It used to be that the Ballpark Estimates got beaten more than a three-egg omelet.  But not anymore.  These days, the BPEs are playing so well that we're turning more heads than an ambulance at a lawyer convention.  Last night, the BPEs posted our 4th win in 5 games this season, beating Abt Associates by a score of 12 to 5.

The game was exciting.  The BPEs jumped out to an early 4 to 0 lead.  But the Abt Associates team was resilient.  They kept the game close.  Only the fearless pitching of Josh Rozen and the golden gloves of non-MPRies Mike Wu, Chris Gonzalez and Kevin Cropp, as well as that of former MPRie Mike Stavrianos, kept Abt from ever taking the lead.  In the final inning, the BPEs pelted out five runs to secure the win.

Honorable mention goes to, well,  everyone because everyone played an exceptional game, but it especially goes to Nancy Wemmerus for her numerous base hits, and to Jacquie Anderson, who, in her fourth day as an MPR employee, came out for the softball team, had three basehits and scored one run.

But the real story is the fact that somehow, someway, Abt figured out how to silence the bat of home run king Mike Stavrianos.  Mike only had one extra base hit (a double) the entire game (Mike is usually good for 3 or 4 home runs).  I suspected that maybe the 90 degree temperatures were slowing down his bat, and I asked him about it after the game.

"No," he said, "I'll tell you what went wrong.  When I was a kid, I played little league baseball.  There was a kid on my team, Hugh was his name, and before each inning, Hugh would stand in the dugout and sing a little good luck song to his baseball glove.  It drove me nuts, this annoying little song.  The song would get stuck in my head and I would not be able to concentrate and I could never hit the ball.  I eventually had to quit little league.  Well," continued Mike, "the Abt Associates' pitcher looked a lot like Hugh, and reminded me of Hugh's annoying glove song, which, of course, got stuck in my head again and distracted me.  So you ask why I hit no home runs?  It's not the heat, it's Hugh's mitt ditty."
 
-the coaching staff