August 20th, 2009

The Scene

A very dear friend of mine (who has been known to read this BLOG on occasion) once told me, "I'm not a vegetarian because I like animals; I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants".

And that is basically what I'm trying to do here. Take situations, events and stories, turn them upside down and shake them a little and see what falls out that we can look at a little differently. Well, that's the way its supposed to be, but.....

Today, I hate the BLOG. Today I almost swore at the BLOG. In fact, for the rest of day BLOG has become my own personal swear word. (The word BLOG when bolded can be substituted for your favourite swear word for the remainder of this edition) Why the BLOG am I saying that? Well I'll BLOGing tell you why, you BLOGing BLOGer.

This thing actually takes a little thought and some work to complete. I know it doesn't always read that way but trust me, it does.

This particular edition was supposed to be largely focused on the BLOGing Red Dogs. Those BLOGers. I had two or three pages of deep dive analysis on them and was ready to print it out to proof read. So, because I'm BLOGing clever as hell, I copy the BLOG to a word document and print it from there. It looks BLOGing sweet and its easy to do.

Too BLOGing easy apparently.

So, I hightlighted all the text in the BLOGing BLOG and hit BLOGing delete instead of BLOGing copy.

Gone. Unrecoverable. I know there are a few techies out there that will tell me that they would have recovered it off a scratch pad or by time traveling with their PC or some BLOGing story like that....but trust me, it was gone, gone, gone.

So I'm not going to redo all the research that I did, but here is generally what I found. The Red Dogs score WAY more runs than the Grisslies. The Red Dogs give up WAY fewer runs than the Grisslies. However, the Grisslies and Red Dogs are pretty similar one way.

If you were to take away wins and losses and JUST look at stats, you'd find that that the Red Dogs look more like the teams around 6th place. Yet they are in 2nd. Also, based purely on stats, the Grisslies look like an 11th placed team and they are 8th. There was a fair bit of subjectivity that went into my calculations much of which I now either forget (though I thought it was brilliant at the time) or I'm too BLOGing angry to care about it...but you get the gist.


I attributed the success of the Red Dogs to the one stat we don't capture & that's defense. It doesn't really show up in a measurable way on the score sheet, because ALL teams give up extra outs every game. My guess is that they do this less than other teams. I know from the Grisslie perspective we noticed a big improvement when we moved from allowing 12 outs an inning to 8. Now that we're down to 6 and its almost manageable. If we could just get teams to stop hitting to me we'd be in great shape! So, enough about my BLOGing misery with this BLOGing BLOG and on to the reason why you tuned in today.....


The SPEECH


The win earlier this week was sorely needed by the Grisslies and as good as it was to get, there was nothing really pretty about it.


19-18 is not a typical Grisslie game. We usually either really stink and lose 18-5 or we win or lose by three while scoring 12 or 13. This high scoring dynamic for both teams is new variable that we simply can not afford. If there's another thing to think about someone is bound to get hurt.


After the win, Rob had two days to ponder his approach. There was clearly nothing wrong with bats as we managed to score 19 runs. There was clearly nothing wrong with the pitching because the ball seemed fine when it left his hand. The only area that could be called into question was the defense. To say the defense was suspect would be kind. In recent games we've had 1st baseman playing 2nd base at the same time (me), 1st basemen failing to scoop balls out of the dirt (me), 3rd basemen throwing wildly to vacant bases (yep, me), outfielders diving for balls that they can't possibly reach (guilty, again), outfielders air mailing balls over 3rd base and nearly killing spectators (got ya - that was Doris) and 3rd basemen failing to touch the bag for sure outs before throwing home (back to me for that one). Clearly I'm no Danny Chaisson defensively, but at least I've got my height and stunning good looks.


This obviously had to stop, but how? Rob knew that if he pushed the defense too hard, that it would end up rattling them and make things worse. He was reminded of the day that he invented static electricity. that was the same day he learned that if you rub someone the wrong way, you can wind up getting shocked. So tact was clearly the key.


Rob recalled his early days in the game when as a young semi-pro lob ball player, he was playing on a tournament team in Millwaukee Wisconsin. That team's defense was in a similar state as the Grisslies and he saw an athletic looking kid with a glove sitting in the stands. He asked him to play and quite by accident met the greatest defensive player he had ever seen.


That was the story that would inspire the troops. He was sure of it. Now to set it to music.
Thirty minutes before game time Rob Farah could be seen in the bleachers. The sweet scent of incense wafting about his head. When the moment was right he gathered the team around. He slowly and dramatically pulled the monks hood off of his head. There was a stillness in the air when Doris began a quiet but steady stacatto bass chant: ba ba BA BA BA; ba ba BA BA BA; ba ba BA BA BA.

Rob and Doris practicing the speech at the Conservation area in Tottenham. (Doris on the left)

For the musically impaired here is the link to the tune ====> MUSIC
Sponsored by Tottenham Foodland (Before anyone gets in trouble, this whole sponsorship thing is just a JOKE!)



That Glove Rocks and Rolls (to the tune of)
I LOVE ROCK & ROLL


I saw him polishing his glove to make it clean,
I knew he used canola oil to get that sheen,
This guy’s “D” was gonna be strong,
Playing won’t take too long,


And I could tell it wouldn’t be long,
Till that glove was playing behind me,
Yeah, me!


Singing,
That glove rocks and rolls,
So catch another hard hit ground ball baby,
That glove rocks and rolls,
It’ll take no time to turn a double play for me.


He kicked the dirt and I could tell he was ready to play,
Then he tipped his cap and said, “get on with the game”,
“Watch that runner you bag of bones”,
“’cause he’s thinking of stealing home”,



And next he was moving the “D” around for me,
Yeah me!
Moving them all around and suddenly we were strong,
Great “D”!


Singing,
That glove rocks and rolls,
So catch another hard hit ground ball baby,
That glove rocks and rolls,
So it’ll take no time to turn a double play for me.



Rob's team won 32-0 that day. Only one runner reached third base (a hit batter, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a balk). No one else passed 1st base. Rob Farah would never see this kid again. Everyone tapped gloves at the end of Robbie's rendition and it appeared as though things were heading in the right direction. However, the story needs closure. The next spring in 1974, the starting rookie starting short stop for the Milwaukee Brewers was none other than future hall of famer Robin Yount. He looked strikingly similar to the "kid" who played defense for Rob's team the summer before. Except for that crazy new mustache.

Coincidence? Perhaps.

A fluke? Maybe.

A made up story? You would doubt the guy that invented Tin Foil and Static Electricity? Have you no shame?


The GAME



(EDITORS NOTE: Since "the strikeout" (you know what I'm talking about), I am 8/11, hitting .727. That's pretty good. A small sample size to be sure, but pretty good. So lets look at the 3 non hits, shall we? Non hit #1, a ground out to 1st. It happens. Non-hit #2, a triple thrown out at home. Should NEVER happen. Non-hit #3, a single thrown out at 2nd. Should NEVER happen. So, I SHOULD be 10/11, hitting .909 in that stretch if only I was a little more Tin Man and a little less Scarecrow (you'll have to work that metaphor out yourself))



Uggggh!


My one game streak of not making stupid base running decisions has come to a screeching halt. I can't BLOGing believe that it happened again. I'm SOOO Alex Rios. Another base running blunder. This time a triple lost. My whole entire team yelling at me to stop running and I listen to the one person in the stands telling me to run, run, run. If I ever find out who that was..... Fortunately, and believe me, its hard to find fortune when you want to crawl under the 3rd base bag; it was in the 1st inning and I had lots of time to make up for it.


Now for the real game, where to start?


Well, Rob's speech really helped us focus on defense for one thing. At least it did in the 5 innings that we didn't give up 7 runs. The Grisslies have an uncanny ability (which is probably a good thing at this point) to be completely unaffected by the successes and failures of previous innings. Both individually and as a team. As a team we can get absolutely clobbered and then the next inning shut them down. Individuals can go from hitting into double plays to turning double plays defensively. Its a good trait to have.


The great defensive performance that I had predicted from the Red Dogs didn't quite materialize and is evidence that I should really get out of the business of making predictions. Apparently odds makers in Las Vegas DO NOT lay awake at night worried that I will come in and win all their money.


In fairness their defense was fine, but the Grisslies had their best offensive game of the year. While there were no home runs in the game, the Grisslies hit no less than 5 triples to go along with a whack of doubles. There may have actually been more extra base hits than singles!


Of particular note for the Red Dog's, has anyone ever seen a game where David Polny doesn't wind up FILTHY? That guy is all heart and plays hard but fair. He wears shorts and slides into 2nd base, seemingly every game. There is a story going around the "Club House" of a game where Polny was on 1st and the guy hitting behind him walked. Polny supposedly sprinted to 2nd and slid. Playing second on defense, he gets in the dirt for ground balls and never misses an opportunity to be involved in the play. All effort, all the time. Or as Rob Farah likes to say, "Polny is the MIP (most intense player)".


Defensively, for the Grisslies, the outfield carried the day with Ingo catching a deep fly that I lost at about 200 feet into the night sky. Doris made a leaping catch on the run on a screamer heading to the fence. McCarron made a number of catches to go along with hitting the cover off of the ball and Big Mac made a great, no - a TREMENDOUS, shoe string catch on a ball hit down the line that looked like it was destined for the corner.


The infield defense was pretty solid but there were two excellent plays with Billy turning a double play on a line drive and Farah catching a bullet in his teeth. The Grisslies needed every defensive play they got as the final was a gaudy 22 - 17.


There was one pretty serious injury in the game as Clifford "the fury" Stacey took a thrown ball off the forehead in the 1st inning. It cut him open and looked at first like it would need stitches. Fortunately for Cliff there was immediate medical supervision available. The medic (who asked not to be named) was quoted as saying "I looked in the cut and nothing was in there". Its unclear as to whether that means Cliff's head was empty or if there was no dirt in the wound. MRI to follow.




So the standings are getting very interesting with a couple of surprise results this week. The Grisslies have 3 games and 6 points left on the table and all games against solid competition. There is still optimism for a top 5 finish. Not bad after a 2-8 start.


Comments are always appreciated!


Out.