"Eye on Sports” with Bill McNeil
Sunday, June 14th, 1981
Whoever made the rule that baseball was a two-team competitive sport obviously failed to pass on the message to the Sinkwood ‘Peckers. Indeed, this world-traveled newsman has never -- and I mean, never -- witnessed a home team shelacking the likes of which transpired Saturday on the newly christened Bartholomew Hornfoot Field.
Golddiggers pitcher Ty Busfield kicked the game off with a shutout first inning that turned out would be the least humiliating part of the night for the ‘Pecks -- for star Pecker shortstop-- and son of Woodpecker coach Reggie Lynnstock-- Jermaine Lynnstock's one-out walk turned out to be the only baserunner the home team had all day. In fact, the only time any little Pecks had any contact with the baseball was in the field where five different Peckers accounted for eight errors. Busfield's near-perfect gem will be forever remembered for the swings and misses, as well as the bobbles and wild throws.
Coach Lynnstock was a talent to behold in his youth, a twenty year old phenom who could hit and run like Mays, turned heads in Triple A and caught on with the Padres for three years before flaming out. Now, he's managing a team that desperately needs to put the flames out on a potential fire.
It was, I tell you, such a massacre that the 'Diggers seemed to be playing all by themselves. The stands were full of spectators, and there were a few on the field, too -- nine of em’, to be exact, all of them twelve years old, picking their noses, and watching an endless parade of Diggers run by them, stealing their dignity -- and I dare to say, the season.
