August 12th, 2009

Stop me if you've heard this one.

The Grizzlies with their 7 game winning streak on the line playing the 1st place team in the league, the Recycled. Looking at the numbers going in, it wasn't all that pretty. At 12-5-1, Recycled have been nothing short of the picture of consistency. McClean & Dickson are both solidly in the top 10 in league hitting. If that's not enough to scare you, the team leads the league in hitting at .626! They have a lead in batting over the second place team by ten percentage points! To put that in perspective, if Recycled were to go hitless in their next game 0/21, they would still be in the top half of the league in hitting.

Additionally, Recycled are leading the league in runs scored at 258 or 14.3 per game. They have given up a very stingy 193 runs which is second best in the lead and at an average of 10.7 per game. Their plus / minus is +65 with is more that 20 better than the second place Wild's number.

The Grisslies on the other hand score and average 12.4 runs a game and give up 13.5. In fairness, it should be noted that the Grisslies have brought their plus / minus from a league worst -48, eight games ago to much more respectable -19.

Here is what Billy Clouthier, all star 3rd baseman for the Grisslies, had to say before the game. "This team is full of quiet optimism. We want to win every game but understand our streak can't last forever. We will lose eventually, but when we do we'll play hard and try our best. As long as we don't miss any key players, we'll be fine. I mean, its not like we have to win without Cliff Stacey, Dave McGovern, Steve Wynnyk or Diamond Jim Rouleau. As long as we have those guys we'll be just fine".

Billy Clouthier the day after winning the Ed Asner look alike contest.

There was a little bit of controversy on the Grisslies bench before the game. Apparently, Ingo and John were having a discussion about their fantasy baseball teams when Ingo said, "I've got Jesus Flores in my fantasy league and he's killing our team!" Flores of course is the often injured catcher with the Washington Nationals. Unfortunately, Rob Farah overheard this conversation and thought Ingo said, "Jesus, Farah is in a fantasy league and he's killing our team". These things can happen. Rob quickly threw away his rehearsed pre-game speech and was seen in the bleachers with a pencil scribbling notes. Three minutes later, the team got a real treat as Farah had reworked the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody to get his point across.


This might get a little complicated, so I've provided a link to the music ===> CLICK HERE!


Once the music is playing, you can follow along with Rob's lyrics below. Expect to Wowed!!!

Robhemian Rhapsody


This is the real life,
Not just a fantasy,
Caught in a head-first slide,
No escape from reality,
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see,
I’m just a pitcher, I need no sympathy,
Because I’m easy come, easy go,
Pitch a little high, a little low,
Anyway the wind blows, that's the way my ball goes,
For me......

Mama, just struck out a man,
Went 0 and 2 to get ahead,
Nailed the third one, now he's dead,
Mama, life is tons of fun,
And now I've gone and gotten another "K",
Mama oooh,
I meant to strike out that guy,
But for sure I'll be back this time tomorrow,
For another game, because it’s the team that really matters.

Getting late, the time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine,
Doris is hitting it on a line,
Goodbye everybody, this ball's got to go,
McCarron's has got a hold of one, that's the truth,
Mama ooo- (any way the wind blows)
Wynnyk can really fly,
I sometimes wish he'd never slow down at all.

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Billy Clouthier, Billy Clouthier, will you do the fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me,
Clifford Stacey, Clifford Stacey,
Clifford Stacey, Clifford Stacey,
Clifford Stacey, figaro-magnifico-
But I'm just a pitcher and everybody loves me,
He's just a pitcher from a pitching family,
Using his bat to show his duplicity,
Easy come easy go, will you let me throw-
Bismillah! no!, we will not let you throw; let him throw!
Bismillah! no!, we will not let you throw; let him throw!
Bismillah! no!, we will not let you throw; let him throw!
Will not let you throw; let me throw!
Will not let you throw; let me throw!
No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me throw,
Beelzebub has put a devil in the arm of me, of me, of me!!!

So you think you can pull me and spit in my eye?,
So you think you can pull me and mess with this guy?,
Oh baby, can't do this to me baby-
I'm gonna pitch, pitch 'till its time to drink beer!

It’s the team that really matters,
Anyone can see,
It’s the team that really matters, the team that really matters to me,

Any way the wind blows....

THE GAME

I think Doris described the game best, when he was quoted as saying, "yuck". The Grisslies got off to an awful start in the 1st inning giving up six runs. The next inning was a little better with two runs allowed.

Wee Willie Keeler who played for the New York Giants between 1892 and 1910 would have been proud of how the Recycled played last night. He was a .341 career major league hitter, hit over .300 in 16 of 19 years and once batted over .400. When asked by a reporter why he was so successful at the plate when others weren't, he replied, "I hit 'em where they ain't". Its a very simple philosophy to hitting, if you don't hit the ball at people, you stand a pretty good chance of getting on.

Recycled probably really STUNG two deep balls. Other than that, it was a solidly hit line drive or a perfectly placed bloop hits. They played great defensively too and they are clearly in 1st place for a reason.

The Grisslies rallied from their early game set back and briefly tied the game, but ran out of gas as the Recycled continued to deliver in every clutch opportunity.

Despite Billy's earlier comments, it did turn out that the Grisslies were missing Cliff Stacey, Dave McGovern, Steve Wynnyk or Diamond Jim Rouleau. It was a factor, but its really hard to project how the result would have been different. It should be noted that the Recycled were missing Robin Dickson who is second in the league in hitting and has the second most total hits of anyone in the league. So they were short staffed too.

The game itself was hard fought and enjoyable to play. Now the Grisslies have to do something that they haven't done June 23rd. Move on from a loss!

There is no time for pity, because they are back out on the field tonight against the Rusty Rebels! Maybe you've heard of them? Maybe you've heard of their pitcher? Maybe you've heard of a certain guarantee?

We'll see tonight whether it really was "dead man walking" or if this is the episode where Fonzie Jumps the shark!

OUT