Last night Steve Kerr channeled Vitas Gerulaitis in his post game press conference after the Warriors finally took down the Spurs at home after 33 straight losses in San Antone. "With apologies to (Vitas Gerulaitis), I'll use his line," Kerr said, paraphrasing the late tennis great. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, beats the Golden State Warriors 34 straight times. Nobody, you got that?"
And he rode off into the sunset.
The actual quote from Vitas was "And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." – after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.
Well let me tell you, neither one has anything on Sunshine Saloon. We had lost 22 in a row OVERALL to Boomers in the regular season. None of this home and away stuff. And don't forget the Warriors beat San Antonio in the playoffs in Texas a couple of years ago in the last year before they became Champions.
Instead we also included 4 lost playoff games to the Blasted Boomers over the years. One year we had them 10-5 and coughed it up. Another year in the regular season we had that split game - we had them down 7-0 in the third inning of a game in April where they had everyone at Vegas or somewhere for Tournament play. The Softball Gods ripped open the sky, and since we hadn't made the fourth inning yet they suspended the game when the deluge came. When we continued the game two months later, they outscored us 9-1 for the rest of the innings to win 9-8.
I had given up on this league and was going to quit this season. There was no drama - beat the 4 Speeds a couple, lose to Bada Bing a couple, play competitive against Boomers but go home empty. Make the playoffs only to lose to Boomers again. The OAKS quit the league last year and that was our last actual rival. There was no point. Woe was me. I was feeling sorry for myself.
Then in the off season I ran into the manager of the OAKS in the Walnut Creaker MDSSL league (we were going to be on the same team until I got a job). He said their demise was premature - he had back surgery last year and no one wanted to play while he was recovering. So they are back (pun sort of intended) (by the way he was the one effusively congratulating us after the game as the OAKS took our dugout for the next game).
And we added Pauly and Greg, and Lamont and Chris were coming back (although...), and suddenly there was a glint of hope. Now am I glad I came back, even if the highlights only include this game!
Because we threw off the Monkey. Last time we beat Boomers (6/2/2010) it took an improbable eight run bottom of the sixth to tie them and then they were in such shock they went out without scoring in the seventh and we pushed across a run to win it.
This time, we did spot them a 7-0 lead after two. But we actually kind of dominated them the rest of the way, outscoring them 16-1 over the next five frames. That is no fluke - they had chance after chance to come back. Tom had them all trying to hit 15 run homers because that is what they think they do. But our outfielders tracked them all down. Really Tom had them eating out of his hand. The Hammer hammered it right into our gloves. Mark Green hit towering flies to Frank in left center. Greg ran everything down in left field, as did Gordon and Al on the right side. Everything went our way. I told Tim to play over a couple of steps on one guy and he hit it right to him.
But the story was our offense, which woke up in a big way. There were hits all up in down the lineup. Al, Tim, Steve and Don at the bottom were collectively 12-14 with six RBIs. Bottom of the order hits, we win. Not to be outdone, the top of the lineup had four of six hitters (Tom, Mark, Heff and Paul) with three hits, and Greg had a double and a triple good for three RBIs.
Boomer's Bangers changed their name to the Renegades - their tournament team name. We are undefeated against the Renegades - time to start a different sort of streak.
And he rode off into the sunset.
The actual quote from Vitas was "And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." – after beating Jimmy Connors at the January 1980 Masters. Gerulaitis had lost their previous 16 matches.
Well let me tell you, neither one has anything on Sunshine Saloon. We had lost 22 in a row OVERALL to Boomers in the regular season. None of this home and away stuff. And don't forget the Warriors beat San Antonio in the playoffs in Texas a couple of years ago in the last year before they became Champions.
Instead we also included 4 lost playoff games to the Blasted Boomers over the years. One year we had them 10-5 and coughed it up. Another year in the regular season we had that split game - we had them down 7-0 in the third inning of a game in April where they had everyone at Vegas or somewhere for Tournament play. The Softball Gods ripped open the sky, and since we hadn't made the fourth inning yet they suspended the game when the deluge came. When we continued the game two months later, they outscored us 9-1 for the rest of the innings to win 9-8.
I had given up on this league and was going to quit this season. There was no drama - beat the 4 Speeds a couple, lose to Bada Bing a couple, play competitive against Boomers but go home empty. Make the playoffs only to lose to Boomers again. The OAKS quit the league last year and that was our last actual rival. There was no point. Woe was me. I was feeling sorry for myself.
Then in the off season I ran into the manager of the OAKS in the Walnut Creaker MDSSL league (we were going to be on the same team until I got a job). He said their demise was premature - he had back surgery last year and no one wanted to play while he was recovering. So they are back (pun sort of intended) (by the way he was the one effusively congratulating us after the game as the OAKS took our dugout for the next game).
And we added Pauly and Greg, and Lamont and Chris were coming back (although...), and suddenly there was a glint of hope. Now am I glad I came back, even if the highlights only include this game!
Because we threw off the Monkey. Last time we beat Boomers (6/2/2010) it took an improbable eight run bottom of the sixth to tie them and then they were in such shock they went out without scoring in the seventh and we pushed across a run to win it.
This time, we did spot them a 7-0 lead after two. But we actually kind of dominated them the rest of the way, outscoring them 16-1 over the next five frames. That is no fluke - they had chance after chance to come back. Tom had them all trying to hit 15 run homers because that is what they think they do. But our outfielders tracked them all down. Really Tom had them eating out of his hand. The Hammer hammered it right into our gloves. Mark Green hit towering flies to Frank in left center. Greg ran everything down in left field, as did Gordon and Al on the right side. Everything went our way. I told Tim to play over a couple of steps on one guy and he hit it right to him.
But the story was our offense, which woke up in a big way. There were hits all up in down the lineup. Al, Tim, Steve and Don at the bottom were collectively 12-14 with six RBIs. Bottom of the order hits, we win. Not to be outdone, the top of the lineup had four of six hitters (Tom, Mark, Heff and Paul) with three hits, and Greg had a double and a triple good for three RBIs.
Boomer's Bangers changed their name to the Renegades - their tournament team name. We are undefeated against the Renegades - time to start a different sort of streak.
Nice! Sorry I missed it.
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