Bibliotechs 2011 Schedule

Serious Slow Pitch League, Offshore Division (6)

(All games on Thursdays at 5:30)

BOINGG! Spring, just like that! (even though it is still cold enough to cube outside, when you walk the dog in these April mornings, before you have sat down to your daily bowl of grumbles, before you have thanked the egg for scrambling...) If Spring is here, can Bibliotech softball be far behind?

In Summer 2011, the Bibliotech softball directorate enjoyed a fairly typical season, with a gangbusters beginning, a mid-season dip, and a strong finish to ensure a position in the playoffs. The Bibs won their quarter-final playoff game with an untypically compact lineup against perennial antagonists and erstwhile Biblio-beaters ATG Dynamo. On fire! But then, in the playoff semi-finals, the even further-depleted Bibs, lacking only a head-bandaged fife player and a drummer boy to complete the picture, went down gamely to the eventual League champion Biohazards. (Subjective game summaries of the 2011 season can be seen below.) This is what it means to be a Bibliotech: softball giveth, and it taketh away. We are very proud of the 2011 Bibliotechs, led by Captains Pat Page and Jeremiah Graves, and of the honorees: Most Valuable Player Jeremiah Graves, Rookie of the Year Aaron Zak, a 3-way tie for Gold Glove, among first baseman Sean Thomas, shortstop Nick Szydlowski, and LOLoldman Walter "I Kan Haz Trophee 2?" Powers, and of all the 2011 Bibliotech Nation: Wes Austin, Patsy Baudoin, Dan Belich, Beth Brennan, Ronnie Broadfoot, Alex Caracuzzo, John Delancey, Debbie Douglas, Darcy Duke, Jon Eichman, Charlene Follett, Carol Frederick, Steve Gass, Diane Geraci, Dana Goblaskas, Roshni Gohil, Jeremiah Graves, Ryan Gray, Rachel Grubb, Kathy Hamilton, Katie Harris, Stephanie Hartman, Drew Hamlin, Julia Lanigan, Angie Locknar, Luc Lucas, Amy Magee, Joe Martinez, Grace Mlady, Christine Moulen, Tony Moulen, Peter Norman, Pat Olson, Greg Padilla, Pat Page, Bethanie Pinkus, Walter Powers, Dan Pribble, Carol Robinson, Maria Rodrigues, Johnny Smokovich, Rick Smokovich, Ginny Such, Drew Swayze, Nick Szydlowski, Sean Thomas, Theresa Tobin, Bev White, Mat Willmott, and Aaron Zak.

• May 19 Bibliotechs at Aero Astros (RAINED OUT)
• May 26 Bibliotechs at Dawgs (W, 33-5)
• June 2 Red SAACS at Bibliotechs (W, 28-8)
• June 9 Bibliotechs at DFGI (RAINED OUT)
• June 16 Bibliotechs at Compact Objects (W, 22-3)
• June 23 Aero Astros at Bibliotechs (RAINED OUT)
• June 30 Aero Astros at Bibliotechs (W, 12-4)
• June 30 Bibliotechs at Aero Astros (L, 14-19) (Double-header make-up for rainouts)
• July 7 Bibliotechs at Red SAACS (L, 5-7)
• July 14 DFGI at Bibliotechs (L, 10-13)
• July 14 Bibliotechs at DFGI (W, 13-11)
• July 21 Compact Objects at Bibliotechs (W, 13-3)
• July 28 Dawgs at Bibliotechs (W, 11-2)

*** PLAYOFFS ***

• Tuesday, Aug.2 ATG Dynamos at Bibliotechs (RAINED OUT)
• Thursday, Aug.4 ATG Dynamos at Bibliotechs (quarterfinal) (W, 18-11)
• Friday, Aug. 5 Bibliotechs at Biohazards (semifinal) (L, 7-16)
• Thursday, Aug.11 Biohazards defeat Aero Astros, 9-8, to win championship

Here is the field map.

Contact co-captains Pat Page (258-7457, pagep@mit.edu) or Jeremiah Graves (253-2208, jgraves@mit.edu) for the down-low on the yup-yup.

• May 26 - After an Opening Day rainout, the new Bibliotech season finally flowered forth versus perennial and ageless opponents, the Delta Tau Delta Dawgs, or rather, a holiday-straitened version of same, with a few new players who appeared to be unfamiliar with the game of softball. The Bibs took advantage of their advantage, with effective pitching from Bibliotech ancients Powers (a no-hitter into the 5th) and Delancey, and so much bash up and down the lineup that the endless rounding of the bases becomes a blur in the memory (although to be sure Bibliotech near-ancient and Ernst Mayr Library Coordinator of Access Services Ronnie Broadfoot drove in approximately one third of the Bibliotech runs with some ungodly slugging.) We can expect the Dawgs to come back at full strength later this summer, but it was a brilliant start to the 2011 season for the Library legionnaires.
• June 2 - Although June was bustin' out all over, ominous clouds began to gather, and a "chille winde did blaw" upon the Bibs and the Red SAACs alike in the furthest corner of Briggs field in the early evening, far from the joyful and shining pre-grad and post-grad congregants at the centers of campus. The Bibs, however, were able to get June started up again in their hearts and minds, and particularly in their bats (which included some new and frightening ordnance, thanks to generous support from the Library Staff Association, and also to the personal beneficence of Capt. Graves) and pretty much ran the table on the perennial powerhouse SAAC's, now wan and depleted, possibly due to their parent company's filing for Chap.11 bankruptcy, and staff reduced by 75%. We are confident that the Red SAAC's will bounce back strong, but meanwhile the Bibs of Summer are undefeated, at the top of their division, and clawing the ground for more softball! We are full of the god!
• June 16 - After the previous week's rainout, the brawned and bellicose Bibliotechs seemed to have stored up a lot of bump, and got right to work with it (leadoff home run by Capt. Graves) against the Kavli Institute's hapless Compact Objects. Once again a multitude of runs scored, and effective pitching (5 K's from Bibliotech arch-druid Gass) struck a note of invincible summer. Like Roland Barthes always sez, when something becomes this unreal, "it has no recourse ... but to become ... the site of an affirmation."
• June 30 - The sun shone brightly, like a newly-chromed shovel, upon the gladsome assembly of Biblio-anticipants, who were looking forward, after 2 rainouts, to squaring off in a double-header against the vigorous and wind-tunnel tested Aero Astro team. The first game was a gem! with intelligent, strategic batting pushing across Biblio-run after Biblio-run, and effective fielding holding the AA flyboys in check. In the nightcap, however, the lowering sun in the face of the fielding team seemed to become a factor (for pitcher Powers, anyway, who claimed that he could not see his own pitches) although the sun did not seem to be cramping the Aero Astro onslaught. Thus, a split. Not the storybook outcome we might have wished for at mid-season, but, to be sure, the Bibs are at the top of their division, with a 4-1 record, with five more games to play: that's a good place to be.
• July 7 - If the Bibs had been playing lowball poker in their rematch with arch-rival Red SAACs, they would have taken the pot with their meager run output on this umpire-free occasion. But the name of the game is softbawl! You thow it, you ketch it, and you hit it with a bat, the latter undertaking of which was uncharacteristically quiescent up and down the Bibliotech line-up of bumpers and thumpers. (At least, until post-game batting practice, which gave the promise of some future damage to be done.) The Bibliotechs, now at 4-2, may have fallen out of first place in the Offshore Division, but they are still in the hunt for the playoffs. Awake and sing! And hit!
• July 14 - After a 2-game slide, the still-beating Bibliotechs were looking to regain some ground lost to the division-leading Dana Farber Gangster Institute. Although it is difficult to work up _too_ much hostility toward an earnest, young, athletic (all-male) team engaged in finding a cure for cancer, the first-game loss, despite an inspiring lead-off home-run by Capt. Graves and several "almosts" that could have turned the game around, might very well have been the spur necessary to take the Bibs to the next level of softball aggression. Or maybe it was the ice cream sandwiches brought by Wes Austin, or the chocolate Chex brought by Dana Goblaskas, or the rally warrior lamp-black being worn by Grace Mlady and Carol Robinson...In any event, the Bibs held the line in the nightcap with timely strategic hitting and excellent D (a notable catch in center by Ice Cream Man Austin). With the game tied and going into extra innings, fittingly, Capt. Graves scored what was to be the winning run, and the Bibs put the Gangsters to sleep in the bottom half. Although it was still just a split, it was an extraordinarily satisfying one. Two more regular season games...let's make them count!
• July 21 - On a day in which 3 teams, including the Bibliotechs, were tied for 2nd place in the Offshore Division with identical 5-3 records, it was so hot...that trees were fighting over a dog! Cows were giving evaporated milk! Hens were laying hard-boiled eggs! And the Bibs were heating up too, shedding hits and making their plays with no muss, no fuss, and no mas for the good-sport Compact Objects. The playoffs beckon, but the Bibs must concentrate on the last regular-season game to assure a post-season berth.
• July 28 - Heartened by the pre-game certainty of a playoff berth and by the large turnout of players and supporters, including a personal appearance by MIT Library legend Ryan Gray, direct from The Beehive State, the boistering Bibs put together a symphony of softball elegance for their final regular-season game and rolled to an easy win over their ancient rival Dawgs. It was like listening to Bonnie Dobson sing, on a blanket on the lawn at Tanglewood, or like watching fireworks from the deck of a friend's yacht in Boston Harbor: these are the similes of a summer night. Enjoy the moment: playoffs begin on Tuesday, against ATG Dynamo, the dire team that has eliminated the Bibs in the playoffs in each of the last two years. We employ the Bibliotechs' mantra: "Gaaaaaaaahh!"
• August 4 - For the third year in a row, the ebullient Bibliotechs had to face the Goliath known as ATG Dynamo in the playoffs. In 2009 and 2010, Dynamo had destroyed every team in its path on its march to the championship. The Bibs, on this day, straitened by unavoidable absences from their line-up, could only muster 11 players to make a stand against the dragon. This must have been exactly the right combination of talent, and soul, and magic, because, after seesawing with the Dynamo through the first few innings, the Bibs pulled away with some awesome hitting (notably left-the-yard dingers from Pribble and Szydlowski) and then kept the margin wide with nearly flawless fielding. Special mention should be made of starting pitcher and eventual game winner Gass, who was ripping the solid smashes and legging out the extra-base hits of a much younger man! The Bibs will need some more magic (and players) for the semi-final tonight against the toxic Biohazards, but for now we are living the dream!
• August 5 - "Somewhere the sun is shining / And folks are having fun / But there is no joy in Bibville / The Bibliotechs are undone." The bouyant Bibliotechs, having won their quarterfinal playoff game in a hearty and robust manner, were head-to-the-sky for the semifinals against the ever-indigestible (but not to say teratogenic) Biohazards, first-place team in the Mountain Division. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts due to rainouts throughout the season and in the playoffs meant that several of the Bibliotech stalwarts could not be there; the number of players available on Friday hovered dangerously near the forfeit mark. The Bibliotech Nation came up big, though, and Bibliotech old-timers sprang forth from their assisted-living or other domestic arrangements to make up the necessary quorum. What a story it would have been if this crew had actually won the game! And it was never beyond the realm of possibility...but the Biohazards had some big innings, and the Bibs were playing catch-up all game long. No fairy-tale ending on this day (or do I mean comic-book ending?) Even so, there was a great deal to celebrate in this 34th or maybe 35th season of Bibliovation, and to look forward to next season. We thank Captains Jeremiah Graves and Pat Page for leading us to the mountaintop! Next year for sure!

Updated on 110817