I started at first base once again. The game was close early on and defense was ruling the day. We broke through for a rally of runs but could not keep our opponents, Los Mets, coached by Edgardo Alfonso, Kevin Baez and original-Met Al Jackson. I hit one of the longest balls of my week thus far right at the left fielder. My stroke is coming back, but the results are lacking. I came into the game batting .400, so I'd been doing okay at the plate.
Pitching was going to be a tough position as we start to find out which teams have pitching depth and which do not.
Our defense started to put it all together and after an amazing at bat by my man Phil for a homer, we kinda went into coasting mode. They have a lot of firepower over there so we had to make sure we got the smart. We closed it out and set our sights on playoff game #1.
We opened the playoff round against Todd Pratt's team, the Pratt Fallers. They were 0-4 thus far and we looked to make that 0-5 before too long. Todd's club mounted a fast rally which we put the kibosh as quickly as possible.
We played a fairly tight game. The bats continued to motor along. Phil hit another homer, but later was the victim of a practical joke. This is the same gag that was pulled in a game in which I pitched last year. Ironically, the batter to whom I threw the gauze-wrapped apple is Mike Arunzullo, the best player on my team THIS year.
On my first trip to the plate the catcher for the Pratt Fallers pulled a funny on me. His name is Nick Loeb, and if his name sounds familiar to you, here's why. I have just recently started to enjoy a television show called Modern Family. On this program there is an actress named Sofia Vergara. So how does Ms. Vergara rate in that she's being mentioned in this blog? Well, have ya SEEN HER? Just kiddin'. That's not the reason. The reason is that Nick Loeb is Sofia Vergara's fiancée. There was a rumor going through camp that she might actually show up here at week's end, but we LATER learned that she's in Hollywood for the Screen Actor's Guild Awards tomorrow night. I can only imagine the chaos that would've ensued had Sofia shown up here.
Anyway, Nick tried to get into my head during my first at bat by saying something unflattering about my hometown of Stamford, CT just as pitcher Gary Pincus was about to go into his windup. I laughed uproariously and luckily the pitch was outside of the strike zone because I would've been unable to hit it given my sudden laugh attack.
I had a pretty good game in the field, although my hitting was unspectacular. Our defense was the star of this game and we made sure that our opponents didn't even get a sniff at a real rally. In the top of the sixth with two out, the batter hit a frozen rope toward the gap between first and second. I saw the ball and made a lunge upward and to my right. Now, I don't have "mad hops" by any means. I tend to have "sad hops", to be more accurate. But on this occasion I must've jumped at a place on the infield with less than standard gravitational pull. I snared the ball with my trusty Wilson A2000 for the third out. My teammates thought it was a great play. In actuality, it kinda was.
We closed out the game, firm in the knowledge that two wins tomorrow will clinch this thing. On the field next to ours the number 7 seed had defeated the number 2 seed and will be our opponents tomorrow morning. We have to be careful not to be overconfident in playing a 2-3 team. They were certainly good enough to beat a 3-1 team. I have confidence that we can get the job done.
I did the same things that I did all week. Had the same breakfast each day (bacon, grits, toast and orange juice), used the same shower in the shower room, same urinal in the bathroom and the same socks with my uniform. Keep in mind that those socks are cleaned each day.
Game one was against Lenny's Hackers, coached by Buzz Capra and Lenny Harris, the all-time major league leader in career pinch hits. The game was a tough one. We took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, extending the number of innings where we were ahead or tied. The Hackers scored a run in the 4th and another in the fifth. It stayed tied until the 7th. The Hackers came close to going ahead but we cut the lead runner down at the plate to preserve the tie.
The game went into extra innings and the nail biting had begun. No runs scored in the eighth and then we gave up a run in the ninth. It was the first time all week that we has trailed. We came to bat in the bottom of the ninth with the bottom of our order due up. Statistically the area of the lineup which is least prone to produce a run went to work. A leadoff hit by Ken Barnes and a double by Fred Hetzel tied the game with nobody out. We loaded the bases with no one out and proceeded to have our next hitter strike out and the following hitter ground into a force out at the plate. Up steps Mike Aronzullo. He fights off two pitches, runs the count to 2-2 and singles to left. We win! We're in the championship game. It was the greatest game I've ever played in. The game ran long, so as time went on we picked up onlookers who were done with their own games on other fields. By the time we were done there were probably 100 people watching.
After lunch we set our sights on defeating the Crash-Test Dummies.......again. Apparently, after losing to us in the first game of camp, they'd rattled off five consecutive wins. But we put them back into reality world by rattling a four-spot in the bottom of the first.
We were never headed. We gave up a few runs which made us work somewhat harder. We probably put more pressure on ourselves than we needed to. We led 6-3 going to the 7th inning. The first batter hit a pop up which Aranzullo caught right behind the plate. The next batter struck out, leaving just one more out to go.
I take you back now to a comment that Phil Forman made in an email to me about 8 weeks ago. He said that he basically thought we would be helping each other to win this whole thing. He speculated that he and I would be playing on the same infield together and that we would win the title. And so, here we were. A thought had crossed my mind not too long before this moment. How will this game end? A strikeout, a pop up on the infield? Or the way in which I fantasized about, with Phil effortlessly gobbling up a grounder and throwing to me to end it.
Well, of all things, the batter grounded to my man Phil at short and threw across to me! It was over! We'd done it! We went undefeated. We had a great celebration on the field. It had ended as I had hoped! I caught the ball, jumped in the air and headed to my teammates who were hugging each other and were ecstatic!
I could never have expected the end result before camp began. It was a delicious moment. One I will treasure forever.
Tomorrow we have the chance to play the pros and coaches at Tradition Field, spring home of the Mets. It will be a 3-inning game that we will not win. I'm okay with that. So are all of my teammates.
Baseball- It reminds of all that once was good, and it could be again. And today it was very, very good to me.
I. Love. This. Game.
