned run. But got two no-decisions. Sometimes it just works that way.

The thing about it is that we’re a third of the way through the season. If things keep on like this, I’m on a pace for a 12-3 record. So much for my 17 games. And it’s not that I lack the skill. It’s that I lack the luck.

In the last ten games, Hartford has lost two. What they have in common is that I started them both. I only was tagged with one loss, though. I knew it wouldn’t last. I knew my ERA would not always be the lowest in the conference and I knew that I’d get a loss at some point. That really doesn’t help me feel better though.

As a pitcher, I want to win every game. So I take each loss personally. I try to look at what I did and see if there’s something I can do better. But sometimes you go out there and you just have a bad day. You don’t have your best stuff, you’re not hitting your spots and they score runs off you.

Remember I said anyone can give up four runs? Well I did it again. Against Neal this time. And that was way more than what he gave up. I gave up one in the third, one in the seventh and one in the eighth. Then I was pulled, but I left a runner on and Bear let him score so that was four altogether. Two of those were longballs. I dunno what it was, but it wasn’t working. I did strike out 9 though. It was not a good game for me. Neal beat me. Again. Just like old times. Only this time I didn’t have to buy him dinner.

The other game was a ND for me. I gave up three runs but so did Pierre LeClair. I was only in for 7.1 innings compared to his 9. But it was a good thing I was taken out because I left two guys on. Jappo didn’t let them score though. I struck out 7 and walked 2. This was not my best day, either.

It’s the 2nd time that the Adams Conference Pitcher of the Month award goes to Hartford’s #4 starter Shannon Young. Her ERA of just 1.27 helped her to a 3-0 record in April. She worked 42.2 innings, striking out 43 hitters while walking 7.She previously won the award in June of 2009.

That’s from the official NEBL press release. I knew I was doing well, but it hadn’t occurred to me that I was doing that well. My ERA still leads the conference, though at 1.81 it’s a little higher than it was. My WHIP is still on top, too, at 0.79. I’m tied for sixth in strikeouts–with Casey for one. We each have 53 Ks, but Chris Ball leads our team with 58. And my four wins lead the conference. But I share that lead with eight other guys.

My last two starts–first, I faced Matty. And I K’ed his ass. He also got a hit off me. So I guess we’re even. So for all the people who thought I was gonna throw him lollipops, y’all can go to hell.

Speaking of going to hell. I had given up 1 unearned run in eight innings and it was a save situation. Ike came in and blew it. He did get one out but he gave up 4 runs and had two more guys on when Bear took over. Bear kept them from scoring any more and the boys scored for him so he got the win. And any win is good. So I’m not gonna say anything. But Ike showed he was human.

I mean, anyone can give up four runs. I did it against Boston. I won though because Juan-Carlos Almandeto gave up six runs. Only five of his were earned. But my boys tagged him for six and that’s what counts at the end of the game. I struck out ten. And walked two. When you K a lot of guys and walk them it adds to your pitch count. So I only went into the eighth. I gave up a single and an RBI double and that was it for me.

Matty was in town with the Angels for that series. It was nice to be together again after being apart for so long. We spent a lot of time together. He cooked dinner for me a couple of times. That is so nice. Maybe I can get him to post some recipes to his blog. He’s a very good cook. And I feel special when he cooks for me.

Those three words sum it up. I beat Neal. I’ve pitched four games so far this year and I’ve won three of them and got a ND in the fourth. But so far, the game that I’m going to remember is the one on the 21st where I gave up two earnies and he gave up three. Yeah, yeah, he gave up two unearned runs, too, but even if those weren’t there, I’d've won. And I was PoG. So I beat Neal and won PoG. I’m sure it gets better than this, but right now, I can’t think of how.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Why couldn’t I beat Neal when we were together? Well, I don’t know the answer to that. One thought is maybe I was letting him win subconsciously. I took a couple of psych classes at Rice and from what I remember, that would be possible.

Also, there are going to be guys who say I let him win. I most certainly did not. We used to have a running bet, loser buys dinner. At someplace nice. On my rookie salary I sure didn’t want to be eating at fancy places on my dime very often.

Anyway

IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
8.1	5	2	2	3	8

I’ve pitched better but that’s pretty damned good.

There’s a saying, mostly among men, that bigger is better. Well, in some cases, that’s just not true.

The NEBL is expanding. At the end of the season, there will be two teams added, one in each conference. At this point, no team names or locations have been announced. They also don’t know who will skipper them, though it’s said that Michael LeClair, the league commissioner will take the helm of one of the new ballclubs. LeClair stepped down as manager of the Elmira Iroquois at the All-Star break last season.