How the City Was Won

It would seem that Blogger is down for the time being, so I have given thought into just writing on Notepad, so I can finally give the update about the ball game on Wednesday night.

The clouds hovered over the ballpark when Alan and I arrived at the batting cages. Nick was already there and almost dressed already. That was kind of a surprise. Just like the weather, I suppose. It was sort of dripping down as we waited for the team to show up. I still had a token or two left from the previous days of showing up to the diamond, so I jumped into both the fast and slower cages, just to get some swings in.

When Tom showed up, we were informed that since we (and by we, I mean Tom) being such constant customers and having won Game 2, we got our round in the cage on the house. It was probably one of the better turnouts we had all year... and the day of the deciding game, it fuckin' should be, right?

After our round at the cages, we headed over to the diamonds for warm-ups. The skies looked a little more positive when we showed up there, so we continued to warm up a bit. But as we closed in on 6:45pm, the skies managed to get darker and more and more daunting.

My warm-ups were not going so well. I was throwing fly balls to Menzies and the arm wasn't feeling too great. Maybe it was the cool in the air, but I was close to throwing it out pretty badly doing it. Taking a few groundballs, I just wasn't all there. I couldn't stop everything and it just didn't feel right. Not exactly what you want to hear when you're warming up before the big game.

Come game time, the skies opened up a bit and the wind started to blow. Both teams huddled in the dugout as we waited for the umpires to get the game started.



Tom opened up with some keen words about starting the game and we were all listening very intently as the words were to get us all going. Finally, the umps came out and it was time to...

Play ball!

The first inning opened with us taking the field. Alan took to the mound, much to the chagrin of Aaron. Aaron had felt that he was told that he was going to start Game 3 and was very jacked up about it. He is that kind of guy... a very competitive player, especially when he is relied upon to carry the team. But no, Alan took to the mound and Aaron was left to designated hit for Alex again, as that seemed to work pretty well in Game 2.

Alan came to pitch and did he ever pitch well. Three up... three down and gave us the opportunity to take a lead early in the game. What a great position to be in.

The bottom half of the inning, Munden led off, but flied out to left after taking an early pitch... but not taking it quite far enough. I stepped up with the instructions to bunt no matter what the situation was. The Us Guys third pitcher was certainly not the fastest pitcher they had... actually, he was probably one of the slower pitchers in the league who tried to rely on his junk. So when I stepped up to bunt, I took the first pitch and from what I was told, just spun off my bat and died on the ground, eluding the pitcher when he bent down to pick it up, so I was on first without a throw. A passed ball while Jesse was up to bat moved me over to second base. Jesse then stepped up and hit a groundball into the outfield and when Jesse rounded first for second, he was getting caught in a rundown and when I rounded third, I was caught in their sights. In an unexperienced move, I took off for home when the throw to third came, trying to bank on maybe them throwing it away. A foolish decision, as the Us Guys were very solid on their defense... probably even more so than us. In the end, I was caught out at home, which wasn't very close at all. With two out, Alan couldn't help his own cause and was out to end the inning.

The second inning was a little bit more of a disaster. Not huge... but still pretty bad. Especially for me. Alan was up there giving it his all and then there was a pretty big over Jordan's head in right field, which the batter had a really good jump on. I went out to cut-off the throw... Jordan threw it in just fine, but my relay to Munden standing on second base went right over his head. Oh fuck! I didn't even throw it that hard. My whole intention was to just get it to him and then he could throw it back to Alan... but nope. It went skyward and the runner scored on the overthrow. We stuck it out only down 1-0 going into the bottom half, but what a piss-off.

The bottom half, it was much of the same as the first inning. A couple more touches on the bat, got a runner or two on, but it wasn't enough to cash any of them in for a run. So we went back to the top of the third, still down by one.



The third inning was again quite difficult. With a runner on, there was a slow roller that came up the gut, straight at me. Unfortunately, between the ball and timing the runner on first, I couldn't quite get the timing down right and when I picked it up and threw it, I was already a step late. It wasn't like I threw it away this time around, but it still wasn't a stellar play. The foreshadowing of the warm-up really is coming into play now, eh?? We still managed to get out of the inning unscathed, which was a positive.

The bottom half of the third led off with Munden again. This time... he got a hold of it. Another solo shot, straight out to left field... where's he's been putting them all season. There's one tree, just off the left field line, over the fence, that took a beating from Munden's hits all year. Next, I came up and battled with the pitcher. I took a strike and a few balls. I fouled one off and with the count full, I was waiting for something I could hit and I did... right back to the pitcher. Shit. The rest of the inning, the pitcher wasn't touched and we came out of the third with the tie. Well, the team came out with the tie... I ended up coming out of the game.

Talk about a heartbreaking moment, despite knowing I wasn't having quite the game I should have been. I tried not to let it get to me, even when I walked over to the folks, who attended the game to watch me play, which I was now not playing and grabbed my camera so I could play both cheerleader and photographer.

Alex took my place at second, Jordan moved to center field and Josh came in for me and played in right field. A move which seemed pretty good at the time. Hey, when the coach says he won't be afraid of taking players out of the game who aren't giving it their all, you have to be prepared to face the cut when it comes time, if you're due. I was... I accepted that. So, I took my place on the bench and sat beside Nick, who was also sitting on the bench. Aaron was still stewing in his own juices, getting madder and less focussed as the game wore on.

The fourth inning went down in order for the Us Guys with very little of a challenge. Alan was firing absolute rockets in there. On the other end, the Us Guys pitcher was keeping us off the board... well, in actual fact, it was more of the defense keeping us at bay. Runners were getting on, a single here and there, move them around, but still no good.

The fifth inning still played out the same. One out... two out... inning over. Alan and the defense were playing as good as they had to... it was quite awesome. Back in the dugout, the bottom half of the inning saw the top of the order again. Munden stepped up and found himself getting out again. Josh, who took my spot in the order finally cracked the pitching wide open by hitting an awesome triple with the meat of the order coming up. Jesse stepped up and hit a groundball to short and with one out, really shouldn't have seen Josh take off for home. But when the shortstop picked up the ball, Josh was already on his way and he was DOA at home. A dejected team moaned and groaned in the dugout as Josh was swearing at the ump about the call... which had him thrown out. Yup... one at-bat and Josh was tossed from the game. That meant Nick came in for him in the sixth inning, as did Dave who came into right field for Menzies.

The sixth inning saw yet another error by the Royals have another run scored for the Us Guys. The defense on yet another overthrow trying to get a runner at third found another unearned run score. Talk about cliche time, I tells ya. Gut-check time and all that... it certainly was for the Royals. Alan and the team managed to get out of the inning thanks to a huge catch from Nick in left field. A ball hit that looked like it would clear his head, as he isn't normally positioned well, but he managed to backtrack and pick the ball out of the air. To the bottom half we went.

No luck. We couldn't quite get there. It would have to come down to the seventh inning, where we'd have to hold the Us Guys and then score one, at least, to tie the game up. Two runs to win, of course.

The defense sure held their part of the bargain just fine. Alan went out there and steamrolled them. It was a little antsy at the end of the inning as I think there was a runner on, but it was over in no time and it was back to the bats.

And like it was meant to be, Jordan hit himself a double to get on and Derek hit him home to tie the game.



Derek, who I've been a big fan of lately, made it look so good. He was on pumping his fist and the game was tied. Talk about exciting. The real shame of it was though, we couldn't rally enough to get that last run we needed to win, so the team had to go back out onto the field in extra innings to get it done.

With the runner on second, as per the international tie-break rules, the Royals cooly and calmly went to work. Alan pitched a couple groundballs and like a routine, they were taken down at first, but the second out saw the runner score for the Us Guys, but at least there were two outs. The third out was again pretty routine, so now with a little momentum of a good inning played, the Royals came back into the dugout.

Alan ended up being the last player out, so he was the runner on second and like magic it all came together. Ryan was the first batter up and he battled. He battled so much and so hard until as Sid, the homeplate umpire had said it afterwards, it was the smoothest swing he saw Ryan do all year... he hit a beauty triple out to left-centre, scoring Alan and the winning run was on third. Next up was Jordan... and well...



Okay, yeah... I was taking the video... you can't really see what happened in the at-bat, but I'll tell ya. Jordan hit a sacrifice fly into center field and Ryan scored easily from third and the game was over. What a finish. The Calgary Royals were city champs.