OK, I did give up 25 runs, but...By Havelock Hewes

  Alright, I blew an eight run lead and gave up 25 runs, possibly all earned.  Congratulations to Freddy Melendez, who pitched a great game in relief, giving up only ten runs, for the win. Kudos to Sam Magnus who tied the game in the seventh with a mammoth three-run homer to center into the railroad tracks.  The original six-on-six teams were perfectly balanced. I have assigned a point rating to each player and the team totals were 132 for each side. The combined on base average plus slugging average  average was .929 for the other team and .876 for my team.  However, Dave Rosengard left the game in the middle.  This left me to contend with what I believe was the greatest line-up in the history of Softball For The Love Of It.  Of the 25 players with 100 plus plate appearances, eight have OB+SLG of 1.000 or more. Four of the five hitters I faced were plus 1.000 and the average OB+SLG was 1.038.  The two teams started with average player point ratings of 22 (most weeks we are at about 20). After Rosengard left the opposing average rating soared to 25.  Here are the batters I faced...

Batter                OB+SLG         PLAYER RATING
Eric Schulman     1.113             30
Sam Melendez     1.138             28
Fred Melendez     1.066            25
Bob Holzwasser    .742             23
Sam Magnus       1.130            19