Who's your daddy?

25 sept 2004.
What a day. What a game. A 9inning double header with a 15-3 mercy in the 6th in the second game. No, it wasn't the ONEs vs the TWOs. It was the mighty SARS vs the best of Lloyd's kids. And for the first AND second time in history, the mighty SARS suffered a loss in a friendly. Was it because we fielded a second rate team? Did Power and Experience lose out over Youth and Speed? Has SARS met it's waterloo? Have we become the Red Sox? Has our day been done? We can no longer say we are undefeated in the friendly arena. The angels have left the outfield.

Roll Call :
SARS : Horfun, HY, Geok, Rickey, Indiana, Rube, Kitty, Swat, Sandman, Cool Papa, Guppy, Scooterboy, Monk, Fubar, The Generalissimo, TS, myself.

Lloyd and his all-stars (his best kids from over the years)

Score :
Game 1 : 13 - 9
Game 2 : 15 - 3

SARS was home team for the first game. Lloyd's kids took a comfortable lead, and never looked back. SARS rallied several times to almost tie the scores, but like the Red Sox in the world series, SARS could not make the runs that mattered, and could not tie nor take the lead. The final 3 batters choking for a 1-2-3 out in the bottom of the ninth to seal the defeat. Lloyd pitched a stellar game for his kids. He was like Maddux on the mound, combining finese and placement to rob the SARS of important hits. The SARS batters could do nothing against Lloyd's pitching, hitting into simple ground-outs or short pop-ups into the infield. Lloyd's kids played textbook offence, hitting singles and advancing runners one base at a time. The SARS defence had no chance, with Lloyd's kids constantly exploiting the gap between short and 3rd for base hits.
Winning the first game put Lloyd's kids at home for the second. SARS took a 2-0 lead in the first, and the feeling among the team was that the first game was a warmup and as each player only had about 2 at bats each, the second game would be much better. SARS held the lead for about 4 innings, when Lloyd's kids clawed their way back to a 2-2 tie. SARS took the lead again in the 5th, and our own Gagne stepped up to the mound in the bottom of the 6th to fend off Lloyd's kids. Well, there is a reason why you put in the closer in the ninth and not the sixth. Lloyd's kids lit up rickey like a christmas tree. It got so bright that the CD came down to put out the fire. It got so bloody the nurses from the NUH came with sponges. It got so painful, John Bobbit came over and said "it hurts more sewing it back on". It felt like watching Dodgeball over and over and over and over again. It looked like Pedro on the mound against the Yankees in the ALCS after 100 pitches. Even Grady Little would have taken Rickey out. Lloyd's kids scored 13 runs in that one inning to take the game and the mercy.

On recap... some things SARS could have done.

1. Stop swinging for the fences. Lloyd's kids did not play deep, they actually played incredibly shallow. And because of that, SARS batters were trying to hit deep for home runs. With Lloyd pitching his junk spin balls, trying to hit long would result in short pop-ups to the infield.
2. Don't replace a specialist position player when he's having a good game, it throws off his rhythm. Especially when there aren't better players to fill that position.
3. SARS had 2 full teams, we should have counted off 1s and 2s, and alternated in the field. So that we can a balanced outfield. There were innings when our outfield was all-star, and alternatively, when the outfield were the newer players. There was even one inning when it was Scooter, Monk, TS and horfun. No disrespect to them, but when we have rube, cool papa, sandman and swat sitting out, there must be something wrong.
SARS had enough outfields to field 2 outstanding teams, should have exploited that.
4. Don't replace a specialist position player when he's having a good game. it throws off his rhythm. Especially when there aren't better players to fill that position. If said player were having a bad game, he'd take himself out, no questions asked. He knows his limitations.