Baseball Review // Record Journal Expos @ Rainbow Graphics [7/15/19] @ Ceppa Field

Box Score here :::
https://hartfordtwilight.sportngin.com/game/show/25513765?subseason=564508&referrer=4591727

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I know what you're thinking.   How do the Record Journal Expos- who play at Ceppa FIeld- become the away team?  Where are the Rainbow Graphics from?   I don't know, but I certainly did not go there for a game.   Back at the beginning of the season, I wrote down every home game for the Expos (at Ceppa Field and later Legion Field in Meriden) and this one wasn't on the schedule then.  This is a makeup game and I suppose the fact that it is and isn't home for the Expos at the same time works in my favor.

Upon arriving at Ceppa Field I saw Jack RIch and Evan Harasta going out to warm up to pitch.   Evan Harasta said something to Jack Rich to the effect of whether or not he would pitch for as long as he could or until Sean (I assume Rivera) showed up.  I didn't hear the answer for that, but I got my first scoop for the night in that Jack Rich was taking the mound to replace an absent Sean Rivera.   I assume.   Jack Rich is a good hitter, but I've never seen him pitch before so I knew I was in for a game.

At one point, loud enough for everyone to hear, Jack Rich said he hadn't pitched in two years.  Watching this game, you wouldn't know it.   In the bottom of the second the Expos got into some trouble but were able to get out of it with a strikeout by Jack Rich.   Throughout the game, he just kept his cool, did what needed to be done and pitched a game more people should be talking about after the fact.

There were some good offensive moves by the Expos and it's not to say that the Graphics starting pitcher was bad-- the team was just no match for the Expos.   But that seems to be the way these things have been going this season.   Players from games a few weeks back seem to disappear from the lineup, and yet, the Expos still somehow manage to adjust, adapt and overcome.

Something that I've come to enjoy not just about the Expos but the GHTBL in general is how versatile the players in this league are.   You don't really have a lot of "I'm a pitcher" type of players.   You need to bring more to the table.  Case in point, A.J. Hendrickson has been seen this season at catcher, pitcher and shortstop and that was just last week!  During this game, he started out as catcher and at some point, perhaps during the 4th inning, he and Evan Harasta switched positions and A.J. Hendrickson moved to right field.

And so I come to this conclusion.  I think of this baseball team as I would think of a band, as I would think of making music.  Imagine a band with four members- two who play guitar, one on bass and the drummer.  Now, you could have the best drummer in the world, but if all that drummer knows how to do is drum are they really more valuable than a drummer who can also play guitar or bass if needed?

Throughout my decades of writing about music, I feel like the multi-instrumentalists are the ones who create the best music when they come together and play with one another because even though the drummer might be playing bass, he still has a better understanding of what the drummer is doing because he knows how to drum as well.    It works the same way with baseball.   It's easier to say as a right fielder "That's a ball for center field to catch" if you've also played center.

The GHTBL is really doing something special with this here, but so are the Expos specifically.   I'm not sure if it's always been like this or if things just kind of happen to be turning around during the time that I decide to go to all these games and write about them, but it's just this experience that you should really feel like you want to be a part of.   It's baseball.