A rainbow shines behind the foul pole in Cusick Field. (Wolan)

The last time Verdasys squared off against Newmark, Knight and Frank (KNF), they faced an opponent unlike any other. Unlike tradition softball teams consisting of average Joes from the office, KNF looked outside the company. They assembled a team of talented baseball players, many of whom were playing AAA baseball in the minor leagues. Since most of the players were from the Dominican Republic, the team was nicknamed “The Dominican All-Star Team.” Record wise, KNF was undefeated during the regular season, loosing only to Tufts in the championship game of the playoffs.

As for the game itself, KNF put on a fireworks show by hitting balls so far that they were going over the trees in the outfield. The game became a thing of legend for the Verdasys Softball club-house and was spoken about even during the off-season.

Now fast-forward to 2009. The KNF team is no longer listed as a member of the league. In its place is a new team named “University Office Park” (UOP)¹. At first, it seemed the hopes of a rematch were dashed, but it turns out this might not exactly be true.

When Verdasys was scheduled to play this new team at the start of the season, the game was postponed due to rain. Before the official postponement call was announced, it was revealed that this new “UOP” team was managed by the same person responsible for the “Dominican All-star Team” in 2008. Is this the same team with just a new name?

In addition, UOP hinted at having a new roster. The team’s manager had requested that he game be called-off due to wet field conditions, claiming that his team consisted of “a bunch of old guys” that “hurt easily.” Some speculate the team simply did not have enough players to attend the game.

Regardless, the game was postponed and a new date set. A possible rematch with the Dominican Republic All-star team spurred heavy interest in the Verdasys Club-house all season long. The challenge was so enticing that the team’s best players agreed to come out in force to see if they could top the former divisional champions.

Will the Verdasys All-Stars be able to top the Dominicans or will UOP once again light-up the sky with another fireworks show? Or will Mother Nature interfere with the natural course of softball?

The weather forecast called for scattered showers through-out the day. Though it had rained early in the morning, ominous looking clouds threatened to rain through-out the day but produced nothing; the rain cell responsible for the clouds stayed south over RI. However, a few hours before game time two rain bands traveling in a northeast direction formed to produce a real risk for showers.

The first front, located off the coast of RI, veered east far enough to avoid the area. The second and more threatening band came from Hartford and was heading directly for Waltham. But as luck would have it, the band of rain fizzled as it approached the Worcester area. Whatever was left slid westward just far enough so that the band would miss the Waltham area. This allowed the sun to poke-through about two hours before game time.

A few passing shower did break-off from the band. On band struck the area around 5pm, producing a sun shower in its wake. Right before game time, a small band passed just east of the city. With the sun shining from the west, the conditions were ripe to produce a brilliant rainbow.

Team gets ready while a rainbow shines overhead (Wolan)

What the rains did NOT produce was an opponent; By 6:10pm, no one from UOP had arrived. Either their team was scared away by the rain or they were enjoying the rainbow so much that they forgot about the game. Some from the Verdasys bench theorize that UOP was scared off after getting word that both Ivan the Terrible and the Verdasys All-Stars would be at the game.

Whatever the excuse, University Office Park did not show up, resulting in a forfeit. With the forfeit, Verdasys earns their second win of the second, thus sealing the coach's objective of “double the number of wins or better over 2008”.

"See, we did it! You media folks laughed but we did it! How about them apples?'

Shut up. The forfeit win is also a first for both the Verdasys Softball Organization, and for coach Wolan's managerial career. In addition, Jerry Buote’s jersey number of “31” was official retired at the game. What better way to honor Jerry than with a win?

Statistician’s Note: All players that showed up are credited with a game appearance in the stats.

With the field to themselves, the team did some practicing. It was later learned that on the adjacent field, “Benchmark Assisted Living” had not showed-up for their game against “LifePlans, Inc.” And so, Verdasys and Lifeplans played an exhibition game, which Lijun quoted as being “the most fun game of the season.” Since this was an exhibition game, no official game accounts or stats were kept. However, if you are curious as to what happened, you can read the game’s highlights, check out the unofficial stats and view photos from the game over at the Exhibition Game #1 Summary.