I was in a daze all week, well maybe for the last couple. The hint of things to come when Transdyn, my Tuesday team, after going 12-0 in the regular season, then got our lunch handed to us in the playoffs by the fourth place team. To that point, my teams were on cloud nine - Transdyn was 12-0, JFT had won about 10 in a row, heady days.
Then last Sunday it got ugly. I played in a charity tournament, the same one in July called Softball for the World's Children (equipment and fees donated to children that need help) I have played in for years.
We lost four in a row. I came back to the East Bay for JFT to lay our egg last week against pesky Corona, losing 9-3. Oh and five in one single day of softball. Then the Coneheads lost Monday and my Wednesday team, although making a valiant effort, came up short as underdogs in the playoffs by one run.
0-7 in a week. How do you do that? They said I was cranky all week. Can you believe that?
And we were staring up at Pinky's Pizza, who hadn't even had a close game all season, and came in 13-0 to our 11-2.
The game started as expected. Pinky's was blasting it to right, to center, to left, shaved bats or not, the singles hitters were hitting line drives, and before we knew it, it was 11-2 going into the bottom of the third. In the mean time, we are taking strike three, and hitting into double plays.
And then something happened. I don't know what triggered it...somewhere deep down we were just mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Arrogant Pinky's decided to go with three outfielders and five infielders, daring us to hit gaps.
So there was nothing to do but do it. Talk about crankin it up - we batted around two innings in a row, while shutting down the juggernaut twice, and in the end we sent eight guys to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, and they all scored. Chopper ended it with a home run to right - I am not sure if the slaughter rule was called or if we ran out of time, but the great Pink Dragon was finally slayed.
You could argue that it means nothing. Thanks to losing to Corona's last week, we couldn't catch Pinky's in the standings (which is a shame because we took the head to head run differential advantage with our outburst), and ended up the regular season a game behind them. The game was meaningless technically.
But for us it had all the meaning in the world. For one thing, we had to prove to ourselves that we can beat these guys after taking it on the chin five times since they showed up in the league. Last year they accounted for four of our total of five losses. This year our only loss before week 13. We needed to show both teams what we can do.
For another thing, we have been in a funk offensively and to a degree defensively. We broke out of that in a big way against a quality team tonight - try 25 unanswered runs, and we weren't finished when time and/or the score ran out. We might still be out there if they hadn't called the game.
It will be a challenge next weekend in the playoffs, no doubt. Playoff tournaments are different, and Pinky's is a tested tournament team. But now they have something different to think about - watch out for JFT when we awaken out of our slumber.
Everyone contributed, Chopper had the walkoff home run, and a triple and six RBIs. Only my snail-like running kept him from a perfect game. Chuck, Reg, Heffe, Haz, and Dizzy D made no outs between them. Tim and Haz had a couple of very clutch hits in our innings when we batted around, and Gene started both off with singles. Lefty and Greg had nine RBIs between them.
On defense as usual Chuck made a couple of great stops and the Knight turned an 11-3 DP. Gene made a fantastic catch in his inning in right field to cut off a rally with no runs.
What this underscored is that these guys really just want to come out and hit only. To them playing defense is a nuisance. We can beat them by making them play defense, whether it is on one of my bloopers or Derek's laser shots, if we make them stretch, they can't handle it. And if we play our strongest defense, it will take away some of their hitting prowess.
Ready? Just five days from now, more or less. As Reg said, we are due!
Milestones:
6/16
Haz 10 2b (#11)
Dizzy D 50 rbi (#13)
7/07 - None
7/14
Chopper 10 2b (#12)
7/21
Lefty 20 sf (#1)
Knight 300 ab (#5)
Tim 100 g (#7)
Joe 20 bb (#7)
Then last Sunday it got ugly. I played in a charity tournament, the same one in July called Softball for the World's Children (equipment and fees donated to children that need help) I have played in for years.
We lost four in a row. I came back to the East Bay for JFT to lay our egg last week against pesky Corona, losing 9-3. Oh and five in one single day of softball. Then the Coneheads lost Monday and my Wednesday team, although making a valiant effort, came up short as underdogs in the playoffs by one run.
0-7 in a week. How do you do that? They said I was cranky all week. Can you believe that?
And we were staring up at Pinky's Pizza, who hadn't even had a close game all season, and came in 13-0 to our 11-2.
The game started as expected. Pinky's was blasting it to right, to center, to left, shaved bats or not, the singles hitters were hitting line drives, and before we knew it, it was 11-2 going into the bottom of the third. In the mean time, we are taking strike three, and hitting into double plays.
And then something happened. I don't know what triggered it...somewhere deep down we were just mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Arrogant Pinky's decided to go with three outfielders and five infielders, daring us to hit gaps.
So there was nothing to do but do it. Talk about crankin it up - we batted around two innings in a row, while shutting down the juggernaut twice, and in the end we sent eight guys to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, and they all scored. Chopper ended it with a home run to right - I am not sure if the slaughter rule was called or if we ran out of time, but the great Pink Dragon was finally slayed.
You could argue that it means nothing. Thanks to losing to Corona's last week, we couldn't catch Pinky's in the standings (which is a shame because we took the head to head run differential advantage with our outburst), and ended up the regular season a game behind them. The game was meaningless technically.
But for us it had all the meaning in the world. For one thing, we had to prove to ourselves that we can beat these guys after taking it on the chin five times since they showed up in the league. Last year they accounted for four of our total of five losses. This year our only loss before week 13. We needed to show both teams what we can do.
For another thing, we have been in a funk offensively and to a degree defensively. We broke out of that in a big way against a quality team tonight - try 25 unanswered runs, and we weren't finished when time and/or the score ran out. We might still be out there if they hadn't called the game.
It will be a challenge next weekend in the playoffs, no doubt. Playoff tournaments are different, and Pinky's is a tested tournament team. But now they have something different to think about - watch out for JFT when we awaken out of our slumber.
Everyone contributed, Chopper had the walkoff home run, and a triple and six RBIs. Only my snail-like running kept him from a perfect game. Chuck, Reg, Heffe, Haz, and Dizzy D made no outs between them. Tim and Haz had a couple of very clutch hits in our innings when we batted around, and Gene started both off with singles. Lefty and Greg had nine RBIs between them.
On defense as usual Chuck made a couple of great stops and the Knight turned an 11-3 DP. Gene made a fantastic catch in his inning in right field to cut off a rally with no runs.
What this underscored is that these guys really just want to come out and hit only. To them playing defense is a nuisance. We can beat them by making them play defense, whether it is on one of my bloopers or Derek's laser shots, if we make them stretch, they can't handle it. And if we play our strongest defense, it will take away some of their hitting prowess.
Ready? Just five days from now, more or less. As Reg said, we are due!
Milestones:
6/16
Haz 10 2b (#11)
Dizzy D 50 rbi (#13)
7/07 - None
7/14
Chopper 10 2b (#12)
7/21
Lefty 20 sf (#1)
Knight 300 ab (#5)
Tim 100 g (#7)
Joe 20 bb (#7)
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