Sweaty sox
Game day against the Giants was the perfect trifecta as we were rocking our black unis in the third base dugout in 30 degree heat. Former White Sox pitcher Drew Calanchie took the bump fresh off his annual trip to the DL for the Giants as we countered with Potts on one day’s rest. (Don't let Keith Law hear about that one). The pitching on our side was not good, and the pitching on theirs was. We were shut out through 5 despite twice having a runner on 3rd with less than two out. As Kenny Powers says "Fundamentals are the crutch for the talentless". We scored three in the 6th but the comeback attempt was quickly nullified in the bottom half of the inning as Spaz gave up a bases clearing triple to Wilson who had 6 rbis on the evening. Good days by Chicoine: 3/3 with an RBI and McCartney 2/3 with a pair of RBIs went to waste. Shout out to the grounds crew who have painted the tightest batter’s boxes of all time and the umpire who complained twice to Koot that his front foot was on the chalk. Quick turn around as we have 3 games this weekend to cap off 6 games in 7 days. Good thing one of our starters is on the shelf with an ACL injury. Open pitching tryouts are this Sunday against the Dbacks
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Runs runs and more runs
Our first ever weeknight battle with the Longhorns was a good one. We started the youngest looking pitcher in the FMBA Richard "little dick" Martin who was matched up against the FMBA's oldest starter in veteran Ted Eisthen.
Both pitchers decided having low scoring games are boring, and gave up their fare share of base runners, Rich via the walk and Teddy via piss-rods, as we put up 17 hits on the day.
Koot set the tone early, with a first pitch BOMB to left center.... Seriously. We followed that up by trading runs through the first few innings, until the longhorns were up 12-6. We put on a hitting clinic in the 6th and scored 7 runs to take the lead.
The game concluded with a walk off wallscraper in the bottom of the 7th, and the Longhorns taking it 16-14.
Highlights:
-Koot's bomb
-Tyler proving he's much better at grounding into double plays then turning them
-The base ump was bad
-Koot's bomb (it really did happen, I swear)
-Terrible baserunning on both ends
Next up is the Wolfpack Sunday morning in the blistering heat.
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Double dip vs. Nelly and the Cards
Our second matchup of the year was against the verteran Cardinals.
Nelly came out throwing gas in game one, which we weren't prepared for. Usually by the time we face Nelly he's thrown 120 innings on the year and has slowed down to speeds someone his age should be throwing.
We gave rookie Jeff Derks his first career start, and he looked great. Aside from the first inning in which the first 4 cardinals reached and scored, he was lights out.
We tried to chip away at Nelly, but could only put together 2 runs in the 6th when we put together 4 hits in a row. We lost 4-2.
Highlights of game 1:
-Chappy and Cory both with 2 hit games again, even though one of Cory's hits literally went 4 feet
-Biever earning the year's first sombrero, but earning back our respect by getting absolutely fucked at the rookie party
Game two featured Dave Kelly of the cardinals facing off against rubber arm Potts.
This game wasn't nearly the beauty that game 1 was. The base ump decided any Cardinals grounding out would instead be safe at first. This, on top of our complete lack of ability to catch popups lead to a 10-4 loss.
We also realized that someone throwing absolute puss could still give us trouble. We did put together 9 hits, but very few when we had RISP.
Highlights from game 2:
-Tyler McCartney working on his communication skills at third, telling the shortstop "you got it?"
-Mitch starting at 1st base, and searching desperately for the bag on multiple ground outs
-Vince trying to call time to deliver a ball from the left field foul line to the pitcher who was already set
Rookie party highlights:
-Jeff Derks got shitfaced on black ice, and believe it or not got even quieter
-Brent Biever hammering back more beer than the vets, and locking up rookie of the year early
-Most of the rookies not showing up
-Most of the vets (Potts) making up excuses not to come
Next up we face abandoner Drew Calanchie and the (shit) Giants on Tuesday.
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Opening day vs. the Habs
First off, big thanks to the FMBA scheduler for scheduling us for the ONLY slot opening weekend that wasn't a perfect 28 degrees.
A good way to start off the year is to play against the only team who finished below us last year... Make sure the rookies get a false sense of the talent levels in the FMBA.
The Canadians started their only starter in game 1, the guy who pitched all 21 innings against us last year. He gave up his usual 10+ runs and 10+ hits but thankfully this time Potts out dueled him allowing only 6 through his three innings of work. We could tell there were lots of opening day jitters on the defensive side as we threw the ball around a little bit in this game. Our bats on the other hand came out hot right away.
Highlights of this game included:
-Rich getting hit 3 times, and taking it like a champ
-Biever getting hit in the head, and taking it like a bitch
-The Gunz' E6 chirping the Canadians' starter and catcher enough to make them chirp back mid at-bat
-Dan Chappel actually contributing for once
-2 line drives bouncing OVER their left fielder's head due to the outfield being as treacherous as ever
-Rookie Jeff Derks putting on an RBI clinic
-Spaz pitching 3 innings of 1 run ball
-Rich registering a very clean inning to close things down
-Vince showing up late, then leaving between games because he parked in the wrong spot and got hit and run
-7 HBP in total on our end
Game two ended early because Pierre decided he couldn't see the ball anymore... Not sure he ever could, but nonetheless we lost 12-6 or something. Nothing special happened here, except Biever showing us how not to slide for a line drive and Jake snapping on "former pro" Jay Johnson for not framing his pitches properly.
NEXT UP: Double dip vs. Cardinals on Saturday morning.
