The rain that moved through a day before brought dry air and blue skies on Thursday as both teams took the field for game one. On the mound for the Moran Club was their ace, John Gregorio and pitching for the Sidewalk Cafe was the writer of this article.

After a scoreless first inning, Moran's Joey Magee led off the second inning with a single to left that was followed by a walk to Bobby McGarrell. A ground out advanced the runners to second and third with one out. Gregorio then knocked in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to left which scored Magee from third and would be the eventual game winning run.

The Sidewalk did threaten to tie it in the fourth when the first two batters reach with singles. The next batter hit a high one-hopper that was grabbed by thirdbaseman Billy Morin who stepped on third for the first out. The next two batters flied out and Sidewalk helplessly watched its golden oppurtunity go by the boards.

Moran would add another run later when Magee singled to left and the ball eluded the outfielder which allowed Jim Burgio to score from firstbase. In the end, the run meant little as Gregorio continued to dominate scattering five hits and erned the 2-0 shutout.

Game Two
Friday's game two starters were supposed to be a match-up of the veteran pitchers, Tommy Greene for Moran and lefty Don Senna for Sidewalk. Minutes before the start of the game, Senna was struck in the eye by a thrown practice ball knocking him out of the game. The area surrounding his eye instantly swelled to a point where his eye was nearly visible.

With the bizarre incident taking place before the game even started, Sidewalk would have to regroup and to try an even the series. For a brief moment, it seemed as if they would as they led by three entering after one inning.

Then the entire focus of the game shifted for Sidewalk as some very questionable calls went against them leading to three Moran runs. The first blown call was on a routine double play where the umpire called the runner safe at second staing that the secondabaseman wasn't on the bag long enough. When is he on a double play? Then as members of the Moran Club screamed from their bench that the firstbaseman didn't stay on the bag either, the umpire agreed and changed his orginal "out" call to a safe. The clincher then followed. With the bases now loaded the next batter, Brendad Flynn, hit a rocket down the third base line that sailed over the bag in the air and landed in foul territory. The umpire called it a fair ball and Flynn pulled up to third with a tainted triple. Even the faithful Moran supporters disagreed with the call.

The Sidewalk team was now reeling and they couldn't catch their balance as the Moran Club tacked eight more runs on the board in the third inning and cruised to a 16-9 win.

The series continues through the week with game three starting at 7pm on Monday.

Reflecting back
Writing this article and mentioning the umpires questionable calls reminds me of an interview I once did with a professional baseball umpire, Bob Long. Here's a bit of the transcript:
Question: Bob, a hitter has a good game when he is three for three at the plate. When do you as an umpire have a good game?
Long: When nobody (fans, players, coaches) knows I was there.
It is clear that this was not the case on Thursday evening.