Rickstate

What is Sandlot?

5.24.2024 – East Austin Jardineros vs. Austin Drag @ Govalle – 7pm
Weekend’s instagram post.

I got to the park early to get as much cordless string trimming (weed whacking) done.
The battery died 12 minutes before game time.

Our bats showed up for the first inning and then got real quiet for the 2nd through the 6th.
It had been a good, long while since I (Rickner) actually drove a damn ball, but in the bottom of the 1st, I finally barreled an RBI double to left center. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Hobson followed my double up with an up-the-middle laser into center that drove me home.

After that, The Jards gave us a few different looks by mixing in different pitchers. They executed their pitches and we also had our moments of loose plate discipline. Well, everyone except for Ash, who barreled two singles in her first two ABs as well as Stillman who caught a nice barrel off what I believe was a “Get Me Over” curveball thrown by Carlos.

Some of us tried to do too much and “didn’t let the game come to us” so to speak. We jumped out too early at good pitches– didn’t allow the ball to get deep enough in the zone to put a good swing on it. When we weren’t doing that, we were swinging at pitches out of the zone and losing the AB battle by forfeiting any advantage by swinging at pitches that could’ve/would’ve/should’ve been declared “balls.”
Call it projection on my part if you will, but these tendencies were displayed by many at the ballpark that evening.

On the defensive side, Steven Carrizales took the hill, Keith Hyndshaw geared up behind the plate, and we all just kind of watched them work. Except for Braden, who was too preoccupied snagging liners and making plays at second. The few times The Jards’ bats began threatening and/or The Drag defense made an error, Steven dug in and neutralized the threat with some much-needed strikeouts.

In the top of the 3rd, The Jards hit two balls to the wall scoring one run + The Drag’s Stillman (SS) caught a Jardy in a pickle, then we (The Drag) biffed the pickle that allowed another run to score.

That takes us to the top of the 7th. With the score at a 2-4 Drag advantage,  I (Rickner) misplayed a backhand at third then overthrew 1b (good God). With one out and runners at 1st and 3rd, Steven induced a groundball that Braden, Stillman, Hobson converted into a much-needed 4-6-3 DP. 

All in all, pitching and defense was pretty darn clean for both sides. Our botched pickle + my misplay at third are the only combined errors that I recall. We were lucky to drive just a few more balls than The Jards.

Really fun game. Studebaker mustered the strength to make it through six or seven innings before the heat, his age, and pressure of such high stakes sandlot made him retire long before the lights did. The captains put in a request to the Sandlot Umpires Union to review the situation. Word is that he made it home just in time to put on some reruns of Night Court on Nick@Nite.

Final score—-
Jardineros- 2 Bull the Bailiffs
Drag – 6 John Larroquettes

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5.27.2024 – Town Lake Nightcrawlers vs. Austin Drag @ Historic Downs Field – 10am
Weekend’s instagram post.

I know it’s already been said, but huge, HUGE thanks to everyone who made this Sandlot Memorial Day happen at The Historic Downs Field. Baseball feels different when played on historic grounds that legends like Satchel Paige played on. Thanks to Joel Manzo, Marcel, Huston-Tillotson, and everyone else involved in allowing the sandlot community to get four games in at that incredible facility.

Onto the games-
Gahdamn it was hot. It is Texas, and from now until October, it’s only gonna get hotter, but this “heat dome” was something else. Never mind the heat, how was the baseball?

It varied throughout the day.
For the first game, it was a tight and contested game until the later stages. Runs proved hard to come by as the Drag runners made a few errors on the basepaths (myself/Rickner included) as well as the mutual agreement to not take home on passed balls.

Our first runner to reach first safely didn’t stay there long. He promptly got hidden ball tricked. That was pretty cheeky, but these things happen. A trick play is usually not utilized right out of the gate like that, as most “trick” plays are generally used as a late-inning desperation move in a tight situation, but never underestimate the element of surprise right? Perhaps they were trying to “set a tone,” or simply steal an out as early as they could, or maybe something else entirely. I’m not sure. But, it’s all part of the game. 
A few Dragsters were perceptively miffed (not me), but we collectively got over it in 5-10 minutes.

Though our offense was a little slow out of the gate, Keith’s pitching wasn’t. He was sharp. In seven innings, The Worms plated one run. They threatened late, but Keith was able to get out of the one real jam he faced. Exceptional showing on the hill.

The Worms’ starting pitcher, Brandon Terrell, was also really sharp. He pitched at least five, maybe six innings while avoiding any significant rally.
Going into the final stretch, the score was 4-1 with The Drag on top. Given that the heat was sort of slowing things down, we were down to 30 mins left when The Drags’ bats woke up and started putting together a final rally.

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Quick Break to Nag About Rules/Etiquette. Apologies.

During my second (or third?) AB, I saw a second needless fake tag in as many games vs. The Nightcrawlers. I already wrote about fake tags.

In college (NCAA) + professional competition (MLB/MiLB), fake tags = up to the umpire’s discretion to determine whether or not there was obstruction.
In high school + youth competition fake tags = obstruction. Regardless of contact or intent, runner advances.

So we’re all clear on this matter–  There are no lower-level leagues than Sandlot. If you were to look at all baseball being played by humans older than 18 years, this is the lowest-level, lowest-stakes baseball in existence. Less competitive, more social leagues don’t exist. For the majority of sandlotters that are simply trying to enjoy playing a goofy-ass, recreational game–  this “league” is it. It doesn’t get more meaningless or more recreational than this.
As far as competition/talent goes, we’re the nadir.

Suffice it to say, whatever rules I remember the game having when my competitive baseball days ended in 2002 (high school), it’d feel odd to all of a sudden play up to professional rules and ask for even more interpretation from our overworked, overheated one-man umpire “crews” that certainly don’t want to babysit adults who either a) don’t know the rules or b) refuse to follow the rules.

For comparison’s sake (as far as rules and intentionality is concerned), a baserunner stealing + relaying signs (at any level) is technically “legal.” It’s also a dickmove (nobody is accusing anyone of doing this– just a comparison of “rule breaking” and the stigma attached to some on-field behaviors).
Faking a tag, at any level below college + pros, is illegal and it’s a dickmove.
In the majors, faking a tag is a dickmove that warrants its own form of baseball justice.
But, as they say, the way you do anything is the way you do everything.

No grudges. No leftover attitudes.
Every sandlotter espouses they “love baseball.”
I look forward to seeing that sentiment put into action.

Enough nagging. Enough soapboxing.

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Final tally –
Worms – 1 Grandpa Glizzy
Drag – 9 D. Branch Boudin Balls

God bless. I am admittedly learning a few things about 35mm photography.
It was a little too bright and cloudy for my settings at high noon (see the overexposed photos above). But… pretty darn perfect for the sundown shots (see below).
Link to sandlot google photo folder.

Thanks again Joel, Marcel, Huston-Tillotson, Grandpa’s Glizzys, D. Branch Boudin, Mom & Pops Frozen Pops, Austin Drag, Town Lake Nightcrawlers, Space City Cowboys, Meat City Smoke, Austin Grackles, Texas Playboys, Cap City Cobras, and Austin Yardbirds.
We’re definitely looking forward to the next sandlot event at The Historic Downs Field!

What is Sandlot?

The Drag took the Tulsa trip in stride and returned to Govalle’s friendly confines this past weekend against the North Austin Space Cowboys.

5.11.2024 – North Austin Space Cowboys vs. Austin Drag @ Govalle – 7pm

Instagram post.

Even though jokes may have been said about sandlotters ripping names from professional baseball organizations, I’m not going to hold it against these fellas that they share a name with a AAA team. Maybe they just really, really like Steve Miller Band? Who’s to say?

What can be said is that the NASC are a solid bunch of guys.

Both starting pitchers– NASC’s Ben Kwiatkowski and Drag’s Steven Carrizales had both lineups tied up and off balance. After three innings, the score was knotted at 1s.
Notable defensive plays included David Rhodes making a quality play at first base to snare a liner and Ash tracking down a flyball in left.
Offensively, Keith flew around the basepaths all game long manufacturing a few runs along the way. RJ hit one to the wall but just couldn’t get his legs to produce more than a single (that happens). Simon had an RBI rip to the right side. Steven caught a barrel or two. Stillman and Rickner also got themselves a barrel.

Judging by all these barrels, you’d think we put up a ton of runs. Nope. Not really. The Space Cowboys’ pitching and defense stepped up when they needed and the Drag continued our long-standing tradition of stranding runners.

We love and value a spacious dugout. It’s pretty important. That in mind, we strategically keep our runners on the basepaths as to not cluster up and crowd the dugout. It gives us a little more breathing (and drinking) room on the bench.

Our pitchers stayed sharp. In a rare and brief relief appearance, Keith pitched the 4th and 5th. Marc Segal handled the 6th and Jeff Waterman the 7th. The Drag pitchers did an exceptional job of avoiding walks and barreled balls.

The score was 4-2 heading into the 8th. I (Rickner) pitched a clean top frame. The Drag scored three much-needed runs in the bottom half of the 8th.
The top of the 9th went a little goofy. There was a walk, a K, a towering popfly that found grass between left and center, then a well-hit liner over SS by their lefty leadoff man that scored two, a K, a swinging bunt that goes in the book just the same as a rifled single, and a final K.

That may read as boring, but I assure you, it wasn’t.

All in all, it was a sharp game played by both teams that was concluded in an expeditious fashion.

The final tally –
Space Cowboys – 4 gangsters of love
Drag – 7 Maurices

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The last few leftover pics from Tulsa that were recently developed:

We get to bookend Memorial Day Weekend with two games against the Jardineros (Friday night and Monday morning).
Looking forward to it.

What is Sandlot?

The Austin Drag hit the road and made it up to Tulsa.
Thankfully, The Rumblers put a tarp over the infield as most of the region had been fighting rain, thunder, and tornadoes for most of the week leading up to the game.

Derek from The Rumblers had a welcome party at his incredible home Friday night. Most of The Drag had some drinks there. We all shot the proverbial breeze (not the Tulsa Breeze) with The Rumblers and simply had a great time. As always, outstanding hosts.

I swung by The Mercury then Whataburger after hanging at Derek’s because– of course I did.

5.4.2024 – Austin Drag vs. Tulsa Rumblers @ Historic Lacy Park (Tulsa) – 11am

Instagram post.

First things first– I will recognize that I’ve been critical of other hosts/teams/communities in the past. I am guilty of this. But these are weekends we’re talking about. Whether it’s 50 miles or 500, it’s still travel. And there are costs. So, why not make the experience as mutually beneficial as possible?

This need not be explained to Tulsa. These guys get it and, in my experience, they have yet to be surpassed in making goofy sandlot baseball entirely worthwhile (Lockhart easily comes in second).
Back to Saturday Sandlot Baseball.

Know what’s better than ending 5+ hours of drinking with a Whataburger?
Starting your morning after with a Whataburger taquito.
It had been a good, long while since I’ve bookended six hours of sleep with Whataburger meals, but that’s exactly what kind of trip this was shaping up to be.

All The Rumblers’ hard work paid off. The tarp kept as much water as it could off the infield, and we’re grateful for the time + effort. All things considered, save for a few troublesome puddles between the infield and outfield, the conditions were pretty darn good. Game on.

Considering that our games with The Rumblers always seem to go down to the wire as well as the fact that it was RJ’s birthday, we all felt like a damn-good time was sitting right in front of us.
We collectively took advantage.

The Rumblers’ tall starting pitcher carved up our entire lineup for the first three innings. Keith (Drag Captain + Starting Pitcher) answered with some strong innings of his own overcoming some infield throwing errors.

Thanks to Steven Carrizales’s big RBI double to right center, The Drag and Rumblers were knotted up at two runs a piece after four innings. From there, both teams clustered runs here and there intermittently.

Defensively, Ash and Steven both made good grabs in the outfield.
Braden put a few innings in at second and gave us this highlight– with a Rumbler runner on first, a lil flare made its way into right field. Braden hustled it down and made a turnaround throw that was a dead-eye strike to third nabbing the runner attempting to motor from first-to-third. It was pretty darn impressive.

Steven and RJ provided most of our offense going a combined 6-8 and accounting for at least half of our RBIs.

The Rumblers’ biggest rally came in the 7th.
Keith pitched exceptionally for the first six innings, but then ran into a slight bit of trouble in the 7th. He gave the ball to Rickner (the author of this write up) and I gave up a flare that dropped into shallow right center that proved to be a big hit. Rumblers ended up plating four that inning.
Drag responded with two runs in the 8th, including Diana Driver running very aggressively on the basepaths. She ran through so many stop signs and forced her way home on a play at the plate that miraculously ended in our favor. This gal slid home in her leopard-print shorts and created a highlight that is pretty hard to beat (incredible pic featured on the ig post).

In the top of the 9th, down 8-9, we were able to load up the bases, but their closer executed down the stretch to hold it down and shut the door.

The final tally –
Drag – 8 casino buffets
Rumblers – 9 ballpark dogs

I’ve updated my Sandlot google photo album to include the Tulsa pics.
Below are some of the recent highlights.

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With everyone full well anticipating heavy storms that evening (late Saturday/early Sunday), the decision was to get in as much baseball as we could– right then and there. We had every indication to believe Sunday was going to be a wash, it was determined to “get while the gettin’ was good.”

We divided all the players in attendance and put together a very loose, goofy, laid back scrimmage. It was perfect. The beer, bourbon, and mezcal consumption went from leisurely to John Daly.

Steven pitched some innings. A handful of Rumblers took their turn on the hill. It was a great way to kill the last few remaining dry hours we had left in Tulsa.
Even though it was only a goofy pickup game, Mike Hobson, putting in some time at second, made a fully horizontal, backhanded layout to snare a hard-hit liner by Dan McClintock. One of the cooler plays I’ve seen this year.

After the ballpark, it was all casino buffets and bad beats. Everyone seemed a lil burnt out by the 6+ hours at the ballpark followed by the 6+ trips to the prime rib table followed by the 6+ trips to the craps tables.

To reiterate: The Tulsa Sandlot community is incredible. Hands down, the best group to host and take ownership of whatever this goofy, burgeoning culture is. I’ve been lucky enough to make the trip twice now, and each time I’ve been so very grateful and happy to put in those highway miles because this community truly makes it worth it. Great people. Great attitudes. Outstanding baseball experiences.
Thanks Rumblers!
Can’t wait to catch yall for a Sandlot Sunday down at Lacy Park!

What is Sandlot?

Chili from The Ramblers posted some great film photography awhile back and it got me motivated to dig up my old Canon AV-1 (that I regrettably haven’t used since 2011) and get back to shooting film.
The first two rolls I shot weren’t any good. Definitely needed to knock off the rust and had to revisit a tutorial or two.
Anyhow, here’s a link to the photo album consisting of mostly Sandlot photos.

They will be improving with each roll.
Below are some highlights.

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4.27.2024 – East Austin Ramblers vs. Town Lake Nightcrawlers (Austin) @ Govalle – 3pm

I finished last week’s post with: “Ramblers get to get back on the good foot at home vs. the Town Lake Nightcrawlers next Saturday.“

We got the privilege of providing a walk-off winner for those worms.

I’m certain it’s difficult trying to find the most appropriate amount of PT for each player when more than 16 show up for a game. 18 Ramblers were in attendance. Whoever’s job it is to facilitate a roster of that size definitely has a tall task.

There are varying schools of thought. One way that seems to work is let your starters get their three innings in the field + lineup, second stringers take on the middle three innings, and, depending on how the game is going will determine how you finish the final 2-3 innings.

It might not play out exactly as cut and dry as that, but that’s not a bad framework to build from.

I arrived at the ballpark expecting The Ramblers to implement an 18-person lineup as has been the custom. We didn’t. We saw the lineup and the “Coach for the Day” (Ramblers have a rotating cast of foundational players that make the lineup) declared that, to paraphrase– We’re going to bat a tight lineup because this was a game we’re gonna go for.

To the lineup’s credit– Rambly scored runs. The Worms’ starting pitcher, Ches Foster, seemed to have pretty good command except for one inning that produced a handful of walks and a great drive to the left field wall by Grady helped The Ramblers put up a 5-spot. Foster did go deep into the game though (all the way to the 7th I believe) and kept the Worms within striking distance.

For our part, The Ramblers put Sikes, Ticky, Stevie, and Hope on the hill. They all pitched well, never surrendering a 5-spot. The Worms did seem to nibble and nibble though– plating a run or two here and there, but not producing a huge rally early on.

Entering the bottom of the 8th, The Ramblers had a seven-run advantage. The worms cut that deficit in half in the 8th. In the 9th, the worms made some contact and got a rally cooking that ended in a walkoff (same video link as above).

The final tally ended up being (approximately)≈
Ramblers – 11 possumdogs
Nightcrawlers – 12 dirtyworms

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Unwritten Rules + Etiquette

With full awareness that this league is chock full of folks who aren’t gonna care about things such as “rules” or “etiquette,” there are a few things I’d like to bring attention to.

I’ve previously brought up baserunners interfering with a defender trying to make a play (purposefully stutter-stepping in between a defender and a groundball, clapping hands/yelling at a defender, etc). If a refresher is needed– this is to be called at the umpire’s discretion. If an umpire perceives whatever action as interference, then it’s interference. With our often volunteer umps or our less-than-motivated/older/often out-of-position umps, these types of calls are rarely made. These old guys (the umps) aren’t going to get in the middle of Little League-playing adults who might be bristling with one another because of inadvertent or purposeful displays of poor sportsmanship. Understandably so.

Some of these instances may be inadvertent because they’re performed by folks who didn’t play baseball growing up. It’s likely they never learned that certain behavior will get you and your team in trouble (i.e. the opposition will throw a fastball at your earhole and/or an umpire will intervene and rule the offender out).

Saturday’s minor, very forgettable issue was about a deke.

Which dekes are deemed acceptable or not? There is nuance to this. The simplest way to negotiate this– as a defender, don’t fool a runner into making unnecessary moves to miss your ball-less phantom/fake tags. You can fool the runner into second-guessing where they (the runner) might assume the ball to be as long as you’re not faking as though it’s in your glove as you throw a fake tag. That’s it.

Ballplayers don’t like the fake tag type of deking. They clear benches for fake tags. They administer their own justice for it, and it’s basically regarded as a dickhead move. But, as they say, the way you do anything is the way you do everything.

We’ve seen the deke from a catcher who acted like a ball wasn’t being thrown to him and then at the last moment he catches it and applies the tag (cool deke), Baylor SS dekes the runners into thinking a fly to centerfield is only an infield fly (10 years ago– cool deke), and more recently we’ve seen the outfielder fake an early catch of a sac fly to fool the runner into leaving third early (cool deke).

Sorry to get Old Man/Old School here, but faking a late tag that could induce an awkward slide or even a collision isn’t regarded as an anti-“Let the Kids Play”– it’s simple courtesy for your opponent. Maybe the Savanah Bananas will popularize fake tags and anytime any runner is running the bases on anything other than a homerun, each infielder will act like they’ve got the ball causing mass confusion, and this is what is to become of baseball so I should just get with it already, but I doubt it.
It’s also fielder’s interference to touch the runner without the ball (or when not in the act of fielding the ball) so… a good ump would rule the play dead and advance all the runners anyways.

Last final nagging note (apologies for all the nagging)– a minor and irrational question of etiquette. Because our fields are rarely, if ever, squared away, this makes little sense, but, ballplayers don’t warm up pregame on the infield dirt (tossing, stretching, etc). It likely stems from the Dads and grounds crews who put in the pregame work to square away the diamond– all that labor and care shouldn’t immediately be undone by a few players who can’t be bothered to walk the additional 60-90′ required to get to the outfield grass.

Every team sport has their do’s and don’ts. That’s a baseball don’t. I checked with a former collegiate softball player– it’s a softball don’t as well.

I know it’s silly when our diamonds are rarely manicured and squared away, but it’s still engrained in ballplayers to keep off the infield until game time.
Caveat*– teams taking infield/fielding grounders is permitted, but simply tossing, stretching, etc. on the infield dirt is a no. I looked up some various baseball league rules to see if it’s still a thing and it’s still a thing. What makes this edict even more tenuous is when you play at a park that doesn’t have a bullpen. The starting pitchers have to throw somewhere. I get it. The more lousy a facility is, the less this flimsy tradition makes sense, but it’s still tradition.

That’s all I got.
We’ll see if the weather let’s anyone get in any sandlot this weekend.