Bibliotechs 2006 Schedule

Serious Slow Pitch League, Offshore Division (7)

(All games on Monday at 5:30)

Friedrich Nietzsche despised "comfortableness" and the moral systems that supported it, because he felt "comfortableness" fatally inhibited "becoming." The Bibs' 2006 season thus certainly qualified as "Nietzschean" because there was no comfort to be had. After having rolled through the first half of the season, the team underwent a bizarre downturn and found themselves on the brink of elimination with one last chance to attain the playoffs, a game against longtime nemeses the Delta Tau Delta Dawgs (the formidable team that was the League champion the previous season, and, ultimately, again in 2006.) The Bibs played their best game of the season, a jewel in every respect, and won a mighty triumph! and advanced to the playoffs (where, alas, they were eliminated in the first round.) Nevertheless, it was an inspiring "becoming" of sorts. Congratulations and props to the 2006 Bibliotechs: Dan Belich, Beth Brennan, Ronnie Broadfoot, John Delancey, Debbie Douglas, Jon Eichman, Charlene Follett, co-captain Steve Gass, Nik Gulascik, Kathy Hamilton, Peter Houk, Virginia Johnson, Kendra Lider-Johnson, Luc Lucas, Matt Mahoney, Joe Martinez, Ted McSweeney, John Melczer, Oliver Mentken, Jason Michel, Rob Mitchell, Christine Moulen, Tony Moulen, Greg Padilla, Pat Page, Bonnie Parks, Liz Phipps, co-captain Walter Powers, Sam Sadow, Suzanne Sloan, Rick Smokovich, Will Soeiro, Matt Van Sleet, Selina Wang, Jos Wanschers, Bev White, Mat Wilmott, and Rob Wolfe.

• May 22 Contractors at Bibliotechs (W, 14-6)
• June 5 HSTers at Bibliotechs (W, 12-11)
• June 12 Bibliotechs at Leaders for Manufacturing (W, 12-0)
• June 19 Bibliotechs at The Fun Police (W, 12-11)
• June 26 Bibliotechs at Dawgs (L, 5-17)
• July 10 Bibliotechs at Contractors (W, 27-16)
• July 17 Bibliotechs at HSTers (L, 8-12)
• July 24 Leaders for Manufacturing at Bibliotechs (L, 5-7)
• July 31 The Fun Police at Bibliotechs (L, 10-15)
• Aug. 7 Dawgs at Bibliotechs (W, 11-1)

*** PLAYOFFS ***

• Aug. 9 Bibliotechs at Leaders for Manufacturing (L, 5-11)
• Aug. 10 Dawgs beat Leaders for Manufacturing, 6-3, to win Championship

Here is the field map.

Contact co-captains Walter Powers (253-0600, wpowers@mit.edu) or Steve Gass (253-7058, sgass@mit.edu) to satisfy any morbid curiosity you may have about these matters.

• May 22 - It was a nice day for bananafish and Bibliotechs as the home team opened its season against those hardy perennials, the DOT Contractors, with a 14-6 win! The Bibs showed some winter-layoff rust, but an infusion of new faces, and some characteristic veteran Bibliotech muscle (notably, a ballistic 3-run HR by Padilla) carried the day. Forward and fiaca!
• June 5 - The pre-apocalyptic Bibliotechs faced off for the first time against the Health Sciences and Technology Program's HSTer's (get a name!) whose compact line-up kept the offensive heat turned up high, to the extent that the game was tied 11-11 going into the Bibs' last ups, in which Broadfoot, who had led off the game with a home run, doubled in the winning run for a most congenial denouement. (Other notable feats: outstanding catches by Mentken in the outfield, and an out-of-the-park, over-the-Wall HR by Page, off his back foot.) The Bibs were too overcome by their effort and exertions to come up with a cheer on the spot, to answer the good-sport HSTer's; how's this? "One two three! / HST! / Ameliorate human suffering with technology!"
• June 12 - The Bibs of Summer took on the latest incarnation of the Leaders for Manufacturing, future entrepreneurial geniuses and titans of industry, who were as always young and athletic, but who had not quite gelled as a team; they were taken to school by the battle-hardened Bibliotechs, who cruised to a 12-0 shutout win, only the second in recorded Bibs' history! The stalwart Bibs defense sparkled behind a brilliant mound performance by Gass (with relief innings from Belich and Powers), the pinnacle being a textbook rundown play to kill an LFM run at the plate and end an inning. !Bibliotecos controllo!
• June 19 - The battlin' Bibliotechs got a rude introduction to new team and unknown quantity The Fun Police (Dept. of Chemistry) when the latter got 4 solo home runs from their first five batters! Nevertheless, the Bibs reached deep, chipped away, and dug out of the hole with some key hits, smart baserunning, and good D. They grabbed the lead and survived a furious Fun Police rally in the final frame to hold on for the close 12-11 win. Next weeks' opponents are last year's champions, the ravening Dawgs, but you gotta love those Bibs!
• June 26 - The high-flying Bibliotechs were pitted once again against those Dawgs of Delta Tau Delta, last season's champs, and the result pretty much echoed recent games between these two ancient opponents: the Bibs took the apple. Not a good way to go into the mid-season break, but, on the other hand, their 4-1 record has them tied for 1st in the Offshore Division. Hopefully they will come out of the break refreshed, renewed, and ready to get some! Happy 4th of July!
• July 10 - In their post-holiday rematch with long-time nemeses The Contractors, the Bibliotechs unleashed their inner Godzilla and inflicted a furious power barrage (5, or was it 6? home runs) on the Dept. of Transportation team, accounting for their highest-scoring, and longest-lasting, game of the year. Maybe it was the full moon (known as "the Bibliotech moon") or maybe it was global warming. Time, and the rest of the season, will tell.
• July 17 - On Astroturf hot enough to fry an Astro-egg, the bone-in Bibliotechs were looking to extend their division-leading 5-1 record against the compact Health Sciences and Technology unit, and started the game on a high note, scoring 4 runs in the first inning and playing exemplary D in the field for 4 straight shutout innings. Then, there befell a brutal and ruinous inning in which the opposing team scored 11 straight runs, each one more like a red-hot iron rod applied to the temple than the last, and the Bibs, despite a final-inning comeback attempt, were boiled, 12-8, as calamitous an outing in its way as the New York Mining Disaster of 1914 immortalized by the Bee Gees. There is no joy in Bibville. But the remainder of the season beckons, and the playoff picture remains relatively bright.
• July 24 - As if in a dream, the blinking Bibliotechs, outnumbered for the first time and hoping for an easy win against the multitudinous Leaders for Manufacturing, got turned around somehow under the black hole sun and, despite a decently-played game, could not score a sufficient abundance of runs, and succumbed in a close 7-5 loss. The Bibs need hits! or the season will go into the Dumpster of History.
• July 31 - It's like a nightmare from which you cannot awaken! The Bibliotechs continued their free-fall into softball oblivion with a 15-10 loss to the ill, assorted Fun Police. With the final regular-season game coming up, it's win-or-die for the baffling Bibs. Wake up!
• Aug. 7 - The Bibliotechs reached deep against their ancient nemeses The Dawgs, coming up with a marvel of hitting and fielding acuity, playing with utter precision, capitalizing on every opportunity and deflecting every threat, earning a win that ensured them of a playoff spot. It was a thrilling, fulfilling way to end the regular season!
• Aug. 9 - In the playoff semi-final vs. the grim-for-being-so-young Leaders For Manufacturing, the Bibs hoped to carry the momentum from their final regular-season game on to softball glory, but what they got was softball-gory. They kept the game close up to a point, but could not keep the short-lineupped Leaders from pulling away in the late innings, and once again were unable to proceed beyond the playoffs' first round. Still we say, "Bibliotechs forever!"

Updated on 060813