The Coneheads started 0-3, as I said in my previous post, unprecedented. We had lost three in a row (once) but never at the beginning of the season in the Modern era of Conehead ball (post 1997), and never had we lost four in a row.
I was like Chicken Little running around screaming "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
Joe, who never found a hope that couldn't be dashed, was convinced that the sky was not only falling but in fact had already fallen, and crushed us.
And then a funny thing happened. I got to the field and if you looked at each team warming up, you couldn't tell which team was 3-0 (the Snorts) and which was 0-3 (Coneheads). Our guys were laughing and talking just like it was any other game.
We are either a team of dumb goofs or maybe, just maybe, this is why we are the Coneheads - we never give up.
More importantly then we went out and proved we are not an 0-3 team, coming back to win 14-11.
Oh we had our all too frequent bad inning - we gave away four unearned runs in the top of the first. We left the bases loaded in two of our five innings, hit into a bases loaded double play, failed to score on confusion with the base coach, and left at least two on in every inning.
But after falling behind 8-2 we started playing defense and got enough clutch hits to score every inning and overcome the Snorts.Patrick made the catch of the game look easy as he tracked down a deep fly Willie Mays style over his shoulder. His Dad leaped high for a liner over first base for an out. Gene made a couple of great catches, one on a knuckler toward him and one in the RC gap. Johnny threw out a runner at home. and Lefty also ranged into the RF gap to gather in a well hit ball.
It also didn't hurt that Larry got two scoreless inning in the middle of the game.
In the third, we had a mini-Conehead inning (five runs) to close the gap to 10-9. We nearly batted around and nearly everyone had a hit (including Gene who had a 'hit' but a runner got forced out from the outfield). Clutch two out RBI hits from the bottom of the order. Everyone batted except Pope, who promptly led off the next inning with a solo blast for a homer. That tied it and later in the inning Chuck put us ahead to stay with a run scoring single. The top of the order gave us a four run cushion in the fifth, and Joe came in to close the deal despite a bases loaded walk to the cleanup hitter (he wanted to get lower in the order according to him) (ahem).
Knight was 3-3 with a line drive single that nearly took the head off the third baseman, and a LC gap double. Johnny stayed hot, also 3-3 and Pope kept pace, also with three hits. Heffe broke out of his slump with a 2-2 plus a walk that ignited our last rally. Lefty had the other extra base hit, a double among his 2-3 plus a walk evening. Larry led the team with three RBIs on two hits.
It's not too late as it turns out to come back to make the playoffs this season if we play like that. Baby steps. Stay dumb and happy!
Milestones:
I was like Chicken Little running around screaming "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
Joe, who never found a hope that couldn't be dashed, was convinced that the sky was not only falling but in fact had already fallen, and crushed us.
And then a funny thing happened. I got to the field and if you looked at each team warming up, you couldn't tell which team was 3-0 (the Snorts) and which was 0-3 (Coneheads). Our guys were laughing and talking just like it was any other game.
We are either a team of dumb goofs or maybe, just maybe, this is why we are the Coneheads - we never give up.
More importantly then we went out and proved we are not an 0-3 team, coming back to win 14-11.
Oh we had our all too frequent bad inning - we gave away four unearned runs in the top of the first. We left the bases loaded in two of our five innings, hit into a bases loaded double play, failed to score on confusion with the base coach, and left at least two on in every inning.
But after falling behind 8-2 we started playing defense and got enough clutch hits to score every inning and overcome the Snorts.Patrick made the catch of the game look easy as he tracked down a deep fly Willie Mays style over his shoulder. His Dad leaped high for a liner over first base for an out. Gene made a couple of great catches, one on a knuckler toward him and one in the RC gap. Johnny threw out a runner at home. and Lefty also ranged into the RF gap to gather in a well hit ball.
It also didn't hurt that Larry got two scoreless inning in the middle of the game.
In the third, we had a mini-Conehead inning (five runs) to close the gap to 10-9. We nearly batted around and nearly everyone had a hit (including Gene who had a 'hit' but a runner got forced out from the outfield). Clutch two out RBI hits from the bottom of the order. Everyone batted except Pope, who promptly led off the next inning with a solo blast for a homer. That tied it and later in the inning Chuck put us ahead to stay with a run scoring single. The top of the order gave us a four run cushion in the fifth, and Joe came in to close the deal despite a bases loaded walk to the cleanup hitter (he wanted to get lower in the order according to him) (ahem).
Knight was 3-3 with a line drive single that nearly took the head off the third baseman, and a LC gap double. Johnny stayed hot, also 3-3 and Pope kept pace, also with three hits. Heffe broke out of his slump with a 2-2 plus a walk that ignited our last rally. Lefty had the other extra base hit, a double among his 2-3 plus a walk evening. Larry led the team with three RBIs on two hits.
It's not too late as it turns out to come back to make the playoffs this season if we play like that. Baby steps. Stay dumb and happy!
Milestones:
8/28:
Lefty 300 h (#18)
9/11:
Pope 50 3b (#2)
Lefty 450 ab (#19)
Lefty 450 ab (#19)
Knight 20 bb (#19)
9/18:
Pope 140 hr (#1)
9/25:
Pope 1100 ab (#6)
9/25:
Pope 1100 ab (#6)
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