I owe you an update.
yes: all three of you. you are getting the sad remnants of my grand idea of keeping track of my adult baseball league team. honestly, between you and me, the 'lil lady kind of kills my online time once I get home and -- wait, you laughing at me? -- anyway, honestly, I kind of forget what I've done from game to game (it's all pretty similar, for the most part). and, seeing as how just about every game seems very similar, stats aren't my strong point at this point. yeah, it's sad to say – I mean, if I was single and lonely, I'd probably update this shit and sort it like there's no tomorrow...and have all kinds of stupid numbers for your consumption – but that ain't the shit you're getting here, so...
here are the latest updates (from what I've written down / remember):
game 10: Them 10, Us 4 (6-4)
game 11: Us 12, Them 5 (7-4)
game 12: Them 16, Us 6 (7-5)
game 13: Us 11, Them 1 (8-5)
game 14: Them 11, Us 1 (8-6)
game 15: Us 5, Them 2 (9-6)
game 16: Us 7, Them 6 (10-6)
game 17: Them 12, Us 2 (10-7)
game 18: Them 11, Us 9 (10-8)
game 19: Them 6, Us 2 (10-9)
game 20: Us 1, Them 0 (11-9)
game 21: Them 12, Us 2 (11-10)
game 22: Them 16, Us 3 (11-11)
game 23: Us 8, Them 6 (12-11)
we've made the playoffs, as either a #3, 4, 5, or 6 team. strangely, it's all still up for grabs. honestly, by some dumb fuckin' twist of fate, we could still end up #2 as well (which we were all season until we decided to play all of our rain-out games against -- instead of the worst team in the league (which our rainouts were against) -- the TOP FUCKIN' TEAMS in the upper division instead (managers' fuckin mistake there)). when i am manager, there is not a chance we will play teams on a hot streak and WAY ABOVE OUR FUCKIN' HEADS. tards.
somewhere in there we beat an elite division team (two divisions up from us – the top division in the KC area), schooled another upper division team, and got run-ruled (losing by 10 or more after 5 innings) against some scrubby teams from our own lowly division.
this team frustrates me: we can, apparently, hit well enough to make the other teams make errors and give us runs, but, when we don't, it's shitsville city on the bench. as in: the guys that strike out the most make a concerted effort to go up and down the bench and rip into our shit about how we need to get the bats going and score some runs off of the "shitty" pitcher that we're inevitably facing whenever we can't hit or score runs. never fails.
on the plus side, I've moved up to leadoff batter for pretty much every game. that part rules.
honestly: every game I start, (which is now 8-9 out of every 10) I bat first. again, this is awesome. too bad I'll be moving to a completely different city in about 6 weeks. that, plus the fact that I wouldn't possibly play for this team again, dooms me to having to prove myself all over again. except I'm totally going to run my own team next year, so, there. take that.
I'm sure glad I don't have to put myself back in the draft pool next year...though, after last weekend at the Show-Me-State Games, I'd think about it. more on that in a later entry..
in this particular league (or, on this particular team, anyway), hitting the ball is considered the ultimate accomplishment. I think. long gone are the days I would possibly take a walk (billy beane, sabr guys, turn away – I want at-bats, goddammit..) the only time I purposely take a strike is on 3-0 (some habits you just can't break). otherwise, I just don't swing at balls. which means I swing at the first pitch on probably about 40% of my at-bats, barring the lead-off at-bats I get pretty much every game these days. honestly (and I am not exaggerating a bit), I can't remember the last lead-off at-bat I've had that didn't result in a full count (I tend to foul off a lot of pitches after strike 1) and, of all the times I've led off a game, I've only struck out once on a bullshit generous strike-zone call. again, *once*. I mean, the "lead-off" batting position (beginning of game, anyway) is always defined as taking pitches and letting the rest of your team see what the pitcher has to throw (which I excel at...I can foul off pitches and put balls in play better than anyone else on this team, I must say..) and I love every minute of the fact that I'm not relegated to #10 in the batting order anymore. I've been #1 for the last 3-4 weeks. I don't plan on going back. I mean, I'm not possibly going to hit bad enough to be moved back down..there's no way I would let that happen. I'm too smart of a hitter to not put the ball in play in this league. and putting the ball in play is all the players and room mothers in this league know about being "good" in baseball. I can do that!
so, in short...Show-Me-State Games entry next time. this entry was boring.
Next time: I grow to hate my team even more. and that's what we're here for, really...right?
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Sunday, July 17, 2005
HERNANDEZ NAILS GUILLEN
mlb.com approved video (click on 56 or 350k link)
that was awesome. runelvys might just be my new favorite royals player..
that was awesome. runelvys might just be my new favorite royals player..
Friday, July 15, 2005
Royal Blues (quietly) returns..
heya kids.
no quicker way to kill your recondite little site than to not post for a month.
um…I've been busy.
no, really. work has taken on epic proportions of new crap to do, and I've been a witness (and unwilling participant) in playing a lot of an uncoordinated, derelict style of baseball, and I'm usually just too damn exhausted to post anything worth anything when I finally get home.
plus, the royals suck. or, here, let me make a new post for google to point to for the most common search engine term people reach me by:
THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS SUCK
there. though you don't really need me to tell you why, so I'm not sure what, exactly, people are looking for with that kind of search. but they do suck.
my baseball team has scraped out a few more wins, and sustained some of the most embarrassing spectacles I have ever been a part of. it's a little shaming to even wear the uniform around the complex when other teams are playing sometimes.
well, let me give you an example…the "all-stars" for this team:
1. pregnant man
2. he who cannot play outfield
3. the guy who doesn't play unless he pitches, and he can't pitch
4. random guy who gets injured every other game
I think we picked our "all-stars" based on whoever the lady who runs the team could reach with a phone call, but it was still all the old-time players who have been with the team for a while…and who, coincidentally, are the exact reason this team will never, ever win against a team who knows better than to field their positions with oven mitts. honestly: if we play a team that knows enough to face the right direction in the field, we lose. our pitchers throw sequences like this pretty much every time:
1. ball (over the batter's head)
2. ball (wild pitch in the dirt)
3. ball (wild pitch in the dirt)
4. borderline strike
5. ball (wild pitch over the batter's head)
every other batter walks, and every walk turns into a run before the next batter even swings the bat. it's ridiculous. denny matthews always talks about the fact that you can't expect your defense to be on its toes at all times when your pitcher can't throw strikes, and it's completely true. I mean, I really pride myself in the fact that I'm able to concentrate and focus pretty well on every pitch, but if 90% of the pitches aren't even hittable, and 95% of the batters aren't good enough to drive the ball to left field, it's hard to maintain focus. yet, when you draw left field duty, with either the sun or the short 20-foot high lights beaming in your face, no one seems to realize that fielding one ball every 2-3 games (without any practice whatsoever) doesn't lead to highly effective outfield defense.
oh yeah, tonight – instead of making up our two rain-out games against the absolute worst team in our division (and we're in the bottom of the 3 divisions) – we have instead rescheduled with a team in the elite division. fuckin brilliant. I hope we liked being in distant 2nd place for one day, because we're gonna be ran out of our two games tonight in probably about an hour. for both games. other teams schedule rainouts against teams that are winless. we take on elite division teams that will smoke us twice before it even gets dark outside.
I would not play for this team next year…even if I wasn't moving in like a month. in fact, I'm totally coaching my own team next year. "Moneyballs", here we come!
Two games tonight, and one game tomorrow morning at 9:30. In honor of 1/3 of my teammates showing up pre-drunk to our last game, I'm returning the favor tonight. I've learned my lesson about playing when I'm hung over; might as well play before that shit happens. hope they have the dugouts stocked with air sickness bags, because I already feel a little coming on..
So, here's to a night full of first-ball swinging (and missing)! Hope nobody can actually throw a curveball..
Tipsily,
Joe Blow
no quicker way to kill your recondite little site than to not post for a month.
um…I've been busy.
no, really. work has taken on epic proportions of new crap to do, and I've been a witness (and unwilling participant) in playing a lot of an uncoordinated, derelict style of baseball, and I'm usually just too damn exhausted to post anything worth anything when I finally get home.
plus, the royals suck. or, here, let me make a new post for google to point to for the most common search engine term people reach me by:
THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS SUCK
there. though you don't really need me to tell you why, so I'm not sure what, exactly, people are looking for with that kind of search. but they do suck.
my baseball team has scraped out a few more wins, and sustained some of the most embarrassing spectacles I have ever been a part of. it's a little shaming to even wear the uniform around the complex when other teams are playing sometimes.
well, let me give you an example…the "all-stars" for this team:
1. pregnant man
2. he who cannot play outfield
3. the guy who doesn't play unless he pitches, and he can't pitch
4. random guy who gets injured every other game
I think we picked our "all-stars" based on whoever the lady who runs the team could reach with a phone call, but it was still all the old-time players who have been with the team for a while…and who, coincidentally, are the exact reason this team will never, ever win against a team who knows better than to field their positions with oven mitts. honestly: if we play a team that knows enough to face the right direction in the field, we lose. our pitchers throw sequences like this pretty much every time:
1. ball (over the batter's head)
2. ball (wild pitch in the dirt)
3. ball (wild pitch in the dirt)
4. borderline strike
5. ball (wild pitch over the batter's head)
every other batter walks, and every walk turns into a run before the next batter even swings the bat. it's ridiculous. denny matthews always talks about the fact that you can't expect your defense to be on its toes at all times when your pitcher can't throw strikes, and it's completely true. I mean, I really pride myself in the fact that I'm able to concentrate and focus pretty well on every pitch, but if 90% of the pitches aren't even hittable, and 95% of the batters aren't good enough to drive the ball to left field, it's hard to maintain focus. yet, when you draw left field duty, with either the sun or the short 20-foot high lights beaming in your face, no one seems to realize that fielding one ball every 2-3 games (without any practice whatsoever) doesn't lead to highly effective outfield defense.
oh yeah, tonight – instead of making up our two rain-out games against the absolute worst team in our division (and we're in the bottom of the 3 divisions) – we have instead rescheduled with a team in the elite division. fuckin brilliant. I hope we liked being in distant 2nd place for one day, because we're gonna be ran out of our two games tonight in probably about an hour. for both games. other teams schedule rainouts against teams that are winless. we take on elite division teams that will smoke us twice before it even gets dark outside.
I would not play for this team next year…even if I wasn't moving in like a month. in fact, I'm totally coaching my own team next year. "Moneyballs", here we come!
Two games tonight, and one game tomorrow morning at 9:30. In honor of 1/3 of my teammates showing up pre-drunk to our last game, I'm returning the favor tonight. I've learned my lesson about playing when I'm hung over; might as well play before that shit happens. hope they have the dugouts stocked with air sickness bags, because I already feel a little coming on..
So, here's to a night full of first-ball swinging (and missing)! Hope nobody can actually throw a curveball..
Tipsily,
Joe Blow
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