WIN (v) - 1 : to gain in or as if in battle or contest 2 : to be the victor in 3 : Something this team is starting to understand how to do... Either way, you could've put it in Websters or in Encyclopaedia Brittanica and hand it on a platter to the 500'ers gratis and, at one time, they still couldn't figure it out. But once in a while, the guitarist gets thru the show without breaking a string, and indeed this show went off without a bad hitch.

The tendency of lots of these softball games to end up with football-type scores has moderated itself greatly - across the board. The expedient defense, with flawless calm hands, has reduced the so-called UERA (unearned run average) of the once hapless pitchers. What were once doubles, are held to singles with strong cutoff throws.

Kevin Roseman at shortstop wowed the competition by getting all three outs in the fourth inning, along with a number of others throughout the game. Jack McPhillips 1-2-3'd the competition twice. Kudos also to Dave Smyth and Ralph Hanson for some fancy work (and catches) in left and left-center. Magic voodoo kudos to Elaine Sheehan and Laurie Levy for repelling softballs completely, deterring all batted balls away from right field. Never mind that there were no lefties.

Now for the meat of the story. The score was 3-2 going into the top of the seventh. The DA's managed to push across a run via the help of a walk and a double. The 500ers got that look across their face again. After all, anything can and did happen in the past. But one run was all they mustered. It came our lucky team's turn as well the turn of good fate. With Dave Aubry on second via hit and fielders choice, Dave Smyth came to bat. And as he has in times past, he delivered a solid one to left field. The ball was chased down handily as Aubry rounded third. What the heck, run right? The ball was thrown, to the outfielder's credit, quite strongly. Unfortunately their catcher could not keep a hold on it as Aubry crossed the plate with the game winner.

So 500 is at .500 for the first time in history. The two rainouts might have gone either way, but the results of that will be found out in the future. Confidence is often the best champion maker, so let's find out what happens with a mdoest dose.

AJV

Weekly Notes: Congratulations to our longtime buddy Michael MacNeil and his wife Brandy on the birth of his second daughter, Nora Lynn. This brings the total number of children of DPW highways section members to 19. (Note: Trish Sayers pending delivery would make it 20.) This is more than the child output of an average law firm, mid-size brokerage, or major league ballteam. It is also believed to be larger than some third-world countries. If projections continue similarly, the world population contribution by engineers will be 780 million by the year 2025. Please make sure some of you get into stocks or computer networks, the less fertile positions, or else we'll need lots more space on the planet here!!