Defenders-Game 1

The morning of our first game was unseasonably cold and as I looked at the unfamiliar green and yellow jersey of our new unis I had a Tytee-esque moment and thought I had nothing to wear with this new color scheme. Fortunately, I realized I did have a ski sweater that would not make me look like a color sample swatch from Home Depot and quickly bundled up to prepare for our first game of the year. The frozen food team did indeed drop out and that pushed our starting time back an hour, meaning we would have a 2 hour delay between Opening Ceremonies and the actual first pitch of our game. The local politician who was to join the police captain and parks commissioner in throwing out the first pitch was late, as always, but our fearless commish, tired of hearing my bellyaching about these issues went forward with the ceremonies. I quickly hustled my squad to a vacant field [we have 4 fields on one large plot of land with all the centerfields meeting in the mi ddle] to stretch, throw and have some bp. I noticed in the middle of stretching that the rest of the teams were all lined up again for a ceremony which meant the tardy politician was being placated with a faux first pitch. Either the commish didn't realize we were there (not likely), chose not to come get us so he could get the game started quickly (most likely) or was scared to ask me to get my team back in line knowing my proclivity towards bitching about these things (this was the option I like to believe true). Besides, I did my penance early in the morning by climbing the backstop and affixing the big banner with some trusty baling wire i brought just for the occasion. By the way, for future knowledge, guys from the Bronx not only don't know what baling wire is--they don't even care to know if you try to explain it to them.

Our squad was looking fairly sharp and I decided at the last moment to put Ralphie at short and Josh at third although with much trepidation. Anthony took the mound and had Kenny as his battery mate. Jeremy took first, John, Clayvon and Tytee filled the outfield and Taylor was at second. Christian, our sole returning player not to start was being benched for a rock throwing incident at an earlier practice. He pelted Jeremy in the face with a rock during bp and when I asked him why, he said he was bored. Rock throwing incidents are a bane of my coaching career all the way back to our first squad. Benching is a much more mature and effective measure than I initially used to curb this activity. Frustrated in our first year by one players continual rock chucking at his teammates, I stopped practice and yelled out for the offender to go up to home plate. I started picking up rocks and then-coach Chuck asked what I was planning on doing. I told him I was going to have all the kids throw rocks at him to show him what it felt like. Chuck advised me to think this one through and asked me how I thought this would ultimately play out. Begrudgingly admitting his superior intellect on this matter, I abandoned the idea. However, I think he would approve of the benching idea.

We were home team against Gibbs' Giants and promptly got the first two batters out. A single and a passed ball (we call them steals when we are on the basepaths) put a runner in scoring position. The clean-up hitter stroked one out to rightfield. A run scored, however Tytee got to the ball quickly and an 'only in little league' 9-3-2-6 sequence got the runner at third. We squandered a scoring opportunity when Kenny (on third) raced home on a line drive to center by Anthony that was caught. Kenny raced back to third but the throw beat him--however the ump called him safe, setting a disturbing trend of horrible calls for the remainder of the tilt. They scored another in the second and we responded with 4 runs built largely on walks and aggressive baserunning. They came back with a 3 spot (all unearned) and we tied it up in the bottom of the third. A scoreless fourth ensued and we started the top of the fifth by retiring their first batter. The lead-off hitter hit one to the thirrdbase side of the mound and Anthony pounced on the ball and threw a bullet to Jeremy for the second out--or so we thought. "Safe" yelled the ump. I generally try not to get too worked up (mainly because it amps Kenny up and it usually is not a good thing to add to his already hyper disposition) and I could not believe the call. The commish and head ump, both watching behind the backstop told me the runner was out by a step and a half and the third base coach just shook his head and admitted the ump blew the call. We got the next out, which should have ended the inning, but then a hit, a hit batter and a fly to rightfield, now patrolled by Joel, which, in true Defender fashion, was misplayed into a man on third and three runs in. The next batter hit a shot to left center which Clayvon brilliantly cut off and rifled a throw to third to get the runner in another classic 8-1 (you thought the third baseman would have covered third instead of the pitcher, right?). 4 runs in what should have been a 1-2-3 inning. We failed to score, shut them down in the sixth (last inning--little league only plays 6 innings) despite yet another horrible call at third which the third base coach said "not only was our guy out of the baseline, your guy tagged him." I gathered our deflated squad for a quick pep talk and told them not to give up. Clayvon hit a little squib that ended up about 10 feet from home and two feet inside the foul line to start our last licks and ran to first without looking back and was safe. "Foul ball" yelled the consistently bad ump. I could not contain myself at this point. He explained that the ball hit the non-existent foul line. "Doesn't matter where the ball started, only where it ended." yelled the exasperated coach, knowing it would have no bearing since he obviously misinterpreted the rules. Clayvon then struck out, followed by a walk and two more quick outs.

As pissed and frustrated as our kids were, they handled the handshake line like champs (aided by stern threats of benching if they did not) and we quickly had a huddle where I told the team that although the ump made horrible calls that cost us, we allowed the calls to affect our play. I will not let them use it as an excuse for losing and told them they must take a bad call as a bad play--forget it and move on. Lessons they will have to learn in life. On the positive side, Anthony pitched a brilliant game with 10 k's and only 1 walk (almost unheard of in little league play of this caliber). He also fielded well and hit two shots at the plate. Kenny was fantastic behind the plate and will probably be one of the best backstops in the league (or backcatcher as they like to say in Red Hook). Jeremy played a fantastic firstbase, especially for a kid who flinched every time you threw him a ball for his first two years on the squad. John hit the hardest ball of the day, although foul, I think it bent the top bar of the backstop. Taylor did well at the plate and Clayvon, after missing every bp pitch I threw him last week, agreed to wear his glasses and surprise, surprise, hit the damn ball 3 times. Our baserunning was adequate, but not up to our standards. Our left side of the infield has to realize they are not spectators and move towards the ball and/or bases and Kevin, who blamed his brother Joel for losing the game (he was the last batter) as well as saying the ump was cheating two different times (a violation of team rules) will be benched for violating team rule #1--no trash talking or blaming of teammates. Christian handled his benching well and will probably take the hill for our next game.

Week 1 results:
Gibbs' Giants 9 Southern Trucking 5 Sunset Park 3
Defenders 5 Hynes' Heroes 4 Gibbs' Giants 0

Our squad has 2 games Saturday, one against Sunset Park and the other against Southern Trucking. As always, updates to follow.