I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of the action going on at various games throughout the league this past Sunday. For about 30 seconds I thought about going to watch one of the 5:30 games, then I realized that air conditioning just had its 110th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, so I opted to share in the glory of cold air while sitting on my couch gazing out the window. I was brought back to reality when I left for our game. The summer heat swiftly dropkicked me in the face as I opened the door.
Speaking of dropkicks to the dome piece, that is exactly what Pita Pit did to us on Sunday. As I stated in my preview, the team with the least amount of mistakes would triumph, and that’s exactly what happened and then some.
In our sixth game out of nine as the away team, the Barracudas have grown quite accustomed to kicking first. We started out with a couple of runs and seemed to be off to a competitive, quality start. Then came the defensive side of the game, and boy was that a mess. We quickly allowed one run and had a chance to end the inning up by one, but a fly ball to left with two outs was dropped and Pita Pit took full advantage of it ending the inning with 4 runs. And that is pretty much the story of our defensive effort this past week. We failed to make plays that more often than not have been routine for us over the course of the season.
Offensively, we had a few chances, but Pita Pit squashed them with great defensive plays of their own. I can’t remember what inning it was, but at one point we had battled back to within two or three runs and had a golden opportunity. Our first kicker of the inning crushed a ball into deep left for a home run. Our next two kickers got on safely, still with zero outs, and from there we didn’t convert or even advance another base runner that inning. This happened around the late middle-third, early final-third of the game and from then on we had no offensive confidence.
I definitely compliment Pita Pit for coming out and taking care of business. I felt like we gave them a lot of runs early, but by the end they were taking full advantage of their lead by placing great kicks everywhere on the field and running the bases aggressively the way you should when you are trying to deliver the death blow. They came out with a vengeance on Sunday to pay us back for the spanking we put on them in the tournament last season. I know the revenge tasted sweet because they were fired up and took it to us. No question about it, they deserve to be the only undefeated team remaining. Hats off to you boys and girls for keeping your strangle hold on the best the KVKL has to offer.
The GOTW was a fun one this week as always. Of the two teams squaring off, Das Boot is a splintered team from the Goats of old. I believe Das Phil told me that there are actually 5 players on Das Boot from the original Goats and 4 players on the Goats now were from the original team. That’s pretty cool stuff for a rivalry game.
The Goats controlled the lead for the majority (if not all) of the game, but it was only a one run game for a few innings. Das Boot was unable to get a rhythm going offensively – something they’ve struggled with all season – and couldn’t muster up any runs to overtake the Goats.
The Goats on the other hand found the exact rhythm they need. This was accentuated during the final two inning thanks to the boost of confidence they got from the baby goat prancing around the field during the 7th inning stretch. Revitalized, they kicked it into overdrive and didn’t look back, walking away with a 16-8 victory.
There seemed to be a lot of tension at the GOTW this week. I’m not sure what that was all about. Was it a full moon or something? At one point I looked back and there was fight be broken up. It looked like a fake ass Wrestle Mania style fight scene, with every one pointing at each other and making empty threats. I have no idea what was being said, but that’s what it looked like from the field. From what I’ve gathered, it was all over jello shots. Jello shots have become a staple at nearly all of the Game’s of the Week this season, so it’s sad to see this happening.
I’m sure those of you who witnessed this debacle can tell the story better than I can, but I’d like to know exactly what happened. Good ol’ FB has been blowing up about this topic and it seems that it stemmed from the slingshot approach to delivering the shots. I didn’t get hit with one or see what happened, but I do know that the slingshot was super tiny and couldn’t shoot a jello shot further than 50-60 feet (about the distance from home to first base). I only bring that up because I’ve watched people launch the shots as hard as they can across the stands and there have been no problems before now. I was actually hit in the face with a jello shot while taking a jello shot a few weeks back. I just laughed it off as a reasonable expectation in the environment we’ve created. It doesn’t make launching them right or wrong, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen jello flying around the stadium so I’m not sure why there was a reason to actually fight on this occasion.
I’d also like to address the bottle rockets. I was the home plate umpire and I was distracted by the bottle rockets. At first I thought they were kind of fun, until I realized they were being shot right as the pitches were being delivered. I’m not real big on guns or explosives so I feel free to consider me your everyday wimp. However, when everyone on the field is focused on the ball approaching the plate I find it a bit disrespectful to blow up a nearly invisible firecracker; especially when the flight pattern is about as predictable as Rick James after 10 shots of tequila and a few rails.
I apologize for the long ranting about these matters, but at the end of the day we are all at Hobbs to have a good time. If startling players with fireworks is your idea of a good time please just don’t come to the games. Or go try it at a professional game and see how long you have your front teeth. Let’s all respect the game and the environment. We are already walking a tight rope with our ability to play in the environment we do. It looks like we need a few whistle blowers to step up and call out the people doing these things and other inappropriate things during the games. Remember, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
Cheers,
KM