Playoffs vs Angels

Steve and I are at his house doing the lineups, and nearly done with them at that, when we get a phone call letting us know that Cameron will be at the game. We’re very excited by this. It does mean that we have to redo our batting order and lineup, but we make it work. We decide to go with the following batting order:
Jeremy Ma, Nick, Cameron, Jeremy Me, Jared, Jeremy F, Austin, Alec, Justin, Matt S, Sean, and Noff.

Having to play the two games, hopefully back to back, means we have to use our pitchers wisely, and also balance out kids catching with their pitching. Steve and I both feel real good heading into the day. Hopefully our optimism will be justified.

Angels vs. Red Sox

We lose the coinflip and so we’re the away team. Their pitcher goes out there and retires us in order, including two strike outs. Jeremy Ma frustrates me by once again swinging at the first pitch. The kid does very well when he waits until later in the count, but he seems to swing all too often at that first pitch. It looks like we’ll have our own 1-2-3 inning, until their third batter doubles. Jeremy Ma walks the next guy, but we get the next batter to dribble out to first base to end the first inning 0-0.

We get going though in the second. Jeremy Me walks. Jared then singles. Frist strikes out, but it doesn’t matter when Austin doubles home Jeremy Ma. Alec then singles home Austin. Justin and Sherman keep our rally going by each singling, which drives home Alec. Unfortunately Sean and Noff each strike out to end the inning. Still four big runs is good news for us.

Jeremy Ma comes back out and facing the middle and bottom of their lineup makes things interesting after he walks a couple of guys but we get out of the inning without any damage thanks to a couple of timely strikeouts.

With us at the top of our order I hope we’ll get some runs going. Jeremy Ma does his part by singling. Unfortunately, Nick grounds into a fielders choice. Things don’t look good when Cameron strikes out for out number two. Jeremy and Jared walk, with Jared’s at bat proving to be especially crucial as Nick finds an opportunity to steal home on a passed ball. We get a run.

Jared is our next pitcher, and he just doesn’t have his normal stuff. After getting the last player in their lineup to ground out, we’re back at the top of their order. And their leadoff player doubles. Jared then walks the next three. Things look like they might be OK when we get the force out at home thanks to a nice throw by Justin at short. Unfortunately Jared walks another player, which is the second run he’s walked in. It also means we have to pull him. When I went out to the mound after his third walk he offered me the ball. I didn’t take it, but it shows that he was clearly rattled and perhaps I should have. Justin comes into pitch in relief. And unfortunately their batter rockets a 2 run double into left center. Fortunately Alec pulls down the next ball in right to end the inning, which could have been another run or two if he dropped it. Game is now tied at 4 going into the 4th.

Austin lines out to second base, on a nice play by the second baseman, AK from last year, to start the 4th. We then draw a couple of walks. Sherman is hit by the pitch, and it should be clear that this pitcher just doesn’t have it. Sean continues the walk parade, though Alec has already stolen home. Jsustin then steals home. Noff grounds into a fielders choice, but Jeremy Ma comes through with a single to drive home Sean, but Nick ends our rally with a strikeout. We get three big runs with another nice rally. 7-4 BoSox.

I tell Justin before he goes out there that he is going to be facing the bottom three batters in the order and it would be nice if we could get two outs out of that part of the lineup. We only get one out after a strikeout, followed by an at bat where their player fouls off no fewer than 6, and possibly more, 3-2 pitches. Justin finally walks the guy. Their next batter reaches on an error. When their leadoff player doubles, we let up the run. Happily we get the next two batters and no further damage is done. 7-5 BoSox.

We go down in order, including Cameron racking up a “hat trick” with his third strikeout of the day. He basically was up there looking at pitches which you simply can’t do with two strikes. I’m a little worried at this point, since Nick has not looked good lately for us and he’s our next pitcher. And indeed my worries seem justified when he walks the first two batters. However, he then settles down and strikes out the side. PHEW.

Jeremy F doubles to start of the inning, however, we can’t get him home and so we maintain a two run lead going into the bottom of the sixth. And Jeremy Me comes in and walks the first batter. I’m still feeling good about our chances though, as we’re once again at the bottom of their lineup. The next at bat is beautiful. We get a three pitch strike out and on the third strike the runner attempts to steal second. Jared throws him out for a crucial double play. Their last player strikes out and the Red Sox win the game.

This was a crucial game because it means we get to play two more and will either reach the championship or the 3rd/4th place game. We’re all very excited and upbeat after this first crucial victory. Our next opponent will be the A’s, who we’re 1-1 against, and so we know we should have a good game on our hands.

Playoff Preview

Saturday begins our playoffs. We were fortunate to receive a bye, as the brackets are done randomly. There is a good news bad news aspect to that, however. If we lose our first game we’re out of the playoffs. Teams that had a first round game get a consolation game. The good news, of course, is that if we win the first game we either get to play in the championship game or in a 3rd/4th place game.

We will be playing either the Marlins or the Angels for our first game. These would not be the teams I’d pick. We beat the Marlins rather decisively in one game and they beat us even more decisively in the second game we played. The Angels, on the other hand, are the only team we haven’t played, so we have no idea what to expect against them. Our second round game will be against either the A’s or the Orioles, both teams I’m pretty confident we could beat. But even if we don’t we’ll get another game. I just feel like we have such a good team this year, especially after the disaster that was last year, and will admit that I’ll be disappointed if we flame out n the first round.

The rules do change during the playoffs. Where as normally we play either 6 innings, starting no inning after an hour and a half, for the playoffs we play 6 innings. The big “controversy” this year is over a change of the 2-2-1-1 rule. In the regular season a team has to use at least 4 pitchers. However, for the playoffs Kevin decided to change things to a 2-2-2, cutting a pitcher out of the equation. This means teams that have three dominating pitchers have a big advantage over a team like ours where we rely on a bunch of different kids a little.

In order to avoid flaming out in the first round we not going to repeat last year’s mistake of saving our best pitcher for the last two innings. So Jeremy Ma is going to get the start. For the play-offs, as I’ll discuss shortly, you’re allowed to change your lineup for each game. This means that Jeremy should be facing the best players on their team, but hopefully he’ll bring his best stuff.

After two innings of Jeremy our plan is a little more flexible. I think our current plan is to do Jared for an inning or two followed by Justin, who might finish out the start of Jared’s inning and then pitch one of his own or just pitch one of his own, and then to have Jeremy Me ready for the 6th inning save. This leaves Nick out of the equation which might not make sense, because if he can find the strike zone he’s, hands down, our second best pitcher in terms of “stuff”. At the same time having a pitcher in reserve seems like a good thing, as we saw with Nick’s last performance.

Pitching Jared second is important because it will allow him to catch AFTER he’s pitched. Steve and I have agreed that until the last game on Sunday, if we get there, we want to limit our pitchers and catchers to no more than 3 innings combined between the two. That means if we’ll want to use Jared for two innings behind the plate, which I think we will, he’ll pitch just one. We can get an inning from Jeremy Ma, an inning or two from Jeremy Me, which means we’ll be relying on Alec for an inning behind the plate, which is hardly my favorite solution. All things being equal he’ll likely catch the first inning of Jeremy Ma, and I don’t know what after that. Having a catcher who catches the balls means more strikes. It’s not that Alec doesn’t catch the ball, but then again it’s not like he really does either.

In the field certain kids will be slotted into certain spots as well. Noff, for instance, has proven to be incredibly heads up at second base and we’re excited to put him there. Other kids will be more of a mystery. First base itself is a bit of a mystery. Jeremy F and Matt S both like playing there. Are they considerable downgrades from other options? I’m not sure. At the same time I don’t really feel good about them there. It’s likely Jeremy F will see some time there cause I feel considerably worse about putting him elsewhere. Matt S remains a bit of an enigma.

The nice thing is that we will only have to sit two an inning on Saturday, which makes scheduling SO much easier. The bad news is that we are sitting two an inning because Cameron will not be there. This is a major minus when it comes to our hitting. He is arguably the best hitter on the team and it’s not easy to just replace that. Though Cameron has been in a bit of a slump lately. I think the leadoff position is just not the right spot for him. However, it is perfect for Jeremy Ma who draws a lot of walks. After that I think we’re looking at something along the lines of Nick, Jared, Jeremy Me, Jeremy F. At the bottom of the lineup we’ve got (going up) Noff, Sean, and Matt S. That leaves Austin, Alec, and Justin somewhere in the middle. The nice thing is that unlike last year we don’t really have a part where we can’t count on ANY hits. If we can make their pitcher throw a lot of pitches in the first inning I really feel like we could do some damage in the second.

So I enter this weekend upbeat and hopeful, though quite nervous. I had some unease when we were entering the basketball tourney, but I knew we were still a favorite to get to the championship game. Here, I feel like we have the talent, but we’re not SO much better than the field that we’ll need some luck, or to at least avoid bad luck, to go forward.

I’m not sure if I’ll update Saturday or after the weekend on how we do, but you can count on a full report.

Game vs. Yankees

Another day another victory. The most remarkable thing about today’s game was the fact that it was a shut-out. A shut-out in little league around here is truly a rarity. Now really a lot of that was luck. In the second inning Alec could not get the ball across the plate to save his life. However, the other team ran on passed balls and we got two outs at the plate that way. Alec didn’t really deserve any outs based on his pitching. He threw 17 pitches with not one recorded strike, though two balls were hit into play. The inning could have been disastrous. After he walked to load the bases, for the third time in the inning, I pulled him. Jeremy Ma came in and struck out the worst player on their team to end the inning and preserve our shutout.

But then again to record a shutout you’ll need some luck. So besides the two plays at the plate to limit runs, we also had other good fortune. For instance, with Jared on the mound the first batter of the 4th inning, their cleanup hitter hits a hard hit ball to between second and first. Nick ranges far off the bag to get it, however Jared never made any effort to go to first. Nick won’t win a footrace to the bag, however he won’t have to as Matt S makes the play with ease. Sometimes, as Napoleon was rumored to have said, it’s better to be lucky than good.

Not that it was all luck. No pitcher, including Jeremy Ma who threw 1 1/3 threw more than 21 pitches. They only had 9 base runners, which includes 5 from Alec. In other words Jeremy Me, in his second consecutive start, Jeremy Ma and Jared all threw incredibly well. This sort of lights out pitching bodes very well for our play-off chances, especially if we can find a 6th friggin pitcher.

In reality they could have easily broken through the shut-out. They were the home team and when we went up by 9 in the top half of the 5th, pressing up against the time limit, I figured they’d still want to bat. However, their coach called it quits. Which is too bad as I was going to throw Noff, considering that we need another pitcher for the play-offs and Alec blew his audition tonight. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to give their team one last at bat, but I guess they felt truly down after a drubbing.

The real problem for them was that their pitchers couldn’t find the strike zone with a laser guided missile. We had 12 walks tonight. Combined with some aggressive base running, a couple of key hits, and we get to 9 runs. It was truly a team effort as 8 of our 12 players scored a run and everyone, except our team leading hitter Cameron, reached base safely (and on their own merits).

There are of course other positives to mention but I won’t go on.

However, tonight didn’t really get us any closer to figuring out the playoff puzzle. Alec might get a chance on Saturday to redeem himself, but I don’t know. Jared shows signs that he could pitch two innings. However, if we’re pitching him two we can’t really catch him three, more like one. That MIGHT be doable if Sean can catch for us. We laid it on the line with him tonight and explained that there is the focused and unfocused Sean. Yesterday we got the focused Sean. We got that again tonight.

The thing is we’re blessed with a surplus of talent. We have no less than three kids, Jeremy Me, Jeremy Ma, and Jared we can comfortably throw behind the plate. Of course the problem is that those are three of our best pitchers right there, which adds to their wear and tear. There has to be a solution to our jigsaw problem, I just haven’t discovered it yet. There’s still time, and if Sean can keep being focused that would certainly help somewhat, but really the issue is we need just one more pitcher. So who’s it going to be?

Championship game vs MP

Most of the team had gone out to lunch together, but I stuck around at the gym. Let me just say now that the gym was just beautiful. It had wonderful hardwood floors and the officiating was top notch.

Our game was supposed to start at 12:15 and I foolishly told my team to back at the gym by 11:45. That was WAY too early and since the game on the championship court (which even had an announcer) ended up running late the kids were sitting around forever. During this time the coach of the 5th & 6th grade teams and I talked. He had observed our earlier game against MP2 and remarked how well our team passes and is patient. It was great hearing this validation from another coach. During this discussion we also talked about the idea of being each other’s assistant coaches one day a week next year. I am thrilled with this idea as I really got frustrated with my inability to work in small groups while still providing something valuable for the rest of the team. And having a second pair of eyes will just be great.

The MP team’s coach had told me that his star player was out with bronchitis, which was good news for us. It meant that both teams were playing without their stars (he knew my team’s star had left our team). This was certainly good news for us. He talked to his team for 15 minutes or so. I did gather my team and we talked, but for no nearly as long. My speech was pretty close to this: “I was just talking with another coach and we agreed that the semi-final games are almost always harder than championship games. And really we’ve already won. We get to play on the championship court, with three referees, an announcer, and we win t-shirts and a trophy. And remember, win or lose, we walk away with our heads held high because we’ll have given our best. And if we play our best, we can beat this team.”

Not win one for the Gipper, but I think it served its purpose.

The game begins and we quickly get out to a 6-0 deficit. I call a time-out and try to calm down the team. It basically works. By half the score is 15-11. At the end of the first quarter when it was 10-9, I pointed out that we’d just gone on a 10-3 run. At half Jack M points out that we basically went on a 15-5 run. This was particularly good coming from Jack as he tends to be among the most negative our players.

We hold on to the narrowest of leads through the 3rd quarter. I do get myself in a bit of trouble. I had been rotating Tom, Noah, and Gordie ever half a quarter to make sure they got a full quarters worth of play but also didn’t play in the 4th. However, I accidentally subbed in Noah during the last half of the 3rd when I should have subbed in Gordie. I realized my mistake pretty quickly, however this meant I felt I should give Gordie some playing time in the 4th. And Tom had played pretty well so I wanted to give him a couple of 4th quarter minutes anyway. Jack P needed a rest and having Jack M out there wasn’t going to work, as Brian deserved the playing time and having Jack M, Brian, Tom, and Gordie is not a good combo. This is where having Scott play point would have been so useful. I came up with another solution instead: play Lucas at point. The thing is that Lucas really is a natural guard and my playing him inside did not come easily for him, but he always did it without complaint.
Lucas went out at guard and performed very well. It was good. Eventually I got my crunch time lineup in of Jack M, Jack P, Lucas, Scott and either Dante or Brian (I believe it was Brian). And they came through. MP put on their press which just wrecked us last time we played. This time it wasn’t effective at all. They called several time outs to try and do something, but the something didn’t matter. At the start of the 4th I stated that “We are six minutes away from winning the championship. As long as we play our game we will win this.” Each timeout I said something like “We are now X minutes closer” before stating anything else that needed to be said. With about 55 seconds left and up by 3, I put us in a stall defense. Eventually they got their coaches message to foul us. The rest of the game was boring really as they weren’t close to bonus and so several fouls later Jack M ended up on the line. He sunk the first shot, icing the game and made the second shot just for good measure. We had won!

So that they could play the next game they do the trophy presentation in a separate room after we have done the team’s talk. I gather our team and talk about how we can walk away with our heads held high because we played great basketball (I am glad I remembered to return to this theme after we had won). I talked about how proud of the team I was. And I said I’d save the rest of what I had to say for the team dinner that night. We went into the awards room. When MP came in we did a really lame cheer for them, at my suggestion, which I thought was a bit of nice sportsmanship for a hard fought championship game.

They had the coaches come up and receive the trophies and then give the t-shirts to each member of the team individually. It was real nice.

One final post will be forthcoming giving a wrap-up of the season.

MP2 Playoff Game

We were feeling good. The team was supremely confident, already asking about the championship. I reminded them we had a very tough, but winnable, game in front of us. I had a brainstorm driving home the day before. We needed more action at point guard when Jack M wasn’t going to be in. I had decided not to start Jack because he had missed the day before (for understandable reasons but still felt I should give the nod to a kid who’d been there). This meant I needed a starting point guard. My brainstorm was simple: I would start Scott at point. There was no reason to believe that he couldn’t do an excellent job.

So when Scott gets there I pull him aside and tell him that I need him to take one for the team and for him to play point. He tells me that he can’t do it. I tell him I’m not going to force him to do it and explain why I think he would be good. He still thinks he can’t. I apply a little more pressure but he stands firm that he can’t do it.

A big plus to this plan is that I wanted to have Dante, Lucas, and Scott all on the floor at the same time. I decide that I still want this threesome on the floor and so I put in Jack P as point, Noah or Gordie (can’t remember) in at the other guard, Lucas at wing, Dante at center and Scott at power forward.

Defensively, I tell Jack that he is to guard the kid the team has nicknamed “temper”. That he is not to worry about playing help defense but is instead not to leave his man. I am pretty confident if we take away him out of the game we’ll be in a far stronger position.

The early part of the game goes well for us. They come out in a zone clearly designed to take away inside shots. But that turns out not to be a problem as we are hot from the outside. Dante gets several open shots and he makes them scoring 6 points quickly for us. We have less luck as we try to force it into Scott inside.

While this cools down it does force them to guard us outside. We continue our patient ways. We are doing a nice half court offense, but I would prefer to be running more.

Overall the game goes well for us until the end of the third quarter. We had been up by 4 when they go on a run even taking a brief lead before we tie it back up to end the quarter. My speech at the end of the quarter is that we just saw the best that they had to offer. This turns out not to be entirely true. I have a good group of five out there, having made sure Tom, Gordie, and Noah all had played at least a quarter, but they still extend their lead. We have, however, taken their best guard out of the game as he just can’t stop crying so that’s something in our favor. The kid really hadn’t done anything wrong, but instead just seems to have cracked under the pressure. It was a shame to see.

Anyhow MP2 does manage to come out and take a lead of four. I call a time out with about 2 minutes to go. I explain we simply need two good possessions to tie the game. And bam we come out of the time out, score quickly, get the ball back after some good defense, and score again. Game is tied. A little seesawing and we then take the lead. We basically trade baskets for the rest of the game and we come out with a win.

These poor kids were crying. It was kind of sad really. They had played a great game, but we managed to squeak out the win. And we deserved it. While the game was close, I felt like we were not only the better team in general but had played better that day. We shook hands and were now on our way to the championship.

Playoffs: NF1

We have our first playoff game against NF1. This team finished in 7th place, despite, I learn, being made up of 3rd graders. I had told the team at our last practice that we would be doing hockey subs for the last time. After that game I told them that I would be making no promises about playing time. We would be having 8 players for the game as Jack M had to play for his AAU team. Brian, who I was convinced was out for the rest of the season? He had been at practice the night before and I could observe no ill effects. His did had told me he would be able to play but I’d been skeptical. Turns out that his dad was very much correct.

The other team got into early foul trouble, but we couldn’t hit any of our shots either at the free throw line or in the field and so the game was pretty close in the first quarter. A great example of this was on our very first possession we took off a minute fifteen from the clock, with multiple shots, passes, rebounds, but not a basket to be found. It was a great offensive possession, with good defense, but shots just weren’t falling.

Going into the second quarter, up by just 1, I hoped we could open up the game some. We do extend our lead to 5 or 6 points, but despite even throwing some presses at them we just can’t seem to get anything going. They’re playing very well.

The third quarter is more of the same. They’re throwing a pretty good trapping 2-1-2 against us that does produce some turnovers. Our biggest problem is at point guard. We simply don’t have anyone who can really make things happen. Brian and Jack P are the ones playing point and both have their pluses and minuses. Brian is simply not as explosive and fast as we’re used to at point and so he can often get snared by their trap. Jack, on the other hand, is certainly fast enough, but his court vision isn’t so great and so he’ll often miss open passes or become too determined to shoot. Having neither David or Jack M, our two main point guards, was quite detrimental to our efforts and prevented us from ever gaining control of the game.

In the fourth quarter we blow the game open. Their best player fouls out about half way into the quarter and we finally hunker down and our shots start to fall. Scott also basically took control of the game, getting the rebound and dribbling down the court, beating everyone, for a lay-up a couple of times. It was just as David used to do. We end up winning by 15. However, despite the fact that we were basically in the lead the whole game, it was quite nerve racking for me as a coach. The kids on the other hand were never too concerned which might explain why it was so close for so long. I can’t really be upset with them for not being too concerned since:
1. I had stressed so much that we were a much better team than they were
2. Their unflappable nature is why we are so good in close games.

The other reason why it was so close was of course the fact that they were playing their best players as much as possible, where as I was playing all of my kids equally. After the game one of their parents commented to me, “You guys really miss [David]” as I’d told them before the game how he’d quit the team. It was quite clear from his tone that he felt like we wouldn’t be able to win it with-out David. While based on what he saw I couldn’t blame him for his assessment, I knew we were a better team than what we’d shown that day.

I also felt much better when I went home and did the numbers. I found out that we shot nearly a season low from the field. This meant that if our shots had dropped at a more typical rate we’d have won this game far before the fourth quarter.

Going into Sunday we were going to play MP2 and then (hopefully) the winner of the MP1-LS game. I felt very good about our chances and knew that it would be two tough games, but felt that the championship was in reach.

My day was not done, however. The coach of the 5th and 6th grade teams had games which conflicted and so I had been drafted to coach the 6th grade team until he could get to the game. I was actually more nervous about this game than my own as I’d only known this team from one practice of an hour and a half. I’m proud to report that when I turned over the game in the 3rd quarter the team was up by 5 to a team that previously defeated them by 30. They would later go on to lose by 4, and while it’d have happened no matter who was coaching it sure did make me look good :).

Playoffs vs Braves

Unlike the last update I am writing this with the benefit of the scorebook in front of me, so I have more firm and detailed information, besides my own memory.

Steve and I arrived to the field early. We thought the coaches of the Braves were good guys and so we were happy to be playing them. Our team was all reasonably prompt in arriving, except for Brendan. With the rescheduling, we had received confirmation that everyone was going to be there except for Kelvin, so Steve and I made a lineup that had no Kelvin. With Brendan not arriving, it meant some changes, as Brendan could play Centerfield, something Kelvin isn’t as well suited for considering his lack of throwing power. So that is my curveball. Overall, the team is relaxed, which is good.

We win the coin toss and get ready to go out in the field. We send Trey to the mound first, deciding that we don’t want to mess around. The pitching lineup caused a lot of consternation for Steve and I. This was furthered by the fact that Percy has truly come into his own as a catcher. However, we’ve learned that most fifth graders have problems pitching after they’ve caught so we want to avoid that situation. This sort of means that we want Percy to pitch the third. Then the last choice becomes about how to use Everett and Avi. In the end, we decide to use Avi in the sixth, despite his being a complete nutcase, and Everett in the 4th and 5th.

Trey, after throwing a couple of pitches, reports a problem: he’s throwing uphill. With all of the rain from the previous day and a little overnight, the pitching rubber is so far back that it is a problem. The coaches from the other team, who again are very friendly, the ump, and Steve and I, have a discussion about whether to leave it, as it penalizes both teams equally, or move it forward. Steve and I advocate moving it forward so we decide to dig out the rubber and move it forward two feet, as there is no park district employee anywhere in sight to help us. Trey reports this is a lot better.

Things don’t get off to a good start though, when there is an error on the first play by whoever is playing short (I don’t have the fielding chart due to the Brendan situation) leading to a runner on second. Trey is not overpowering this inning. The next batter goes deep in the count before he hits one pack to Trey who, in a move that made me laugh, looks at the runner at second, who has started running immediately, and then throws it to first anyway. It’s good to see that he’s learned the mechanic of looking at the runner, even if he doesn’t then follow through on it. On the next play it is a legitimate sacrifice fly to someone in right, scoring the first run. The next batter walks, a rarity for Trey and showing how off he is, before the next batter strikes out to end the inning.

We have Jim bunt and while he lays down a fairly good bunt, it’s not good enough and he gets thrown out. Bobby walks to give us a base runner. Jesse continues his recent difficulties as he strikes out. These difficulties have coincided with his having private batting instruction. Everett then singles Bobby over to third, but Trey grounds back to the pitcher to end the inning. 1-0 Braves. And right as the first inning is about to end who shows up but Brendan? This completely throws off my whole chart and it takes nearly 2 full innings for me to replan things. How aggravating.

Trey comes out looking a little better, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s facing the bottom of the lineup, and gets the first guy to ground out to him, followed by a strike out. TG allows yet another walk, truly remarkable considering that including the two in this game he only allowed 7 all season. He does strike out their last batter to retire the side allowing only 1 run on a day where he doesn’t have his best stuff.

Their ace, back for another inning, strikes out the first two batters, Percy and Ethan. Fuller then gets hit by a pitch and steals second during Kelvin’s at bat. Kelvin does one of his weakly hit balls for a hit, advancing Fuller to third. Alas, Avi hits one back to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 1-0 Braves

Up comes Percy to face the top of the lineup. And it looks like things might be rough again when after 8 pitches and a full count the first batter gets a single. The next batter gets out, which is good. However, it’s then walk, walk, to load the bases. However, our newly found outfield ace, Ethan, make the catch on a well hit ball to the outfield. With two outs, perhaps things won’t be so bad after all, I allowed myself to think. But no. Next batter doubles, driving in 2. Percy hunkers down, however, and looks good striking out the next batter.

I don’t have much hope, despite the new pitcher, when Brendan comes up. But he hits a single. Jodi then gets hit by a pitch (atta girl!) and things are looking good. Jim hits a ground ball to the first basemen, which advances the runners. Bobby then walks to load the bases. Perfect! With the heart of the order up, Jesse hits a single and drives in one run. Everett then hits a grounder to first, driving in another, and Trey continues his slump grounding out to the pitcher, yet again. However, we score two making it a 3-2 game.

Everett comes to the mound and first pitch allows a single. The next two batters fly out, however, the runner has stolen third. The second fly out presented some consternation as Ethan was in center and Avi in right. It’s hit to right-center and is clearly Avi’s ball, but Ethan is on the ground “backing him up” but nearly causing a collision. Fortunately, Avi comes up with it and collision is averted. The run does score, however. On the next play it is again hit to Avi, but he can’t come up with it this time and the runner gets to second. Everett manages to strike out the next batter, however, before any more damage is done. Once again our hitting can’t get anything going as Ethan represents our only base runner, with yet another hit by pitch. 4-2 Braves

Things don’t start well in the top of the inning when Everett allows a leadoff double to their #3 hitter. On a 1-2 count, just like the rest of the season, the next batter bloops a ball into short left center. The centerfielder makes a great throw into the plate to get the runner from second for the out. Steve and I both didn’t see who made the play and thought that it was Bobby, playing SS, but no it turned out to actually be Jodi, coming through with a good fielding play just like I knew she could. Everett strikes out the next batter for the second out. The inning ends when Ethan makes yet ANOTHER good catch in the outfield for out number 3.

The next inning features the team’s second best pitcher, who pitched the last inning as well, and he shows why he’s good (even though it was Avi, Brendan, and Jodi) when he strikes out the side.

So we’re heading into the sixth down by two with our mental case coming to the mound. Fortunately, it’s towards the bottom of the order. And he pitches what is by far his best inning of the year, allowing just one hit, but having seemingly ever ball be in the strike zone, with pretty good velocity for him. After the game, he was truly proud of how he pitched, and he should be. So, in the clutch, Avi came through for us.

And now we are down by 2. The favor that their pitcher did by striking out the side, means we have the top of our order up. And there is excitement in the air when Jim hits a well hit ball into right for a single. He then steals second. This is followed by Bobby laying down a great bunt down the first base line. It caught everyone by surprise and ended up being a single. I truly hope he was bunting for a single there, as I was coaching third and had most definitely NOT given him the bunt sign of any sort, as we needed two runs. Anyhow, he easily takes second when they do not contest the base, with Jim at third. This brings Jesse up to the plate. And Jesse strikes out, again. But that’s ok. Everett is up. He hits a routine ball to second base, which scores Jim and advances Bobby, but now means there are two outs with Trey up at bat.

With our season on the line, we have our best batter (theoretically) at the plate. In fact things have been like a movie all game: the kid making some incredible plays in the outfield, the kid having his best pitching performance of the season, and now this. As Trey comes out to the plate, knowing the situation, I call him over. I tell him the following: “No matter what happens now, I am so glad that you were on our team and will be proud of you. So go up there and smile.” He gave a simple nod and steps into the batters box. On the second pitch, he connects with a weakly hit ball towards the first base side, Bobby is running for all his worth, and I watch as he slides into home. I then shift my focus over to the play at first. It’s going to be close as the first basemen has mishandled the ball. He finally gains control of it and runs towards first. The play is very close, but Trey clearly beats the first basement to the bag, but did the first basemen tag him? And the ump makes the call “OUT” and just like that the game is over. Several on our side thought that the game is over because we had won, but I know the truth. The other team celebrates for a moment and then we shake hands. I am near tears at this point myself, considering how much I wanted it for the team, and how well they played. Seeing Trey bawling, actually helps me keep it together, and I put my arm around his shoulder and try and comfort him. And like that, our season is over.

Coming tomorrow: team awards, end of year reflection, and the post season drama.

Playoffs vs Red Sox

Again sorry for the delay. This is the first of several end of season/after season posts. I hope to do the rest tomorrow, though it might not formally conclude until Monday. I am doing this all from memory, so I don’t have tons of specifics, but you should get a pretty good feel for what happened.

Steve and I had announced the day before that Percy would be our pitcher. This was after he had a terrible showing, as we wanted to express our support for him. After thinking it over, we decided that since games go 6 innings in the playoffs that we would go Percy, Avi, Everett, Everett, Trey Trey. The idea being get our weaker pitchers out of the way early and close out strong. When we played the BoSox the previous week, having Trey available at the end of the game was crucial towards producing our tie (and moral victory).

So it’s a Wednesday night and we are expecting the full team. Steve and I arrive to the field early, though not excruciatingly early. The team starts to arrive, but very very slowly. Enough that I start to get worried. I get more worried when somebody tells me Percy had injured his foot at school. However, I know they’re super responsible about calling so they would call.

Fortunately, the game before us runs late as we only have 9 players show up right at game time. Kelvin, after being bitched out a couple of times about not calling us if he was going to be late, does call and say he’s going to be late. Percy shows up and we are told he was doing dry heaves in the car on the way over. So injured and sick. What a combo. I believe, but am not sure, that all our players do end up showing up. Ethan might not have.

Anyway, we give an extended pregame speech. About playing hard. Doing the little things. Relaxing out there and playing as well as we know that they can. I feel good as we go out there. We lose the flip so we’re up to bat first. And their pitcher, the kid who we had coached last year , basically blows right by us. We might have had a hit, but we get nothing going.

So Percy is sent up to the mound. And, well, it’s painful. He has no control just like he hadn’t the night before. He throws walks. He gets hit. He gets hit some more. And he throws some more pitches which are balls. After his third walk I go up there and basically say “I don’t care how you throw it, just throw it over the plate.” No dice. He walks the next batter and we’re forced to auto yank him. In comes Bobby. He starts off poorly, but in the end gets us out of the inning, though after allowing three walks himself. After the third walk I went back to the mound and gave him a similar speech to Percy, and said that I know if he takes something off of it he can get the ball over. So he did, and got us out of the inning. It was bad, because as I was walking away the other coach thought that was 4 walks and we had to switch again. But fortunately that was not the case and so the inning ends and we’re down 5 or 6 to nothing.

Next inning we once again fail to get any offense going. Up comes Avi, and they just rock him. We let up 7 runs and only get out of the inning because of the cap on how many runs a team can score in an inning.

Through-out the game, it should be noted, our defense didn’t help things out. It wasn’t exactly that they were playing poorly, it’s just that that they weren’t playing well. So with the pitchers pitching so poorly, having a mediocre didn’t really help.

Third inning new pitcher, new hope. Except that this guy is clearly their ace. Completely overpowering. In his two innings of pitching we had exactly two players make contact with the ball. Like even for foul balls. It was not good. So we don’t score in either of this innings.

But at least we have some hope when Everett comes in to pitch. At least our bad pitchers are over with. Except that Everett isn’t throwing well. Fortunately they only manage a couple of runs before Everett pulls it together and gets us out of the inning. As mentioned earlier, our second inning against their ace isn’t better then the first. The good thing is that we get to the top of the order for the new pitcher in the 5th. Everett pitches very well in the bottom of the 4th and doesn’t let up any more runs.

The bad thing is that when we enter the 5th is that we need to score runs. The game is currently 13-0. Which means that if we don’t score 6 or 7 runs the game is over as we would be mathematically incapable of catching up in the 6th. We get a little bit of a rally going, but can only scare up 2 runs and so the game is over: 13-2. We were crushed.

Our team spirit was pretty good throughout the game, which was good. But our batting was not. Our pitching was not. Nor was our fielding anything to write home about. There were not really any positives I could take out of the game.

The situation only gets worse. We already knew that Ethan wasn’t going to be there on Saturday. Then I learn that Fuller is not going to be there on Saturday. As we’re leaving the field Trey and his father come up to me. Trey had asked before the game started about when he was pitching. We explained we wanted to save him for the end since it was a six inning game and that he should pitch. I honestly didn’t anticipate being so far behind that we wouldn’t play either the 5th or the 6th. Trey mopes away. Trey’s father then lets me know that Trey has front row tickets to the Cubs/Sox game on Saturday and since we lost that he will likely not be at the game. He says he will call me on Friday to confirm one way or the other, but that we should plan on not having Trey.

And so my despair only deepens. The next day I get a call from Jim’s mother who is very concerned that we won’t have enough players for Saturday’s game. By our count we’re sitting exactly at 9. Anyhow she is very sweet and offers to have some of JS’s friends come if need be. It was very nice. She ended up talking to both Steve and I, and while I forget the details of it, she talked to Steve after she talked to me and Steve completely rocked the conversation. On Friday I get the phone call confirming that there will be no Trey.

Saturday morning I wake up ridiculously early, despite the fact that I had been up pretty late the night before with friends. I am NOT looking forward to this game. We are going to play the Angels, who if you recall beat us pretty soundly earlier in the season. And we’re going to do it without our star pitcher. But the good news is that when I wake up it’s raining oh so lightly. I like rain. As a pick me upper, I make one of the Cinnabuns I had in the freezer and it works some to cheer me up, not to mention letting me have enough calories and fat for the rest of the day. At 7:15 I call the weather hotline and get an update that the games are postponed, but picture day is on. A real decision will be made at 9 o’clock regarding the games.

At 9 o’clock the games are canceled. I am secretly very happy. Steve and I can’t decode the message to figure out if they’re going to reschedule the games and squash them into Sunday or just cancel the playoffs. I head over to his house well before picture time anyway so we can make up team awards. It is his birthday and so I give him his present, a copy of Moneyball. At this point Steve’s mother insists on making him pancakes, just like she used to do when Steve and I had sleepovers. We go and make the awards and then I get to have my second breakfast of the morning. We eat, print out the awards, and head over to the rec center to have our team picture.

At the rec center it’s an absolute mess. There are no Park District employees anywhere. There are teams everywhere. It’s nuts. We have about half the team show up for the photo. We hear that our game has been rescheduled to the next day. This gives Steve mixed emotions. He’s glad we get to play again, but not as glad that it will limit his ability to go to bars that night for his birthday. As we are walking out to the parking lot and talking about the team, Steve tells me that wants to do it again next year. This is a big relief. I honestly thought he had tuned out the team, with us doing so bad, and was sick of the commute down to the suburbs form the city three times a week. Anyhow, it’s a big relief to know that I will be able to do this again next spring with Steve.

Bobby had suggested that we go out to breakfast and so 5 players plus me and Steve head over to breakfast. It was a great breakfast. Avi makes me sad as he proves again how distrustful he is of everyone when he orders the French Toast, I tell him it’s good, and he doesn’t believe that I’ve ever had it before. Steve backs me up and he believes it, but it makes me sort of sad to see him go through life thinking so suspiciously of others. During breakfast, Bobby confides in us that we’re his favorite coaches ever since we’re the first coaches who haven’t just stuck him in the outfield all the time. Knowing what Bobby’s athletic ability was when I was student teaching at his school, I can understand how that was true that his previous coaches had done that, but it was still a great thing to hear.

Steve and I head back to his house and find out that when they rescheduled the games, they redid the brackets. Instead of playing the Angels, we’re playing the Braves We’re very excited about that. We make some phone calls and then head down into the city to hang out at his apartment for a while.

After a depressing week with baseball, knowing that we’re going to have Trey and we’re going to be playing a team that is very beatable, gives me a lot of hope.