Goodness, Gracious, Great Meatballs of Fire.

Game # 18- July 31th, 2024

Hurtin' Units vs. The Meatballs.

Hurtin' Units lose (again) 10-7

Team Record- 5-13-0

“Ninety percent of this game is half mental.” – Yogi Berra.

Coventry Park– On Tuesday night, I signed a one-night contract with the Shake and Bake to play a game vs. The Meatballs. The game started at 0-0, but it wasn't long before the Meatballs were on the board and piling up the runs. The Shake and Bake could not seem to get the batting going, let's say it was a little shaky, their first run did not come until the bottom of the fifth inning. I would hit a double (the furthest I've run this season) and I would come in to score 1 of 2 runs in the inning. By this point, the game score was 14-2. It was just one of those nights, when the Meatball subs Mark M., Neil P., and Billy (Babe) were spicy and chewed up the Shake and Bakers. I thought I pitched well, (no walks and lots of first-pitch strikes), not too many meatballs, but the Meatballs kept hitting into gaps, over our heads and by the Shakers. Needless to say, I was not offered a contract extension and I have been returned to the Hurtin' Units for a better player to be named later. Thanks go out to Jon and Anthony for the opportunity to play for the Shakers.

On Monday night the Hurtin' Units had our asses kicked by the class of the league, The
Tap Masters, they beat us up by a score of 25-11 and inched a little closer to the top spot in the standings. My game with Shake and Bake allowed me the opportunity to scout the Meatballs for our game against them tonight. They were missing top players vs the Shake and Bake, but their subs played well and were probably as good as the missing players.  

The Units played the Meatballs a few weeks back and came away with a 15-10 victory. Tonight's game may be a little different with all the newfound confidence from the Shake and Bake victory. The Meatballs will know what they are getting from me (pitching) and I know what I saw in them, so tonight's game is going to come down to the Units defence and the new subs or returning players in the Balls lineup. Let the battle of the basement (almost basement ) commence.

The weather for this game is in one of the images. At game time the Units had 8 players dressed for the Meat-ta-balls, missing for this were Steve S., Brandon M., Rick H., and Mike C., for this 8:00 pm game. We picked up Allan B., and Dion B., as subs for the game. The scorekeeper was Nicole H., and the umpire was Sweet Lou.

Game Time:  

For this post I can't get into details (because I'm an idiot), when the game ended I walked over to the Meatballs bench to take a picture of the score sheet, I took 3 pictures of the game sheet, and this morning I looked at the pictures and it's 3 pictures of the Meatballs score-sheet, nothing for the Units. D'oh!!!! We really are having some bad luck this season.

This game was quick, I remember looking at my watch when Lou called the open inning, it was 8:57 and in the top of the inning, the Units went down quickly, not scoring even a single run. The Meat-a-balls had the lead and they didn't have to play the game out.

Nicole H. was the scorekeeper, she sat on the first base side of the bleachers and between innings I would chat with her about things going on in this game or the game the night before with the Shake & Bake. One of the things I said was the Meatballs had magic gloves, there were at least 3 times in this game that the ball was hit and should have been on base and it was magically caught. I hit a hard ball toward right field, I swear it got by Lucas, next thing I know he's turning a double play. Then someone on the Units hit a ball over second base and like a magnet on a piece of steel, the ball magically ended up in Andrew B's glove. What??? In the open inning, one of the Unit's players crushes a ball down the 3rd base and the third baseman, JC makes a magical shoe-top catch, unbelievable!!! Nicole suggested to me, at the Shake and Bake game, that I should pull out the smudge stick and smudge myself, it's not a bad idea, nothing else seems to be working.

In post-game discussions, we got on the topic of ghosts and spirits and how certain places in town are haunted. Everyone in the group had a ghost story. I concluded that we are jinxed, some magical force or spirit is holding us back. We have a great squad, and good hitters up and down the lineup, I'm not sure why we can't get the job done. Maybe it's time for a team psychologist, a medium or the Ghostbusters. Maybe our new bat Resmondo is haunted or possessed by an evil spirit. This could explain some stuff. Who wants to trade their Resmondo bat for a couple of games? The funny thing is that Easton makes a bat named the GHOST.

The Hurtin' Unit's next game is Tuesday, August 6th vs. Gruesome Devils.