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Joanne went missing before the start of the first game, so I had to become acting captain for the team.

The field was a lot smaller than I expected, but it was a thrill to play left field in front of the mini green monster.

Batting was a different matter.

In six at bats, I grounded or lined to third base 5 times. The sixth? A J.D. Drew-like called third strike. Ouch.

What's worse, this guy was real shaky at third, but played me like Brooks Robinson.

We got knocked around a bit in the first few innings but were able to settle down.

Our tenth player was a late scratch, so we enlisted John and Alycia's son Ben to play some solid third base.

He showed some skill at the plate, too... going 2 for 3.

Ben is a big Sox fan, and he had a ball playing with us. He might have been the youngest player on the field by about 10 years.

John, the base runner is supposed to slide into second, not the short stop!

Despite a late rally, we ended up getting crushed in our first game.

In our second game, John looked good at the plate.

Randy, our missing 10th man from the opener, made it to our second game, but it wasn't enough.

The afternoon game was a little closer, but still resulted in a loss.

Despite being 0-2, we were still having a great time.

The next day, we had one last chance to get into the win column. This time, we would be playing at Little Wrigley, though.

Randy pitched a solid game to give us a chance.

I decided to switch to batting lefty. I figured worst case, I'd at least be two steps closer to first base.

The strategy seemed to work, because I went 2 for 3 with an RBI on the day.

The result? We rolled easily to our first win, but it wasn't enough to get us into the playoffs.

Our loyal fans braved the rain to cheer us on, anyway.