Week 6 continued the Dodgeball Dropouts’ unbeaten streak, although their game against the Charles Glen All-Stars ended in a 5-5 stalemate. The Dropouts did not play their usual “Kenny Rogers” brand of kickball (hold ‘em and then fold ‘em) and they were missing several key players, but sub-par Dropouts are still above-par Any Other Team so they managed to eke out the tie.
Despite not meeting their usual high standards of play, there were many bright spots for the Dropouts. In the first inning Autumn Faddis proved her fielding mettle with a falling-on-her-butt catch in right field. Carolyn Law continued her season-long solid play at second base, and Brett Law and Tom Reilly hooked up for some slick pitcher-to-first combos.
With the All-Stars clinging desperately to a 3-1 lead, the Dropouts knew they had to put the hammer down and assert their dominance. “Brett [Law] was kicking fifth, and I had a hunch he had an ace up his sleeve,” said Dropouts captain Bob Bastek. “I asked him if he felt lucky, and he said he did.” When Law stepped up to the plate and coolly surveyed the scene he saw that he had a golden opportunity. “I saw Tom [Reilly] and Bert [Stanley] in scoring position, and I knew if I could get the ball in play they had the speed to get home,” he said. With a five-game kicking slump hanging over his head – and the NBC cameras rolling – Law booted a home run that put the Dropouts ahead. In the penultimate inning the All-Stars tied the game at 5-all, but the Dropouts had already proven that they could step up when they needed to.
After the game, as Chris Skinner headed directly back to work*, the opinion elites were already debating the impact of the game. “This game neatly summarized the dichotomy between those who value rules and those who don’t,” said Sports Illustrated columnist Rick “No Relation to Tom” Reilly, “and it’s not clear yet that good will triumph over evil.” ESPN analyst Stuart Scott weighed in on the importance of good pitching. “The Dropouts have had excellent pitching all season,” he said. “However it’s debatable whether the other pitchers around the league can learn anything from Law and [Mark] Wikingstad.”
Despite the debate and discussion, the game raised far more questions than it answered. The most salient of those unanswered questions were: “What’s the point of having rules if you’re not going to follow them?” and “Is Anita Gowda’s fearless scorekeeping so vital to the team’s success that her absence sparked a slump?” and “How did Autumn really injure her foot?” and “When people chastise players for sliding into base ‘too hard,’ do they have any tips for how to slide softly?”
* By “work,” this game summarist obviously means “Bandito’s.”