The Lancers even the score

“One, two, three…GARY D!”

So says the Long Beach Wilson High School baseball team as they took to the field at Blair Field in Long Beach, California against the rival Lakewood Lancers. They were battle-tested, winning a 7-6 nailbiter. Gary D, was, in this case, Gary DeVercelly. DeVercelly was a standout Wilson alumnus who died due to an alcohol-related binge haze gone wrong at Rider University.

For those of you who don’t know, Rider University is a school in the northeast of the country, and plays in the Metro Atlantic Ahtlwetic Conference. In other words, it’s a small school. But when news reached the players that Gary used to play with when he was with the Bruins, it hurt real hard.

For Long Beach Wilson, the most prep-looking of the schools in the Moore League, and the area for all that mattered, losing someone like Gary DeVercelly was like losing a member of their family. The Wilson banner flew at half-mast for a while. From that point on, the players wore black armbands, honoring their fallen comrade.

As a Lakewood alumnus, I felt some sort of sympathy for those folks. I never like to see people go like that. When they have so much to live for, and a lethal overdose of aqua vitae took all their hopes and dreams-and their life away, living can be a cruel thing.

I tried getting a bid to a couple off frats at Long Beach State. Neither gave me a bid. And while I rued the day they did that to me, I look back at it, and it was probably one of the best things that happened to me. If I was intoxicated, and died while pledging, my family would have been shaken to the foundation and some, I can tell you that much.

With all that out of the way, I am hopeful that Lakewood will have the breaks that will even the score with the high-flying Bruins. Lakewood is ranked 9th in the nation by Baseball America, while Wilson is ranked 4th. It’s very possible these two could meet in the CIF-SS Division I championship at Angel Stadium.

I love Dire Straits. My favorite songs include “Walk Of Life”, “Tunnel Of Love,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Money For Nothing,” and, of course, “Sultans of Swing.”

I am a connoisseur of good musical hooks. When a good riff is made, combined with a suitable melody that drives the song, it can make a song memorable. In my view, a Billboard-charting song has its foundation on the hooks, from the rhythm, to the melody, to the lyrics themselves. And when it’s done right, it tops the charts.

Some hooks are done so well, that they can be remembered for many years. Take, for example Republica’s “Ready To Go.” This song combined good rhythm sampling, with guitars, and some simple, but proper lyrics. The hooks that drive the verses, refrain, chorus and bridge make a song that was composed in the mid-90’s relevant to today. This song became a jock jam. In otherwords, it was a song made for sports, and is played during important matched for teams. I can imagine that a collage of clips featuring the team in question can be easily choreographed to this music, and played before the pre-match introductions.

But let’s get back to the match between the Lancers and the Bruins. I knew that this was going to be a preview for the playoffs that would follow later in the season.

The Bruins start off with a few base hits, and jump off to an early 1-0 lead. The Lakewood supporters, who are on the third base side of the field and up to that point were frustrated with the hits given up, finally have something to cheer about with an out caught stealing, followed by a ground out. This game was going to be a long one.

A high school game goes seven innings in regulations, but there are times that the innings get longer, and leaner. Walks, combined with inept pitching, equal some utter futility.

I’m not going to place any future mobile I have in my jacket pockets. They tend to slide out when the pockets are not restrained by closed zippers. I’ll have to leave my next one at home. Hopefully, when my mom calls, she found out that someone has my phone. This has to be the worst feeling, having to lose it on the bus thanks to poor jacket design.

At the end of the night, to keep a long story short, Lakewood held off a rally by Wilson, and won thanks to some key baserunning in the bottom of the fourth to even the score, and possibly have a share of the Moore crown, defeating Wilson 5-4.

St. Patrick, meet Lady Milfeulle Sakuraba-Meyers.

St. Patrick’s Day, for the most part, was a bit of a huge pill to swallow. It started ominously-our university’s rugby team lost-again-this time to UC Santa Barbara by the sound of 46-7. Also, our baseball team saw their last seven batters go through a futility spell in an 8-7 loss to Wichita State, forcing a rubber match on Sunday.

So, as I ate lunch at the Carl’s Jr. on PCH and Ximeno to get energy for the volleyball match against Penn State, I thought; could this weekend become any worse for me?

The answer: Yes, but with a reprieve, and a big one at that. While Cal Baptist could not replicate its sweep of Penn State the other night against IPFW (who we defeated in a 3-2 barnburner), our volleyball team took on a Nittany Lions side that was angry that they got humiliated by an NAIA team (albeit the best in the NAIA), and I knew that this was going to go the distance-again.

Thank god for Dan Alexander of Arcadia. The redshirt freshman, along with diaper dandies Tommy “Cretino” Pestolesi and Dean “Dino” Bittner of Lakewood, pounded the lazy lobs from Penn State with authority, as if he were slam-dunking his opponents into submission.

Unlike our basketball team against Tennessee on Friday, our volleyball team actually showed some defense to go with the offensive kills, aces, and blocks off the touch. We went the distance, and won the fifth game 15-13. All the while, visions of King Leonidas of Sparta at the Battle of Thermopylae were on my mind.

As I went over to take a look-see at the Jack Rose Relays at the track of the same name, a few reporters from Cerritos College stopped me for a quick interview for their project. It had to do with race relations. I said that it was a good thing we have diversity on campus because it raises our profile for tolerating people of different persuasions. They asked me a question about the beating, and I said, “This was a backwards step for our university. I feel that justice was not served, and it was a huge step backward. But, in life, as a society, we have to learn to move backwards in order to move forwards. Everybody on campus has talked about this situation, and there will come a time when both sides reconcile about this situation, and put it behind them for good. Going backwards to go forwards: this is, I think one of the interesting, if not one of the best things about life.”

My alma mater, Lakewood High School in Lakewood, CA, is known for having a consistent baseball team. They are one of the best in the state, if not the nation. In their recent game on St. Patty’s Day, they defeated their opponent 16-1. In an outcome like this, the mercy rule came into effect. Oddly enough, I don’t know who they faced, but it didn’t seem like one of the strongest teams in the league. Either that or it was one of the pansies in the Moore League.

They are currently 9-1, ranked first in the Southern Section Division I. And they are the defending champions, having edged the Agoura Chargers in a nailbiter at Angel Stadium many moons ago. If we win the title again, I would issue a challenge to the winner of this year’s summer Koshien to face them in a friendly series down the road. While the timing may be a bit off, in a perfect world, this would be possible, and it would be Japan’s best team against one of California’s best teams.

I don’t know how we would do against them, but I think we would put them in their place. The laurels of victory will shine on Lakewood if they get the job done like they did last year. I’m going to make it a habit to come to at least one of their games later in April.

Speaking of which, I remember when I first went to the state championships in Anaheim last year. I’m talking five baseball games, all championship games…for the ridiculous bargain of $8.00. I was able to sit at the very front, behind home plate, watching teams like Quartz Hill, Palos Verdes, St. Francis, and my Lancers, among the participants, fight to the end. I remember when they were giving the trophy to St. Francis, and I saw on of the Franciscan monks watch the event, I said “Get Friar Tuck off the stage!” A St. Francis fan said, “Patience Lakewood. You’ll get yours.”

Well, I just had to laugh.

And wouldn’t you know it: in the last sign of proof that I went through St. Patrick’s Day, I picked up a dollar bill off the sidewalk. Not sure who would drop this, but I think this is going to make printing my codes for my Oracle and Visual Basic assignments easier.

I finally found who the Lancers beat the next day. Woodland Hills Taft. One of their aces, Omar Jimenez, struck out eight batters in the Redondo Tournament.