Well, we've had a pretty good season, and I thank you all. We were coming off of a rookie season with a record of 2-4-1, and at the beginning of our sophomore season I set a secret goal: to achieve a .500 record or better. I also had an outside daydream of winning our division and representing Lake Calhoun in the Milwaukee tournament, but didn't think we could do that yet.
To my pleasant surprise, we started the fall season hot. We won our first three games, and had a five-game winning streak dating back to the spring. When we tied our fourth game, we clinched my original goal of .500. I started to dream of the Lake Michigan shores.
But as the season wore on, the quality of our games slowly declined. Or else we stayed the same and everyone else got better. Just look at our first four scores in order: 14-10, 4-2, 4-3, and 3-3. Our winning momentum was thrown off by a rainout, and we lost to the last-place team. We're probably the only team in MUSA history to both defeat the likely division champion (Grass Kickers) and lose to the likely last-place team (Fire Escape).
And now we have reached the lowest of lows, my beloved Muskies, by losing to our supposed equals Ctrl/Alt/Del by a score that I couldn't bear to look at. (Post-script: I found out days later that the score was only 10-3, a little better than I thought.) There are mysterious winning streaks and there are mysterious losing streaks, and now we've had both.
I don't know what happened last night. Maybe Ctrl/Alt/Del won the karma game when ponytail guy came up to me before the game and very graciously apologized for last time. Then their fielders caught everything, and everything they kicked seemed to get through. They ran like banshees.
Our power hitters were stymied. Our bunt attempts turned into those blasted easy pop-ups. I suffered the worst humiliation -- fouling out while attempting to drive it to right field.
The only time we could ever get something going was when the first-basewoman missed or dropped the relay throws. She missed catches about eight times, but we only took advantage of it about half the time. The play of the game was when Mike singled and legged all the way to a triple on a first-base error. That was followed by Patrik getting to second similarly. Both of them scored, and someone else did too -- was it Katie? But that was it.
A few good things happened on defense. Scotty's defense at pitcher has definitely advanced, allowing me to make Dave the dependable vacuum in right-center. We completed pitcher-to-first plays for all three outs in the 2nd, and he doubled off a guy who wasn't aware that Scotty had caught an infield fly. Catcher Katie got more bunters out than we've gotten all year.
Other incidents can make me slip into my new Captain A-Hole persona: Hey, when the ground ball comes to you, you might have to bend down to pick it up! This ain't soccer! And quit bouncing the ball around the field to attempt difficult outs instead of holding the runner on third! This ain't pinball! But then I snap out of it and apologize.
Like I said, it's been a pretty good season, just with some strange highs and lows. And now we'll get the perfect chance to end it the way we started: with a consolation round vs. Mighty Milfoil next Tuesday at 8 p.m. We beat them 14-10 on Aug. 24, although they had a 6-run final inning that may have made the game a microcosm of our entire season. They have a decent offense but the worst defense in the division (average 9-10 runs per game), so they are actually a team that we might be able to kick in the air against. I don't know if we can beat them if we keep playing like the last two games, but if we focus we can have some fun and a chance to end on a high note.
And while we won't get to play in the Pac-Man championship game at 9 p.m. Tuesday (Grass Kickers vs. Ctrl/Alt/Del), we will have the honor of umping it. Any volunteers?
Oh no, Simon, you're not a 'Captain A-Hole,' you're one of the nicest guys I know, you just get a little overzealous about kickball. But that is precisely what kickball is for... damn straight... that white whale is going down!
Posted by: Patrik | 18 October 2004 at 09:31 AM