Busted up my throwing thumb real good last night (recap of how it happened in the venting thread). But I did have a great moment after busting the thumb...
We play seven innings and in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, the opposition loads the bases and we have a one-run lead. With darkness setting in, their cleanup hitter rips a single to centerfield. As the tying run scores, our CF throws a two-hop strike to me covering the plate. The ball arrives just ahead of the person who represents the winnnig run and as I receive the ball and turn to apply the tag, the guy decides to slide (sparing me, but for reasons I know not). As I turn he does raise his extended leg up and his spikes catch me right in the chest protector and I hang onto the ball and fall backwards. The umpire immediately calls him out and the opposing manager comes out and starts arguing that I never tagged him. As I'm lying there I look up and tell the umpire, "don't worry, he never touched the plate." As the opposing manager starts in on me and calling "BULLcrap!," I roll over and say, "it would be impossible for him to have touched the plate since I was lying down on top of it." The manager then conceded his argument and the game ended in a tie.
So, I didn't preserve the win, but I did prevent the loss.
Now I have to spend the day figuring out if my thumb will be good enough to play in my game tonight.