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Go Maniax

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A belated shout out to the best English-department softball team I’ve ever had the privilege to play on—the 2005 English Graduate Organization Maniax, or EGOManiax.  Intramural runners-up, the Maniax opened the three-game season with a stunning two-hit, 9-0 shutout of Another Team; pitcher Dustin Stegner actually struck out the side in the first inning.  After losing a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to the Bad Guys thanks to two utterly bizarre calls at second, the Maniax rebounded by beating traditional rival Shaver’s Creek 3-1 in a game highlighted by captain and shortstop Tim Arner throwing out a Shaver at home plate from 120 feet away in right center field (!), in the bottom of the fifth and final inning.  I was the team’s backup pitcher and took the mound after Stegner was sidelined with a foot injury, and managed to make up for walking in the winning run in game two by picking up 2 RBI in game three. 

In the playoffs, we took the opener 5-2 before moving on to trounce Intelligent Decline (that one was for you, P.Z.) 12-3.  But in the championship game, Shaver’s Creek took its revenge, beating us 5-2 despite a heroic, Schillingesque effort by Stegner, who came back off the DL to pitch when I had to leave town.

But congratulations to all the Maniax for a fine season, and thanks for letting me play and drive up the average team age by ten years or so.  Back row:  Cindy Clem, Lindsey Jones, Scott Pezanowski, Jim Ausherman, Adam Lupo, Tim Arner, Dustin Stegner.  Front row:  Shannon Walters, Kate Pezanowski, Rochelle Zuck, Doc Rissel, Kerry Newman.  Not pictured:  me and Kolson Schlosser.

Posted by on 08/10 at 11:49 AM

  1. Calling a team the Maniax is a cruel mockery of the mentally ill, or at least that was said when the XFL tried it. (Of course, being linked to the Xcremental Football League was a pretty cruel fate for anyone.)

    Posted by Arthur D. Hlavaty  on  08/10  at  04:19 PM

  2. Someone should make a list of graduate school softball team names.  When I was in graduate school, the History Dept. had two teams. The “B” league team (of which I was a member) was the Revolting Masses. The “A” league team was the Machiavellian Moment. The English Dept’s team was the Pathetic Fallacy (or was that “Phallusy”?). Geology’s team was the Coprolites.  There were many others, some more clever, that I’m forgetting.

    Posted by  on  08/11  at  04:00 PM

  3. Greetings from a proud member of the 1981-84 English Department softball teams. We won the league one of those years, playing on hilariously slanted fields over by the IM building. Are they still so sloped? After we won we all went down to Zeno’s and got pretty sloped ourselves. Since I was a bartender there I think we paid for every third or fourth pitcher. My head still hurts if I hold it at a certain angle…

    Posted by  on  08/11  at  08:04 PM

  4. I do have same pic in my bedroom in which i am standing in the middle a with my school baseball team.
    John

    Posted by John  on  08/12  at  12:49 AM

  5. Really, is there any better a softball-sounding name than Doc Rissel?

    Posted by  on  08/12  at  10:01 AM

  6. Great picture, Michael. But someone needs to show you how to resize images so that we don’t end up downloading much bigger images than we see--costs you a lot of bandwidth.

    I would be happy to show you, but you are a little far away.

    Posted by drs  on  08/17  at  01:28 AM

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