Scumbums Stunned in Second Straight Loss

This is where we cue the training montage. Neither of these last two losses were humiliating but it helps my narrative to pretend they were, so let's do that. This is where we dramatically tie red and grey striped bandanas around our heads, cut the sleeves off our shirts, and finally "get" what the master was telling us. Now we eat baseball. Now we drink baseball. Everything you do, you do for baseball.

 The Dealers are coming.

 I want to show up tomorrow like a rabid pack of jackals out for PCHL blood and first place. Help me do it. It's not like it used to be, folks. We don't just show up and win games. We need to find a new, renewable source of real competitive fire that I think has been lacking this season. Because we've never really had to have it before, outside of playoffs and championship series.

 But it's not just about making playoffs. It's about doing something the best you can do it. Not to get too "dad" on you, but you know it feels better to do something well than not well. We're not playing our best baseball yet, guys. Which—in a way, a small, silver-lining-type way—is a good problem because we have something to strive for. I know our best isn't behind us. The league has gotten much better, which is great. But we need to remember how we play 29er baseball.

A return to crispy 29er baseball.

***

Oof, reading over the statbook from last Saturday, my God it's sort of incredible it was even close.  The really only compelling section is Drill and Andy's back-to-back RBI singles in the 4th. Large had a long RBI double in the first, too, of course, but other than that it's runs scored on fielder's choices, a dropped third strike. It's time to wake these bats up (mine included, don't worry).

The Dealers are coming.

There's no way around this. Last week when I wrote that I didn't expect our pitchers to throw perfect games every time, yes, that's still true. I didn't mean try to set the PCHL record for walks. I was going back and forth on how to be delicate about the 16 total walks we issued on Saturday, but there's no way to do that. We won't win when that happens. 

By contrast our total lineup

took three walks. (Hey only two strikeouts though!)

When that is happening, when a pitcher is out of control, the plug must be pulled. That's the way it needs to be. We're all still learning, again, myself included, and hindsight is 20/20 (yes McCauley shouldn't have pitched 12 innings), but this really shouldn't be allowed to happen again. 

And hey, that goes for position players, too. If a guy is getting eaten up out there, maybe have him take an inning or two off, reset the head, and then get him back in. Unfortunately, the rules of baseball dictate you can't do that with pitchers, mais c'est la vie. It's important to me that everyone is aware of everyone else's potential sensitivities, very important, and yet at the same time, if one player is actively making the game harder for the team to win, the kid gloves need removing. Nobody came out on their Saturday to stand around watching walk after walk. 

Nobody came out on their Saturday to make anyone feel bad about walking hell of dudes, either. It's just the game, and that's it. 

Let this not be a warning but a kind of meditation on player subs. It seems important I should remind everyone that I'm not the manager so this is just one player's, one former manager's, opinion. I just write my thoughts down. You don't have to read them, and you certainly don't have to agree with them.

Okay.

The Dealers are coming.

The ...

/checks standings

... 5-1, first-place Dealers are coming.

DRIVE OF THE GAME: Combining Will and Andy's back-to-back RBI singles. We asked them to be somebody. They became somebody.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Zack's sick (and very chill) step-and-throw 5-3 double play to end a hairy inning. It was his first of two, by the way. Always great to see a guy shine at a position we've had some trouble with this season.

*HONORABLE MENTION* to BC's insane Superman-style layout and the catch that almost-was. Brian, I guarantee you, you will never, ever, forget that play.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: It's always nice to see Kevin out there. Hell yeah, Kev.

NEXT GAME

Finally at Balboa Park! 

Noon

DEALERS

v

29ERS

Let's get us a fucking win against these chumps, right?

29ers Drop Marathon Game to Cleaners, 4-5 F/12(13?)

The denial stage, admittedly, didn't last long. It was there, oh boy, it was right there: my consciousness making me make sense out of what I'd just seen, with various Tecate- and Parliament-fried synapses firing and misfiring through the tattered wiring of what was left of my extra-inning-addled brain.

Yes, I'd say the denial lasted about five extremely acute seconds and shared a vaguely similar emotional pitch to. . .

. . . "Whaaaaaaaaaaa....???"

What? What was your reaction to that call at the plate? After the denial, yeah you're damn right I went to anger, and right soon after that into bargaining, wherein I tried to find some shred of understanding within myself that could account for such an unaccountable play. 

I think most of you saw the depression stage at Rock Bar after the game. I'm on acceptance now, though! Ayooo!

*** This intro has been brought to you by The Five Stages of PCHL Grief ***

It's hard to even begin to think about summing up this one. It was like a hallucinatory dream where time is bent and frozen and fast-forwarded and the sky never really changed color much which only further provoked that eternal, ethereal anti-awareness covering us all like a giant coastal shroud.  

What I don't want to do is point fingers. That's not helpful to anyone. And yes, that was a blown call at the plate on an extremely fine and totally unexpected relay that allowed them to tie the game (again) but . . . we can't control what the umpires call. As much as we'd like to, you know it doesn't work like that.

What we can control, is baserunning, untimely errors, and walks. As a group, we play as good if not better defense than anyone in the league, so I don't need to harp too much on the defense aspect. And errors are going to happen. They're mistakes; it happens. You cross your fingers and hope it's not at a critical moment, like when the winning run has been walked to third base by a pitcher who's thrown 500 pitches and 13 innings. 

Walks, too, are, of course, unfortunate. But I don't expect all you guys to go out there and throw perfect games. It'd be nice to limit the free bases we give out but it would also be nice if we had had a bullpen we could have put full faith in on Sunday. Sometimes them's the breaks. 

But absolutely, absolutely, what is quickly becoming our nasty little Achilles heel is our baserunning. And I have no idea how to fix it. It's like I see guys going when they shouldn't be, and holding when they should be going. On Sunday, three different guys made baserunning blunders in scoring position in a game where we eventually scored only four runs. That . . . is not a recipe for success. Most times we're gonna get away with that. On Sunday, we didn't. 

I don't want to get in your heads, because I have a feeling that's exactly what's twisting you up to begin with. I'm wondering if maybe we need a smaller group of baserunning coaches out there. But that's not it, either, is it? When you're on the bases, it's just you your instincts. 

We need to calibrate our instincts, here, guys.

(I guess at least you're getting on base.)

1-877-KRON-4-KIDZ PLAYER OF THE GAME: RMac. I wonder if he still has an arm. Dude just went full gamer out there and almost got us to squeak it out. There are complete game loses, and then there's RMac on Sunday. What a stud. We'll get you that next one, brother, I promise.

(Don't fuck up the next one)

DRIVE OF THE GAME: Uh, everything Rickey did. The book is in the equipment bag, which is in the shed, which is not at all in front of me. But Rickey killed it, going 4-6 with at least one double. Hot Flesh, y'all. Hot. Flesh. 

Ugh, I need to take a shower now.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Who cares. The relay was actually the play on which the game hinged, so, sure, PotG right there. BC lining up and positioning himself perfectly to catch and throw the ball right to his cutoff man, who then fired a ROCKET home. Right to the glove. Two full, disgusting steps in front of the runner. Safe.

Infield quietly turned two more double plays, but in the aftermath of the loss, who gives a shit amirite??

***

This has been another installment of Andy's Corner.

***

Nah, not this time. If anything, it's me for writing this garbage. I got one thing on my mind at this point and it starts with Gerle and ends with Creek, so I'm starting my vacation early. Did I phone this one in? Maybe a little bit. The kind of mental effort it would take to reconstruct properly all 13 innings is just, no. And why would I when Andy does it so well in 12 words?

Look, we're still in first place (for now ((those Dealers are lurking though, jeez))). And thanks to the guys who agreed to do your umping duty. Represent us well. You just saw a live tutorial of what NOT to do!

***

NEXT GAME

Saturday 10 June

Berkeley News

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29ERS

Big Rec

Noon