CLUBBER LAHEY DEFEATS ROCKY UNITS..

Hurtin' Units vs. The Dog Catchers.

I pity the fools who play against Lahey.

Game # 20- August 16, 2014

Hurtin' Units lose 32-11

Team Record 3-16-1

Keogh Park- Do you remember that movie on NETFLIX, the one where the boxer gets beaten up by another boxer and then the defeated boxer comes back, later in the movie, to win the next fight?...Do you remember? Well, I liked that movie. The movie I'm talking about is, of course is Rocky III, when Clubber Lang beat the snot out of Rocky, and gets in his head as well and Rocky transforms himself in to a better boxer and wins the fight to end the movie. 

This game reminded me of that movie; the Units took blows to our body, but most of all we took major blows to our heads. In fact, we have been dealt serious shots all season long; hell, we lost our first 11 games, how can that not get in our heads? Recently, I thought we have been playing some really good ball (Tuesday was a great game) and our confidence level was rising slowly and it was showing on the field. 

We took a real shit kicking in this game and not to make excuses, but we probably deserved a little bit better result based on all the factors. The game was a 9:30 bout, but the game before us ran late and we didn't get playing until 9:45. The weather was crap, the temperature at game time, was about 11 degrees (beautiful Fall day in August) and there was a strong breeze blowing west to east (did play a part in pitching). Lou was our umpire, the Units were the home team.  

Paulie takes batting practise.

It's Friday morning (next day after the game), it's 6am and I'm still feeling the sting of this game. This was definitely the Hurtin' Units worst beating this season and I'm willing to bet, (I'm not going to check) that this was the worst lost in team history. Now I know a loss is a loss, it's all the same in the win/loss column, but when you get beaten up this badly it seems to hurt more, it creates deeper doubt in our minds. We seem to process a 2 or 1 run loss differently, even though it is still a loss. 

"Ya gotta swing right through the pitch"

When the draft,
on April 5, 2014, had concluded and everyone, at the legion, was milling around over the teams, I would have never predicted a season like the Units are having. There was just too much talent on that list. Twenty games later, we sit at the bottom of the standings with the worst record and a plus/minus of -152. 

On the other side (Dogcatchers), they are near the top in the standings, they have five players batting in the top 25, they have Steve Lahey (need I say more) and they have the best plus/minus in the league with a +96.  Steve Lahey, as of today, is leading in the batting with an OBA over .800. This guy dealt us some serious blows in this game, I'm not even going to talk about his defense (it was pretty damn good), but he must have had 8 RBIs in this game. 5 were for sure on a grand slam and another homerun, we can't defend against this. At one point I asked Lou to check the right field fence for a hole, everything Lahey hit seemed to go over. Mike Candy also hit a homerun over the left field fence. D'oh!!!

It wasn't our finest moment. 

I actually feel badly for some of the guys on our team. For Ricky G., this is the second season in a row on a struggling team (played on the Grisslies last year) and for Art and Joel, it's not a great way to be introduced in to the league. As for the rest of us, we need to put this game behind us, play hard and look forward to the upcoming playoffs. We can turn this thing around. Kevin C. has reminded us recently, the Tap Masters finished 12th last season and they went to the 2013 playoff finals. 

Lahey was a monster in this game.

The Dogcatchers are a very good team, but I don't believe we should have lost this game as badly as we did. Lahey was a monster in this game, but we also had some shit ass bad luck. Going in to the open inning (6th) the Units were down by a score of 21-11 (not bad, could make it a more respectable score with some luck), the first 2 Dogcatcher batters got out and with 2 out the Units could not get the third, the Catchers would score 10 more runs. 

It was like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

At one time, I got up in the count on Larry, 0-2, everybody wanted to go home, and I said to "Larry just let the next go" he agreed, I threw a ball that would have ended the inning, on the mat, and Larry drove the ball to right field, I said "I thought you were going to let it go?" Larry says " I lied"...LOL. We did finally get the 3rd out and the bottom of the inning was quick, we all knew it was over, we just wanted to go...Let it go Units, we have hit Rocky bottom. 

"Apollo thinks you can do it, so do I, but you got to do it for the right reasons, not for Mickey, not for me, not anyone else... but for you."- Adrian Balboa in Rocky III.  

Come on Hurtin' Units, it's time to get off the canvas, dust ourselves off, and let's go play some baseball.

Walk Watch- G-5, S-