Alice Diary - Day 9
Day 9 - Show Me the Medal!
Today the Bulls play for the bronze medal. The Bulls are definitely nervous. The usual frivolity is missing, as are the hangovers. Seems everyone took a serious pill and had an early night. One thing that has not changed is the breakfast of pain killers and anti-inflammatory pills.
The game is at 11:00am against the Viagra Eagles. By 10:00am the "Alice" is really hotting up and the Bulls are at the ground starting their warm ups. The warm ups are deliberate and well practiced by now and they seem to have worked as our injury count is one (Rocket).
Warm up completed coach Mal "Watta-Bull" Watts announces the team. There are no real surprises because the team has been picked on form. The line up is
| Batting | Fielding | |
| 1 | Dean "Zulu Bull" Franke | Second Base |
| 2 | Danny "Banka-Bull" Langley | Catcher |
| 3 | John "Consta-Bull" Gooley | Center Field |
| 4 | Nick "Inkura-Bull" Kuring | Third Base |
| 5 | Norm "Untama-Bull" Sluga | Short Stop |
| 6 | Bruce "Texta-Bull" Winter | Left Field |
| 7 | Jamie "Unpredicta-Bull" Bishop | Pitcher |
| 8 | Bruce "Vino Bull" Gordon | First Base |
| 9 | Craig "Slida-Bull" Martin | Right Feild |
Norm "Untama-Bull" Sluga and John "Consta-Bull" Gooley are the reserve pitchers. The remaining bulls are given jobs, including base running.
The Bulls batted first and came up with 3 runs thanks to an "Untama-Bull" home run. They backed up with a good fielding inning to hold the Eagles scoreless.
End of the 1st Bulls up 3-0. Invisi-Bull does not dare to hope. He has seen the Bulls snatch defeat from the jaws of victory before.
The bulls fail to score in the 2nd and allow the Eagles to score three runs. End of the 2nd and it is three all.
The top of the 3rd innings saw the Bulls bats roar. Every batter hit safely and scored, some several times. The bulls scored 13 runs and broke the back and heart of the Eagles. Unpredicta-Bull pitched beautifully in the bottom of the 3rd, conceding nothing.
End of the 3rd Bulls up 16-3. Invisi-Bull is starting to believe.
Top of the fourth the Bulls did not score and needed "Unpredicta-Bull" to pitch well. The Bish was tiring but there was no way he would let the hook come outs. With two outs and nobody on, you could see that Unpredicta-Bull was hurting, but wanted the last batter and he really wanted to "K" that batter.
With count at 2 and 2 Bish wound up and hurled his trade mark fast ball at Banka-Bulls strategy positioned glove (i.e. the glove was somewhere behind the plate). The bulls all held their breath and watched the Eagle batter wind up, swing with all his strength and miss the ball. The sound of ball hitting catcher's glove echoed around the ground (what sweet sound it was). Bulls jumped for joy (given the size of some of them, Invisi-bull is quite surprised that there were no reports of small Indonesian islands being swamped by Tsunami's), charged the mound, and piled on top of "Unpredicta-Bull". Coach Watts was see running away from Bill, he had suffered enough yesterday.
The Bulls win 16-3. Our second win in 2 days. Invisi-Bull will be an enthusiastic participant in the celebrations.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E | |
| Bulls | 3 | 0 | 13 | 0 | - | - | 16 | 13 | 0 |
| Eagles | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 3 | 5 | 1 |
The celebrations started after the game. Coach Watts gave a passionate speech about how proud of the Bulls he was. He remarked on the excellent batting, fielding and pitching; "a good all round performance".
The Bulls headed back to the Toddy's to swim/shower and return to watch the Cubs play for gold/silver (for the record Weasels beat the Cubs) and enjoy a beverage or two.
Medal presentation was at 5:00pm and the bulls glably collected theirs and posed for photos. We then headed out to dinner, where Billy Magoo ate a 1kg surf and turf.
After dinner some bulls trotted to the concert, and some went "home" to Toddy's for the final bull ring.
Invisi-bull is not sure (and does not care) what time he went to bed, but he went to bed very happy.
Stay tuned for more Alice News...