Finishing Up Dartball, Basketball, Car Breakdowns, and a Wild Weekend...

Zoom, Bing, Bang, Boom....Where in the Hell did that weekend just go?

What can I say?  In a nutshell, here we go....Friday, my game at Allen East was canceled, they move it to Saturday at Noon....meanwhile as they were doing that, the snow that we had received on Thursday Night then overnight Friday morning was already in the process of melting, well at least somewhat.  So despite our Paulding at AE Northwest Conference games not being played, others on the schedule were completed.

The local boys from Celina, capped off a great regular season run by upending Ottawa~Glandorf 62-59 to capture their first title in the WBL in 4 years, and their first outright crown since 1998-99.  The local Bulldogs finished the regular season 17 wins 3 loses with a league record of 8-1.  After losing their first game of the WBL, they finished with 8 straight league wins.  Then on Saturday night in Girls Sectional action,  the Lady Bulldogs knocked off league Champion and Grand Lake rivals St. Marys 48-46 to avenge a regular season loss and move on to District play....the very young Celina team is now 12-10 while St Marys finishes at 17 wins 5 loses.

On Saturday I drove to Allen East for the NWC make~up match-ups.  Both the JV and Varsity contests were won by the visiting Paulding squad ....as I am driving the 40 miles to the game site, I get a phone call from oldest son Sam.  He is on his way home from Ohio State for the weekend, to get his laundry done and participate in the Dartball League Tournament on Sunday.   As I approach the school, my cell phone chimes in...it is Sam, telling me his car is stopped along side of US 33 between Marysville and Bellefountaine, some 75 miles from Celina.   After a back and forth, I tell him to call AAA and have his Nissan towed to Celina, at least I know the garage folks here and we can get it looked at.  After some thought I am suspecting an alternator problem...or at least I hope it's no more than that...could be worse.  Thank Gawd for AAA Plus, which me and Patricia have had for 30 years and have given the boys as a birthday present since they left the nest...believe me, it has more than paid for itself.  The tow to Celina didn't cost anything extra, and it's not the first time it has been used...not even close.

I'll stop by the shop(which I had Sam drop the car off at) and have them take a look in the morning....hopefully the cost will be doable.  If it isn't one thing it's another....life is a bitch at times....but I remind myself...it's only a freaking car, not real life.

Dartball, the season turn around____

I have mentioned on this blog our Church Dartball team...a rag tag group of guys with little in common, except for once a week we toss darts at a large baseball configured board.  Our youngest player is 11 or 12 and our oldest is now 92 years young.  Martin(not pictured because he had to leave early Sunday afternoon) has been in the league since it's inception in 1936(although it may have started in 1938...our records only go back that far)....and has been a quality darter since the beginning.  

We started off the season with 9 straight loses in route to a 6 win 15 loss first half....defending champions Hopewell Lutheran then knocked us off 3 straight to start the second half of the season.  After that we turned it around, as the young and old started to hit...we finished in 2nd place in the South Division with a 13-8 record in half #2.  Then in the post season tournament last week we upset perennial power Schumm Lutheran 2 games to 1 to move on to today's semi final round...where a win over Bethany United Methodist would propel us into the finals.

We began the day's session like we did the season back in early November....getting knocked off 1-0 in a pathetic display of darts in game one.   I finally started hitting and we squeaked out a 3-2 victory to even things up in the second contest.  Jumping out early, we held on to win the rubber match 6 to 4, moving us on to the finals....we had clinched a runners up trophy by that time, and for a team that was as bad as we were early in the season....we would take it.

Taking on host and defending regular season champions Hopewell Lutheran in the championship, saw us fall back in to our "not so hot" play...although we did manage to eek out a 2-1 win in game one... it was not to be.  We fell in the final two games 7-1 and 6-3 to lose the final 2 games of a 6 game,  4 1/2 hour day....the young guys were restless and the older guys were both mentally and physically exhausted.   The game requires mental stamina, and we frankly, ran out of gas.

However, a finish like we had, as compared to the start we began the season with....I'll take it!  

Nobody hit well...I ended up today 7 for 22 with 4 RBIs, while Sam finished the day strong going 5 for 7 in the last 2 games to keep us in the contests.  The All Star Games, which, despite a rather poor year(.367 batting average with 24 RBIs) I'll be in again, is scheduled for March 7th, and the Banquet at Hopewell is on March 14th.  


After the Dartball post season tournament was completed...I still wasn't done.  Sam's Nissan was here, and he had to be back in Columbus at Ohio State for classes by morning.  So after a long day of tossing darts, we headed for home...packed his stuff up and with me behind the wheel, we drove US 33 to Columbus....drove to the Capital City, then through the rain and fog I worked myself back...4+ hours of darts, 4 hours round trip 200 mile to C~Bus and back...all in a "Day in the Life" for one PRH.....


So basketball officiating and Dartball wind down....now a break, of sorts, before Baseball begins.....for the next few weeks I can hope for spring~like weather and hang around the house until hardball season begins.


back later>>>>


Photos-The Celina St. Johns Lutheran Dartball team...ranging in age from 11 to 92(with our senior member not shown)...finishes on the strong side, coming in second in the Division for the second half of the season, then taking home the runner up trophy in the post season tournament.