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.

Baseball Humor

18 Sept 2004

ONES :
Catch: Guppy, Pitch: Gavin, 1st: Guppy/Rickey, 2nd: Pianzhi, 3rd: Rickey/Sandman, SS: Fubar, RF: Scooterboy, CF: Gunz, LF: Cheetah, Rover: Horfun

TWOS :
Catch: other team, Pitch: Kitty/TS, 1st: TS/Rube, 2nd: Geok, 3rd: Generalissimo, SS: DT, RF: Andy, CF: Rube/Kitty, LF: Monk, Rover: Arnand

Game 1 : ONES 6, TWOS 16
Game 2 : ONES 2, TWOS 6

MBP : Monk

Strikeouts : Scooterboy

Finally, fair teams. Well, actually the ONEs looked stronger on paper, with the TWOs suffering from an outfield deficiency. TWOs only had Rube in the outfield, and Monk was promoted to LF and Andy in the RF. If anyone thought that this was a weak outfield, think again. Monk and Andy played stellar defence to withstand the big bats of the ONEs. Andy made an amazing catch of a opposite field line drive from Scooterboy. The hit itself was awesome and looked very much like a homer, but Andy came out of nowhere and plucked the ball out of the air. That was the turning point in the game, as the TWOs was leading 6-5, and the ONEs had 2 runners on base. If Scooter had got that HR, the tables would have turned on the TWOs lead. Geok had another outstanding game at 2nd, putting out rickey 4 times out of 4. She was also blasting the ball into leftfield for singles every time. Monk edged the MBP from Geok's hands due to his fine performance in LF, and his amazing at bats. He had 1 hr, and a couple of standup doubles and some nifty glovework and a strong arm to keep batters at 1st (Frankly, I've never seen Monk play that well... ever. He can retire now, and we'll speak fondly of him forever) ONEs had a much stronger outfield, with amazing range and depth, but they were victimized by the TWOs line singles and doubles.

Hall of Fame

My Hall of Fame, in no particular order of recognition.

Best (Infield)
DY
The Generalissimo
Jo

Best (Outfield)
TH
Swat
Sandman

Best (Bat)
Nigel Kennedy
Martin the Contrary
Rube

Best (Arm)
Steve
Gunz
Cool Papa

Best (Legs)
The Cheetah
Cool Papa
Swat aka Flash
Honorary Mention : Princess (Who doesn't remember when she showed up at baseball in that skirt, it certainly turned the Assassin's head. ;) )


Hardest Working
DY
Rube

Most Improved
Dom
Monk
Geok
Honorary Mention : TS (discounted from the top 3 because it's in his genes... brother vs brother)

Worst
Aaron
John team
The guy from the US who couldn't hit the ball and bought so much beer.

Highlight Reel

Rickey's amazing jump at first to catch a liner WAY over his head. He elevated so much, Jordan called and said "DAMN! that's some airtime"
A second to first to third double play, force out at first and tag out at third(runner on second).
An AMAZING right field cricket liner by the prof.
The Princess giving all out... even during a round the horn. Sandman blooped a throw to her, she caught it at full stretch, landed off-balance and tweaked her ankle.
Gunz bashing the ball so far over swat's head that he had to shoot it down with his mp5. (He hit the ball so hard, the core cracked).

11 Sept 2004

Fubar picked his team.

Nothing left to say.

04 Sept 2004

ONES :
Catch Horfun, 1st Indiana, 2nd Windmill, 3rd Generalissimo, SS DT, RF Scooter, CF TK, LF Swat, Rover Geok.

TWOs :
Catch Linyu, 1st Rube, 2rd Princess, 3rd Sandman, SS fubar, RF Monk, CF TS, LF TH, Rover Alex

Pitcher All time : Rickey

Game 1 : ONEs win 12-3

Smashing defensive performance by both sides in the first game, stunning glove-work, with many 1-2-3 outs. Except for a 9 run lapse in the bottom of the 8th for the ONEs to take a massive lead, the entire game was pure defense. Outstanding plays by both the infield and the outfield, with some amazing catches by Swat and TH in LF. And who can forget that liner plucked out of the air by windmill at second. MBP had to be Rickey who not only pitched good games, he show exceptional defense for BOTH teams, making the outs to first, and catching the bunt flies. Extreme range and footwork shown.

28 Aug 2004

An awesome turnout last saturday.
Massively stacked teams.
ONES :
P:7, C:Monk, 1:Rickey, 2:Geok, 3:Generalissimo, SS:DT, Outfield: Cheetah, TH, TK, Rube, Cool Papa, Marilyn
TWOS :
P:Kitty, C:Horfun/newguy, 1: Indiana, 2:Princess, 3:Sandman, SS:Fubar, Outfield: Swat, Grandpa, TS, Gunz, Shaun, Andy,

Excellant games all round, played a double header late into 6.30pm (which is quite late for us).
TWOS started the first game with an excellant hitting cycle, leading 9-0 by the 6th. ONES were resigned to a mercy game when at the bottom of the 6th, 2 runs were scored. Suddenly, it looked like ONES had a chance to salvage the game. By the end of the 7th, the score was tied, with Cool Papa putting himself in a rundown for DT to score from 3rd. ONES then took a lead at the bottom of the eighth, and some nifty defense at the top of the 9th secured the win for the ONES, what a great come-from-behind win. Geok had the game of her lifetime at second, showing incredible range and defense. She stopped everything that was thrown at her and made some amazing plays for outs.
The second game started with the ONES still high from their previous come back. A 1-2-3 inning pitched by Rickey, and the gauntlet was thrown down. For the first time in the day, ONES took a 2-0 lead at the bottom of the first. Little did the ONES suspect that in the next inning, the TWOS would take rickey downtown, to hit into a commanding 5-2 lead. Not being the redsox, we immediately recalled 7 out of the bullpen, instead of letting rickey suffer. With 7 on the mound, and the ONES stellar defense, they held the TWOS to naught for the 7th and 8th inning. Rallying his troops, Rickey led off the 8th with a stand up double into right field, and the clutch hitting that was to follow, once again brought the ONES from behind to take the lead. Top of the 9th, with the impending pressure of the sweep, the TWOS imploded again, sending easy ground balls to the middle infield for an easy 1-2-3 out. ONES win again.
2 classic come-from-behind wins for the ONES to sweep the series.